House Democrats yesterday corrected one of their biggest mistakes of the last five years. In 2018, the Democrats were passing a minimum wage increase to $9.25 at the time. This angered the Republicans, who feel workers should accept the slave wages they are given and shut up about it. So they took the Bond and Grant-in-Aid Bills hostage, because Republican votes were required to pass them since both budget bills need a super majority to pass.
The refused to pass the budget bills unless the Democrats backed down on the miniscule minimum wage increase. It was a criminal act of hostage taking by the Republicans, and the Democrats should have called that bluff and forced the government shutdown and continuation of the session. But a compromise that appeased the criminals was reached: a youth and training wage that paid workers under 18 and new employees in their first 90 days 50 cents less than the minimum wage.
A deal made with criminals is never to be honored, so I am glad the House has now passed the repeal of these youth and training wages, represented by House Bill 88, and sponsored by Rep. Kim Williams. The vote fell on party lines, 26-15, with Democrats wanting to pay everyone at least the minimum wage.
| House Bill 88 Sponsors | Yes Votes | No Votes |
| K.Williams, Longhurst, Kowalko, Cooke, Heffernan, Lynn, Matthews, Osienski, Baumbach, Bennett, Bentz, Brady, Chukwuocha, Dorsey Walker, K. Johnson, Lambert, Mitchell, Morrison, Wilson-Anton | Passed House 26-15. Baumbach, Bennett, Bentz, Bolden, Brady, Bush, Carson, Chukwuocha, Cooke, Dorsey Walker, Griffith, Heffernan, K.Johnson, K.Williams, Kowalko, Lambert, Longhurst, Lynn, Matthews, Minor-Brown, Mitchell, Morrison, Osienski, S.Moore, Schwartkopf, Wilson-Anton | Briggs King, Collins, D.Short, Dukes, Gray, Hensley, M.Smith, Morris, Postles, Ramone, Shupe, Smyk, Spiegelman, Vanderwende, Yearick |
| Walsh, Lockman, S.McBride, Pinkney, Poore, Sokola, Sturgeon, Townsend | ||
| Current Status: | Sent to the Senate |
“The youth and training wage discriminates against people because of their age or when they were hired. It creates a second class of workers, with some potentially earning less simply because they’re a minor, or because they’re new to the job, regardless of prior experience,” said Rep. Williams. “That’s less money for gas, bus fare, groceries or bills. This was a bad policy when it was enacted, and we’ve taken an important step toward unraveling it.”
“Delaware’s minimum wage should be just that – the absolute minimum employers are legally allowed to pay a worker for their labor here in the First State,” said Sen. Jack Walsh, chair of the Senate Labor Committee and Senate prime sponsor of HB 88.
“The hard-working men and women of this state don’t pay different rents based on their age. A price of gallon of milk doesn’t change depending on how long they’ve been employed,” he said. “Yet, we allow employers to pay workers less than the minimum based solely on their age and their hire date. The youth and training wages are immoral, border-line illegal, and I look forward to ending them as quickly as possible so all workers in Delaware are equally once again.”
The bill would take effect 90 days after it is signed into law. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Once again the Republicans chose to ignore the needs and expectations of working people. Not one Republican House member chose to do the right thing and vote to repeal the youth and training wage provisions that they forced into the 2018 minimum wage bill. They coerced support for the separate youth/training wage exemption by refusing to vote for the Bond Bill in the waning hours of the morning July 1st, 2018. At the time I urged Democrat leadership to resist their thinly veiled extortion attempt to no avail. Even today members of the minority caucus attempted to create revisionist history about the actual happenings in 2018 but fortunately reporter Matt Bittle kept an accurate record of the events that transpired on July1, 2018. Now the fairness issue should be finally resolved with Senate concurrence and a signature by Governor Carney.
https://baytobaynews.com/stories/house-votes-to-repeal-youthtraining-wage,47921
Once again the Republicans chose to ignore the needs and expectations of working people. Not one Republican House member chose to do the right thing and vote to repeal the youth and training wage provisions that they forced into the 2018 minimum wage bill. They coerced support for the separate youth/training wage exemption by refusing to vote for the Bond Bill in the waning hours of the morning July 1st, 2018. At the time I urged Democrat leadership to resist their thinly veiled extortion attempt but to no avail. Even today members of the minority caucus attempted to create revisionist history about the actual happenings in 2018 but fortunately reporter Matt Bittle kept an accurate record of the events that transpired on July1, 2018. Now the fairness issue should be finally resolved with Senate concurrence and a signature by Governor Carney.
https://baytobaynews.com/stories/house-votes-to-repeal-youthtraining-wage,47921 Representative John Kowalko
Kowalko, you are a sanctimonious blathering fool. You don’t care about convincing others, only making a “statement.” There were R votes until you started talking. In the words of your colleague: “they muted his ass.” That’s what most people do in their head when you talk.
“C” —Another anonymous coward “blathering” on about Republican “revisionist” history. OK you sorry excuse for an apologist, how about naming one or two of those Republican votes. Or would you prefer to hide their identities behind some anonymous code letter (“A” or “B” may be available). Why are you afraid to identify yourself. I suspect if people know who you are they would hit the “delete/mute” button when you opine.
sanc·ti·mo·ni·ous
/ˌsaNG(k)təˈmōnēəs/
“making a show of being morally superior to other people”.
I admit that I am “morally superior” to the greedy, money-grubbing hypocrites who would pay people less for their hard work and try to excuse away the immorality of that policy.
Rep. John Kowalko
-mute-
“C” (for Coward)
Yeah and deaf and absolutely “DUMB” you are.
-unmute- John, go outside and enjoy the weather. -mute-
Just did and it is beautiful out there.
John K.
You’re pretty much a sanctimonious ass yourself, pal, and if we stack up JK’s public service vs. yours, well….let’s just say you’re a nobody, and trying to pull down a somebody doesn’t make you a somebody. So we have a putatively sanctimonious ass who works for the public good, vs. you. It’s no contest, pal. Fuck off.
Alby, you are so right. John is soooo successful at passing bills. His vinegar and scorched earth tactics are soooo effective. He builds coalitions and gets things done! People don’t roll their eyes when he starts to rant.
Gee how obvious of you “C”. A cowardly use of anonymity to hide the reality that you are a person of absolutely no accomplishments and little to no regard for the plight of the average person in need. I assume that your feeble attempts to diminish my efforts on behalf of people in need is a kind of self-flagellation that you use to ease your own sense of worthlessness. I am glad that my existence, sense of moral obligation and willingness to try, albeit sometimes unsuccessfully, can help you in dealing with your own insecurities and self-loathing. Just a bit of advice for you. You might want to try giving in to any remaining conscience you have, raise your voice in outrage over the lies and unfairness foisted on the most vulnerable and inspire others (even a little bit) to do the right thing. I find it inspiring and soothing and someone like you only strengthens my resolve to continue. UNMUTE YOUR CONSCIENCE “C” you’ll be a better person for it
Representative John Kowalko
A) Keep responding to Kowalko and demonstrate how easily he falls into circles of self-argumentation? -or- B) mute him like everyone else? Hmmm, I’ll go with B.