Minimum Wage Increase: Support or Oppose ?

I can't get a significant raise in my low wage position as I go through college because of the corporation, but I have as much job security in my position that one could have because of the way I work, enough so that the my boss went to the district manager in an attempt to compensate me more, so in my position I am not worried about potential job loss with an increase in the minimum wage, so obviously with that I'm for it.

I haven't researched it enough to make an informed opinion on something other than that though.

since 1990 wage increase have not impacted job availability.

I think a substantial raise is in order perhaps not the fifteen but i think the 2 to 3 dollars an hour is in order.

its amazing how companies suddenly find away to afford higher labor cost when competing against entry level wages.

when people say flipping burgers isnt worth this or that. it makes me cringe because unless your making triple digits . you are underpaid. so are they .

an estimated 3.8 billion went out in public assistance to these families employed with these fast food chains

Translation we the public are paying the cost to offset what these companies are paying for labor.

and thats just in the fast food industry.

personally i would prefer not to subsidize these companies whether i eat there or not.

dont want a big mac thats fine .. your still paying them whether you go there or not

QuadrupleDouble said:

2.5% increase isn't reasonable either. There were years during the downturn that I didn't receive an increase, or went backwards in compensation. I imagine the same thing happened to you being in the mortgage business, but I could be wrong. You can't mandate an increase if the business can't afford it.

Employable adults don't make $7/hr. We can barely hire employable adults at $12 an hour without any skills.

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Same thing as Social Security. The years we were flat, the voted for no increase. They should tie SS and Min Wage to the same thing, that was where i was getting that from. Funny thing is, that congress gets a raise every year no matter what.

To bad we cant mandate morality in politics.

I am with Tornicade. If you are business, then you have to pay the costs of doing business. That means taking care of your employees to the most minimal extent.

When you have a lot of fast food and Wal-marts around, they are taking money from the community, shipping it away, and stressing the local welfare system because their employees can't live on the income they generate. They are not paying the costs of doing business the way small business owners have to.

Really the "job creators" need to focus on creating better jobs, and more efficient ways of training employees.

Minimum wages were never meant to support adults. I really don't pity anyone that is upset about minimum wage being at 7.50. If you don't like it find something better. Its all about being willing to work hard. I don't have a college degree and also didn't go to college. I work my ASS off and get awarded with an income in the 125k-150k range. Show up bust your tail off and you will force your employer to pay you more. It is that simple. This generation does not know what hard work is. Bunch of pussies. I'll work 5 times as hard as most of you.

Kiddo said:

Minimum wages were never meant to support adults. I really don't pity anyone that is upset about minimum wage being at 7.50. If you don't like it find something better. Its all about being willing to work hard. I don't have a college degree and also didn't go to college. I work my ASS off and get awarded with an income in the 125k-150k range. Show up bust your tail off and you will force your employer to pay you more. It is that simple. This generation does not know what hard work is. Bunch of pussies. I'll work 5 times as hard as most of you.

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Except that it is. And you can go fuck yourself. I'd be happy to show you hard work.

How about some quotes from FDR that created it?

“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."
“By living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of a decent living.”

Again, it's there for a reason, and it's been abused by the same system that created it.

There are different minimum wages in different areas of the United States. $7.50 an hour is the national minimum wage, and could be argued that it is appropriate in some situations. I personally think inflation has caused even the middle of nowhere Oklahoma to require something closer to 9 an hour, but there is a smaller cost of living there than Cleveland.

I think the greatest tragedy isn't the low minimum wage, but instead the skyrocketing wages made by top executives. I know people at the top of my wife's industry who pull in over $150,000 just for being in the industry for over 15 years... they aren't GOOD at what they do... but they have shown up and not screwed up that badly for 15 years. Most of their jobs get delegated to the younger college graduates fighting through their first four or five years.

That seems out of whack with how real working people survive.

Kiddo said:

Minimum wages were never meant to support adults. I really don't pity anyone that is upset about minimum wage being at 7.50. If you don't like it find something better. Its all about being willing to work hard. I don't have a college degree and also didn't go to college. I work my ASS off and get awarded with an income in the 125k-150k range. Show up bust your tail off and you will force your employer to pay you more. It is that simple. This generation does not know what hard work is. Bunch of pussies. I'll work 5 times as hard as most of you.

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Hey kiddo I think you forgot to hashtag humble brag. JFC this might be the most arrogant post ever on this site.

Kiddo said:

Minimum wages were never meant to support adults. I really don't pity anyone that is upset about minimum wage being at 7.50. If you don't like it find something better. Its all about being willing to work hard. I don't have a college degree and also didn't go to college. I work my ASS off and get awarded with an income in the 125k-150k range. Show up bust your tail off and you will force your employer to pay you more. It is that simple. This generation does not know what hard work is. Bunch of pussies. I'll work 5 times as hard as most of you.

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in ohio minimum wage is 7.95.

recently a bill was introduce to raise the State of Ohio Minimun wage to 10.10 an hour.

in 1968 when The federal minimum wage was extended to include almost everyone it was set at 90% of the pverty level at that time.

Currently 5% of the work population actually is at minimum wage.

typically companies scale or base their salary and compensation packages partially based on minimum wage.

Kiddo im assuming you do some type of sales or have your own business and good for you.

the question is if every in the united states suddenly did what you do. would you make any money?

I think no.. so its not a viable solution for 154 million or even 7.7 million currently earning minimum wage.

in the 2000thousands min wage was around 60% of the poverty level.

I voted no because I've been at my job for 10 years and only make $10.25/hr (running a department now, as of three weeks ago). I have yet to see a pay raise for me since I took a position up in my department. There is no way in hell that I should be making as much as anybody just walking in on the job. Fuck that. Unless those who should be making more get a higher raise and be paid more than a new employee or anyone that is minimum wage.

EDIT: As of September 1st, Michigan's minimum wage went up to $8.25. And was told that nobody was getting a pay bump that makes more than that. I've even heard that people are going to have to take a pay decrease to be able to afford everyone else's raises. Fuck that.

So let's imagine minimum wage went up to 15 dollars an hour overnight.

1) There would be layoffs in the morning for a lot of businesses. Outsourcing etc.

2) You'd probably see restructuring of various industries rather quickly. At least those that employ minimum wage workers. Perhaps fast-food has more self order touch screens or something along those lines. Clothing stores, already hurting, would probably shut down quite a few stores. Online shopping would become even more common.

3) You'd see an increase in motivation to find work. Competition for basic level jobs would increase. In fact, sort of like more selective colleges, businesses would demand more from perspective applicants to hire them, even for basic jobs.

4) Cost of products would go up.

5) People would have more money at least in raw terms.

I guess, I sort of feel like at least in the immediate future, it would probably hurt the untrained quite a bit. Their jobs would either be outsourced, taken away, redesigned etc. They would probably have more trouble getting hired. These are the people most strongly advocating the increase too, imo.

Therefore, a more moderate increase would probably be better. So something like 10 or so. Not enough to incentivize trained to take untrained jobs, but enough to help untrained.

In general, the divide between lowest earners and highest earners is too great.

So a combination of raising the minimum wage, more direct(no loopholes) on taxation of the wealthy, and cutting of some benefits is needed. What percentage those things are changed by depends on your politics.

Lee said:

Same thing as Social Security. The years we were flat, the voted for no increase. They should tie SS and Min Wage to the same thing, that was where i was getting that from. Funny thing is, that congress gets a raise every year no matter what.

To bad we cant mandate morality in politics.

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Please oh please be sarcasm.

Ohdang said:

If you raise minimum wage that much, the cost of living will go up and my wage won't, so I'll go from middle class to lower middle class. Fuck you, poor people. Get an education or a skill if you want more money.

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I agree with you...but then again, me getting an education didn't do shit for me. I started my job 10 years ago straight out of high school. I went to college for 6 years, got a Bachelor's degree and still can't find a job for my degree. I am glad and lucky I became in charge of my department a few weeks ago..but again, I still haven't seen a raise and talked to the general manager about it too.

UncleDrew said:

I voted no because I've been at my job for 10 years and only make $10.25/hr (running a department now, as of three weeks ago). I have yet to see a pay raise for me since I took a position up in my department. There is no way in hell that I should be making as much as anybody just walking in on the job. Fuck that. Unless those who should be making more get a higher raise and be paid more than a new employee or anyone that is minimum wage.

EDIT: As of September 1st, Michigan's minimum wage went up to $8.25. And was told that nobody was getting a pay bump that makes more than that. I've even heard that people are going to have to take a pay decrease to be able to afford everyone else's raises. Fuck that.

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That's some high quality short-sightedness. Imagine if that was your starting rate? What would you make now? How about your kids? should they be grateful to spend a decade hovering around the poverty line?

theSwayze said:

That's some high quality short-sightedness. Imagine if that was your starting rate? What would you make now? How about your kids? should they be grateful to spend a decade hovering around the poverty line?

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Point being is that I had put in 10 years now, completely loyal to my company...if minimum wage were to go up to say, $15, not only would I be making that much...but anyone being hired then would be making the same as well. Coming from a my point of view, that is bullshit that someone making as much as me from day one.

I don't have any kids and the kids of this generation now a days are pieces of shit and get away with everything with no respect (no offense to those that have kids in this generation). Wow, for being 29 years old...I am sounding like a 40 year old.