increase posts

Last week it was announced that Comcast plans to increase the cost of renting a cable modem from $3 to $5 a month -- an increase of 66% or $24 a year. Comcast points to the cost of new technology for the increase, telling Multichannel news that it reflects a cost increase to Comcast of 167%.

Sure, $2 a month isn't going to break your budget. But it's actually very easy to buy your cable modem and cut the whole rental fee off your bill, which could save you $60 a year in fees. Getting your own cable modem is simple,and pretty much anyone paying rental fees for a modem can buy their own and save in the long run.

Lockergnome.com points to two popular Motorola cable modems for sale at Amazon.com that are compatible with Comcast and will be paid for in just over a year's time. The Motorola SB6120 Surfboard is compatible with the newest technology which will give you higher speeds when the tech rolls out at Comcast, and the Motorola SB5101, which costs less than you'd pay for a year's worth of rental and still provides great speeds. There are also other deals to be found be searching for sales and looking on eBay.

If you don't have Comcast or your modem isn't one of those listed above, just look at the bottom of your modem to find out what its model number is. Searching for it or taking it into your local electronics store should provide you with some prices and alternatives.

If buying your own modem doesn't sound like your way to beat the fee increase, you could always call up your cable company and ask for a discount. It's surprisingly easy, and if you don't do it at least once a year you're probably paying too much or paying for channels you don't watch. If you call for a discount, don't mention any competitors by name because this will just give the representative the opportunity to list the bad things about the competitor. All you have to do is ask for a break on pricing and cite "other offers." Since it's costly to get a new customer, the odds are good that you'll get a discount.

Today the federal minimum wage increased 70 cents to $6.55, as the second phase of a series of moves meant to bring the minimum wage up over a three year period. The "raise" will affect roughly 1.7 million workers or 2.3% of hourly workers, which means that collectively the cost of employing all minimum wage workers for one hour jumped $1.19 million today.

Despite the increase, the new rate is still below the inflation-adjusted 1997 level of $7.02, and far below the inflation-adjusted level of $10.06 from 40 years ago, according to a Labor Department inflation calculator. And it obviously still leaves many families well under the poverty line.

You'd think that getting a 12% raise during poor economic times would be a great help for 850,000 people over 25 who are making minimum wage. Unfortunately the increase is often quickly passed to the items these same workers need to buy; including food and gasoline. Smaller Businesses will also feel the pinch as they struggle to cope with higher wages and customers who are sick of seeing prices go up time and time again.