Minimum Wage Increase: Support or Oppose ?

[CleveRocks]

I support a minimum wage....IF it is implented globally.

In other words if all suppliers shipping products to the US meet US Minimum standards for Safety, Wages, Health Care, Environmental restrictions, forced or child labor, and work hours/ breaks, then i think it is completely reasonable to implement minimum wage. But if we allow import of anything, made any way, from anywhere, then raising minimum wage only makes it more likely that jobs will continue to flow to other countries, leaving the 10 percent of the population which can compete ( for now) globally to fund survival for the 90 percent who will not. Eventually, given that the cost of higher education is only affordable to the uber rich, and that increasingly means non us students, even that 10 percent will succumb to globalization. At that point the 1% will invert, renounce citizenship and move to fiji, while the hunger games begin....

 

[Cavatt]

I work in a hospital, ever since Obamacare happened "raise" is a dirty word where I work.

I don't believe in the forciblke redistribution of wealth, but figuring out a way for middle and lower class people to get a larger piece of the pie is the thing that made the American economy so strong in the first place. Once Ford paid his workers enough to buy their own car, the economy soared.

Thing is middle and lower class people spend a lot more of the money that they earn than the very wealthy, so while rich people pay a lot in taxes, they don't actually pump as much money into the economy as several families would making that money.

These things like Obamacare is keeping me from getting a raise are ridiculous. That may be the excuse, but there is always some disaster or mitigating circumstance around the corner. The fact is that productivity, profits, and stock prices are at all time highs. That is not resulting as the "market" says it should in better pay. So what the hell are we supposed to do? Raising the min is the only power the Gov has to implement any pay increase.

I don't know how you incentivize the people running companies to give raises to everyone, instead of squeezing wages until it hurts, because that is the way things are done now. It is bad for the economy and bad for morale. Maybe if every time executives got a raise they had to tell all their workers why they deserved it, and why no one else should get one/why others got laid off.

I do believe some companies would gladly pay people 2.25 still if they could, so there has to be some kind of balance.

 

[Man Called X]

I don't believe in the forciblke redistribution of wealth, but figuring out a way for middle and lower class people to get a larger piece of the pie is the thing that made the American economy so strong in the first place. Once Ford paid his workers enough to buy their own car, the economy soared.

Thing is middle and lower class people spend a lot more of the money that they earn than the very wealthy, so while rich people pay a lot in taxes, they don't actually pump as much money into the economy as several families would making that money.

These things like Obamacare is keeping me from getting a raise are ridiculous. That may be the excuse, but there is always some disaster or mitigating circumstance around the corner. The fact is that productivity, profits, and stock prices are at all time highs. That is not resulting as the "market" says it should in better pay. So what the hell are we supposed to do? Raising the min is the only power the Gov has to implement any pay increase.

I don't know how you incentivize the people running companies to give raises to everyone, instead of squeezing wages until it hurts, because that is the way things are done now. It is bad for the economy and bad for morale. Maybe if every time executives got a raise they had to tell all their workers why they deserved it, and why no one else should get one/why others got laid off.

I do believe some companies would gladly pay people 2.25 still if they could, so there has to be some kind of balance.

It's called wage slaving, and a large number of our country thrives by it. It's literally kept the retail and service industries going.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

Yes the idea of raising minimum wage could be a good one, but it is such a small piece on a macro economic scale. With anything, there will be ripples no matter what you do and how much you raise it. Think about the people who are on S.S. all of a sudden minimum wage goes up, cause inflation as companies will still want to make money, now if you are on a fixed income you make less, the only way to fix it is to give S.S. a raise, which means we need to raise taxes to cover it. It is a vicious cycle.

Nothing will change until companies start sharing the wealth with the middle class. This is the group of people we need to find a way to help, they are the largest tax base and typicality consume 100% to 105% of their salary each year. If they have more spending power more goods are needed, thus more jobs.

 

[Man Called X]

Yes the idea of raising minimum wage could be a good one, but it is such a small piece on a macro economic scale. With anything, there will be ripples no matter what you do and how much you raise it. Think about the people who are on S.S. all of a sudden minimum wage goes up, cause inflation as companies will still want to make money, now if you are on a fixed income you make less, the only way to fix it is to give S.S. a raise, which means we need to raise taxes to cover it. It is a vicious cycle.

Nothing will change until companies start sharing the wealth with the middle class. This is the group of people we need to find a way to help, they are the largest tax base and typicality consume 100% to 105% of their salary each year. If they have more spending power more goods are needed, thus more jobs.

Why pay your employees when you can just get the government to subsidize your entire work force?

 

[Cavsfan1985]

Why pay your employees when you can just get the government to subsidize your entire work force?

I don't think that is my point at all. I think there is a place for minimum wage, and think it should be tied to inflation. But a bump to almost double it will have ripple effects. IMO it is a headline grabber, that in the end will have little to no effect on the economy. Finding ways to improve the middle class and bring in skilled jobs is what the focus should be on.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

It's called wage slaving, and a large number of our country thrives by it. It's literally kept the retail and service industries going.

This is a great point. Again when you look at it on a macro level, not just on wages but the ripple effect, you start to push more and more business to online sales where you can cut out a workforce.

 

[Man Called X]

I don't think that is my point at all. I think there is a place for minimum wage, and think it should be tied to inflation. But a bump to almost double it will have ripple effects. IMO it is a headline grabber, that in the end will have little to no effect on the economy. Finding ways to improve the middle class and bring in skilled jobs is what the focus should be on.

You want skilled jobs, but you forget people put themselves into crippling debt to be able to obtain skilled jobs. You're okay with subsidizing 1/3 of the US work force's lives. You fix this broken college bubble, and you can fix the economy. But so long as it's going to require me $100k in debt to make $40k a year, it's all broken.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

You want skilled jobs, but you forget people put themselves into crippling debt to be able to obtain skilled jobs. You're okay with subsidizing 1/3 of the US work force's lives. You fix this broken college bubble, and you can fix the economy. But so long as it's going to require me $100k in debt to make $40k a year, it's all broken.

What does this have to do with minimum wage?

I agree with you, we need to find away to create more skilled jobs for those going to college and those with huge college debt. I carry a large amount of debt as well and prevents me from living a great life. Not trying to get off topic here, but I went to refinance some of my student loan debt, and was only able to get a 1%-2% drop in rate. I went back the next day and was able to secure a unsecured line of credit that dropped my interest rate almost 4%. This is the joke of it all. How a bank will not let me refi student loan debt at an aggressive rate, but I can turn around get a unsecured line of credit and refi it that way. Now if I default I have the option of getting out of the student loan debt.

 

[Man Called X]

What does this have to do with minimum wage?

I agree with you, we need to find away to create more skilled jobs for those going to college and those with huge college debt. I carry a large amount of debt as well and prevents me from living a great life. Not trying to get off topic here, but I went to refinance some of my student loan debt, and was only able to get a 1%-2% drop in rate. I went back the next day and was able to secure a unsecured line of credit that dropped my interest rate almost 4%. This is the joke of it all. How a bank will not let me refi student loan debt at an aggressive rate, but I can turn around get a unsecured line of credit and refi it that way. Now if I default I have the option of getting out of the student loan debt.

You don't want minimum wage raised, but you want more skilled jobs. How do people get skilled if they can't afford education to become skilled? You don't want people working at the grocery store to make a living wage, you'd rather subsidize them through the government.

You've got Walmart, the countrys largest private employer. Went through 3 CEOs in less than 2 years. 1st one got busted for bribing mexican officials. 2nd one got busted for giving himself an $11 million bonus because they hit 2% growth. Except he left all the gov't subsidy (food stamp money) in that growth. When removed, they grew less than half a percent. You realize that pretty much all retail and service companies do the same thing?

I don't know why everyone thinks if you just had more skilled jobs, everything would fix itself. Americans rely on the service industry more now than ever before. What's going to suddenly stop that? You going to start growing your own garden, and maintaining a farm? No? Then maybe you'll stop trivializing minimum wage.

 

[FiveThous]

I work in a hospital, ever since Obamacare happened "raise" is a dirty word where I work.

Reimbursements are getting cut left and right due to the ACA, hospitals are having to make cuts left and right to compensate. Duke just posted it's first losing quarter I believe ever. VCU is in serious trouble and may have to end up closing, other big programs (Emory for example) are really feeling the burn as well.

I'm sure you are not the only hospital where raise is a dirty word.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I support raising minimum wage, but not to fifteen bucks. That's ridiculous.

Ten seems reasonable, though. I lived on ten for about a year after college working third shift at Wal-Mart. It sucked, but the job market was awful and I had no choice. I doubt I could have gotten by on seven. I was stretched really thin as it was. Seven is just an absurdly low amount for any job.

 

[Man Called X]

I support raising minimum wage, but not to fifteen bucks. That's ridiculous.

Ten seems reasonable, though. I lived on ten for about a year after college working third shift at Wal-Mart. It sucked, but the job market was awful and I had no choice. I doubt I could have gotten by on seven. I was stretched really thin as it was. Seven is just an absurdly low amount for any job.

I was okay at $10 an hour 3 years ago. Now that oil/gas ruined my area, it's damn near $17 an hour just to live around here. Thankfully I snatched up my wifey, because STD rates have skyrocketed around here. I'd end up like Quad if I wasn't lucky.

 

[Soda]

They can raise minimum wage, but it's a band-aid. This country needs to figure out what to do with the worthless leeches and freeloaders. Make them learn a trade or something... Put money towards trade programs in high schools, make it more difficult to drop-out of school... I don't know, but something needs to happen. You can't just keep putting a napkin over the wound by handing out more money.

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

when i was 16 i made $9/hr at fastfood, after 3 years of retail (18-22) I was at 8.70/hr

minimum wage is fucked. Idk about jumping to 15/hr but 10 is much more reasonable. And if it makes getting qualified for the job a bit harder, then i see that as a good thing too.

another issue is minimum wage jobs are seldom 40hrs/wk, its usually more like 15 or 25 in my experience with irregular shift work so it makes it that much harder to land a second job to make ends meet