They should raise the minimum wage to $31 an hour (Commerce: 2015, employment)

[Slowpoke_TX]

Originally Posted by the topper

Forget $15 an hour and raise it to over $30 and everyone can afford it if they manage their businesses right. What do you think?

Managing a business correctly means controlling cost - including the cost of labor.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

There wouldn't be very many businesses left here if that idea got put into motion.



oh and.....April Fools?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by the topper

. Forget $15 an hour and raise it to over $30 and everyone can afford it if they manage their businesses right. What do you think?

Now that's goofy. Must be a April fools joke too.

[NewbieHere]

No they should raise minimum wage to $50. I want government to bring on recession.

[payutenyodagimas]

Originally Posted by usayit

Let say it costs $100 per day for an individual to show up to work clothed, cleaned, healthy and able. Minimum wages only pay $58 and that individual must "take" from government assistance (tax dollars) in order to keep showing up to work clothed cleaned, healthy, and able. Then that business is essentially passing the cost of $42 a day to the tax payers.

I have a problem with that. IMO, this hypothetical business shouldn't be in business because it can no longer afford to operate.

It goes both ways... Market decides if the job is worth 7.25 an hour AND the market should decide (without tax dollars influence) what person is worth $7.25 an hour. If the person is worth 7.25 an hour and that equates to a lazy high school kid or a homeless person off the street, then that is exactly what the business should employ. Critics of the concept of living wages seem to forget the other side of market driven labor.

My point is that living and minimum wages have different concepts on where it is applied and measurements/calculations that are involved. Minimum wages are generally set by decree of a bunch of politicians in a room.... there is no requirement to have it derived from some sort of calculation.

you are correct that a business should not be in business if it cant pay the minimum wage. my point though is that we should not be focusing on the minimum wage because whatever the amount, it still the minimum, the floor price so to speak. one who makes minimum will still be struggling because after all is said and done, that minimum wage will be reflected in all the prices, in all wage structure and before know it, we will be asking again for the increase of minimum wage.


so a person in minimum wage should work to earn beyond that, say the max or median wage because that's where living wage is

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by usayit

My point is that living and minimum wages have different concepts on where it is applied and measurements/calculations that are involved. Minimum wages are generally set by decree of a bunch of politicians in a room.... there is no requirement to have it derived from some sort of calculation.

And usually just before an election.

A feel good item.

[oldtrader]

Lets try to consider raising minimum wage to $35 an hour means.

Lets imagine that you own a fast food restaurant. The normal allotment of gross income is 33.3% for labor, 33.3% for food costs, and that leaves 34% to pay for rent, franchise fees, taxes, maintenance, etc., etc., and if any is left over a very small percentage for the owner.

Price of meal is $9 average, so $3 is allotted to labor.

Quadruple wages and you pay out $12 for labor. To stay even, owner has to raise the price of the meal to $18. This will price it out of the reach of a lot of present customers and sales will decline, so they will have to raise the price to cover the rent, and all other costs as smaller number of sales the reduced income has to be spread out and prices raised to cover the overhead. Lets imagine the $9 average meal is now $21 to cover all the increased expenses. As the food providers also had to raise their prices for the same reason, the meal now is $27 each. That is triple the price. And this spreads throughout all businesses that are effected. Everyone raises their prices accordingly, and soon the prices are all raised to the point they minimum wage workers are right back where they started as far as what they can buy with the new wages.

As the minimum wages take a big jump, if forces all wages up, which will in turn raise all prices.

Now imagine only California raises the minimum wages like that. Then it will be so more profitable to move the high pay jobs out of California immediately as it will be so much less costly to produce goods in other states, there goes all the manufacturing, and many other fields in addition. When the job market takes a complete crash in California, it will simply bust the state.

Median wages are high in California on paper, but when the wages are adjusted for cost of living, the median wage in California is kind of in the middle in the country. Second chart below demonstrates what I mean. Raise the median wage to such a ridiculous amount as the OP proposes, and it would drop to the lowest in the country.

Which States' Residents Have the Most Cash to Spend? -- The Motley Fool

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Lets try to consider raising minimum wage to $35 an hour means.

Lets imagine that you own a fast food restaurant. The normal allotment of gross income is 33.3% for labor, 33.3% for food costs, and that leaves 34% to pay for rent, franchise fees, taxes, maintenance, etc., etc., and if any is left over a very small percentage for the owner.

Price of meal is $9 average, so $3 is allotted to labor.

Quadruple wages and you pay out $12 for labor. To stay even, owner has to raise the price of the meal to $18. This will price it out of the reach of a lot of present customers and sales will decline, so they will have to raise the price to cover the rent, and all other costs as smaller number of sales the reduced income has to be spread out and prices raised to cover the overhead. Lets imagine the $9 average meal is now $21 to cover all the increased expenses. As the food providers also had to raise their prices for the same reason, the meal now is $27 each. That is triple the price. And this spreads throughout all businesses that are effected. Everyone raises their prices accordingly, and soon the prices are all raised to the point they minimum wage workers are right back where they started as far as what they can buy with the new wages.

As the minimum wages take a big jump, if forces all wages up, which will in turn raise all prices.

Now imagine only California raises the minimum wages like that. Then it will be so more profitable to move the high pay jobs out of California immediately as it will be so much less costly to produce goods in other states, there goes all the manufacturing, and many other fields in addition. When the job market takes a complete crash in California, it will simply bust the state.

Median wages are high in California on paper, but when the wages are adjusted for cost of living, the median wage in California is kind of in the middle in the country. Second chart below demonstrates what I mean. Raise the median wage to such a ridiculous amount as the OP proposes, and it would drop to the lowest in the country.

Which States' Residents Have the Most Cash to Spend? -- The Motley Fool

Um, OT - the thread proposition was facetious.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by the topper

They should raise the minimum wage to $31 an hour in California by 2018 and raise the standard of living and guard against the high cost of housing/rent in big cities in state. I even think all major businesses can afford it by putting the cap on middle man and the salary of executives. They should rein in the cost of management and spend the money on employees. So whatever job you take or like should not be a burden to you. Forget $15 an hour and raise it to over $30 and everyone can afford it if they manage their businesses right. What do you think?

Setting up an April fools thread.

[usayit]

Originally Posted by payutenyodagimas

you are correct that a business should not be in business if it cant pay the minimum wage. my point though is that we should not be focusing on the minimum wage because whatever the amount, it still the minimum, the floor price so to speak. one who makes minimum will still be struggling because after all is said and done, that minimum wage will be reflected in all the prices, in all wage structure and before know it, we will be asking again for the increase of minimum wage.


so a person in minimum wage should work to earn beyond that, say the max or median wage because that's where living wage is

I do agree. Yes I do know prices are passed to the consumer. If a percentage of the cost of that good or service involved tax dollars to supplement cheap labor, then I still have a problem with it. The consumer of that good/service is now the deriving the benefits of the tax dollar. Just like I don't believe a business should not be operating under those conditions, I don't believe the consumer should be able to afford a product/service at a price point that is offset by tax dollars. I don't pay taxes so that Joe Schmoe can eat a restaurant at a bargain basement price that is below what is able to sustain a healthy, clothed, able staff.

I also understand that the issue cyclic... Any of us employed above minimum wage experience this and any employer whose employees are above minimum wage knows this. This is a natural occurrence we must all live with. How many of us have had discussions with our coworkers regarding whether or not our last pay increase keeps up with inflation and cost of living? How many employers have to risk loosing employees due to a salary that doesn't keep up with employees needs/requirements measured against cost of living and inflation?

The key difference is that unlike higher salaries weighed against cost of living/inflation, minimum wages are set by decree of a group of politicians rather than calculated or pressured by free market. Minimum wages are set low with the assumption that the gap is the responsibility of the tax payer. I have a problem with that.

If I were to see a living wage set, then theoretically there is should be absolutely no reason for a person to pull from tax payer funded welfare... because unlike minimum wage the cost of living is paid for by the employer (and the consumers) not the tax payer.