Illinois Minimum Wage Proposal - 10/hr by 2017 (felon, buy)

[mattywo85]

Originally Posted by czaharoff

Hey folks,

I'm writing a story on the governor's recent proposal to raise the Illinois minimum wage to 10$/hr by 2017. I'm looking into how the change could improve some people's living conditions while possibly making it harder to others to find work.

If you're working a minimum wage job, if you're looking for a minimum wage job, or if you have a opinion you'd like to express on the topic, please leave a comment on the topic. I'm looking out for sources so please indicate if you'd be willing to interview.

Thanks.

Four more years to get 10/hr, really? What a joke! IL is financially retarded.

[crbcrbrgv]

As a Chicago native looking from the outside (I'm in Houston now) it seems to me as though your governor is talking tough on wage to stave off any thoughts of messing with the unions.

[lycos679]

Originally Posted by trailblazer33

It's proven time and time again that raising the minimum wage will help the economy, not to mention help all of those underemployed or fully employed for wages that one would hardly call "living."

I hope you are being sarcastic because that isn't even remotely true. If a company has so little need for labor that they are only using part time working then by increasing the cost of labor you might find those jobs cut in addition to price hikes. The only time raising the minimum wage will have no negative effects is when most people are already making more than that. However, unless the least skilled workers are already making more than the min wage you will have a negative impact on entry level employees.

Walmarts in N. Dakota are paying more than $17/hr, so ND could raise the minimum wage without having an effect on the local labor markets. However, ND is experiencing a monopolistic labor market that is not reflected in the rest of the country. And to be fair there are some studies that did not show a negative impact on labor markets, but most of these studies did not analyze teen and lower skill labor markets separately.

Although it is possible for legislatures to enact minimum wage laws they need to study their labor markets and have an analysis conducted before proceeded. Good intentions are fine, but the outcome matters more.


For further reading:
http://www.thepelicanpost.org/wp-con...iana-Final.pdf
Minimum Wages, by Linda Gorman: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty
http://cms.bsu.edu/-/media/WWW/Depar...WageEmploy.pdf

[chicagobear]

I think the minimum wage should be at least $25 an hour. Hey, why not, it's not the government's money.

[trailblazer33]

Originally Posted by lycos679

I hope you are being sarcastic because that isn't even remotely true. If a company has so little need for labor that they are only using part time working then by increasing the cost of labor you might find those jobs cut in addition to price hikes. The only time raising the minimum wage will have no negative effects is when most people are already making more than that. However, unless the least skilled workers are already making more than the min wage you will have a negative impact on entry level employees.

Walmarts in N. Dakota are paying more than $17/hr, so ND could raise the minimum wage without having an effect on the local labor markets. However, ND is experiencing a monopolistic labor market that is not reflected in the rest of the country. And to be fair there are some studies that did not show a negative impact on labor markets, but most of these studies did not analyze teen and lower skill labor markets separately.

Although it is possible for legislatures to enact minimum wage laws they need to study their labor markets and have an analysis conducted before proceeded. Good intentions are fine, but the outcome matters more.


For further reading:
http://www.thepelicanpost.org/wp-con...iana-Final.pdf
Minimum Wages, by Linda Gorman: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty
http://cms.bsu.edu/-/media/WWW/Depar...WageEmploy.pdf

Raising the Minimum Wage Works » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[lycos679]

Originally Posted by trailblazer33

Raising the Minimum Wage Works » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

As I said, each locality will need to examine their local labor markets to determine who will be effected. Iowa, per your source, would have white college kids feel the impact the most. I am aware of only about 5 studies that support minimum laws and about 70 that do not.

Publications | EPIonline.org

Minimum wage trends: Understanding past and contemporary research | Economic Policy Institute

http://www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/epi_minimum_wage_2006.pdf

http://epionline.org/studies/EPI_The...inimumWage.pdf

http://epionline.org/studies/EPI_San...co_Studyv4.pdf

http://epionline.org/studies/Neumark-01-2013.pdf

[lenniel]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What type of job do you have? How much do you make? How old are you?

Why does any of that matter? Are people in minimum wage jobs going to blame others for their inability to get better than minimum wage work?

I have a good job, make good money, early 40's. Oh yeh, I also made a lot of good decisions in life, studied hard, worked hard and believed that if you do those things, good things will happen.

[lenniel]

Minimum wage=minimum skills.
Why should an employer pay more for work that can be done by a machine, a monkey or an Indonesian? It doesn't make economic sense. The goal of 'most' businesses is to make money and in order to do so, money coming in has to be greater than money going out. If not, that company won't be in business too long.

From brain surgeon down to ditch digger, your income/wages are usually commensurate with your skill level and the higher or lower you go on each scale, the more or less money one makes. Pretty simple.

[ARaider08]

I don't like the idea of increasing the minimum wage scale. When the wage scale is increased it increases the cost of good and decreases the amount of labor employers are willing to hire because labor is so expensive. As someone mentioned before; all the lower-wage jobs (grocery stores, gas stations, fast food) will adjust their hiring and prices to compensate for the increase in the cost of labor
It has been shown that increasing the minimum wage affects wage earners in such a way: decreases the amount of low-skill wage employed and the spending power of the low-wage population decreases as the gains from people who do benefit from the wage will not offset those with lost wages.
There's an interesting white paper on this called: "The Verdict on Minimum Wage: Guilty on All Counts." It digresses further but it should be understood that the benefits on increasing minimum wage do not offset the losses. You'll see greater wealth disparity and lower-wealth communities will be harmed the most from this policy...
At least that's what I think.

[plates]

$10/hr in 2017 is a joke. It's already $8.75 and has been for a while now. Years later raising it by only $1.25 wont do much. If you compare the minimum wage for 1968 to the minimum wage of today you will find that it does not do nearly as much.

It would also be simple enough to pass a law preventing large companies from price gouging as a result of a wage increase.

Originally Posted by lenniel

Minimum wage=minimum skills.
Why should an employer pay more for work that can be done by a machine, a monkey or an Indonesian? It doesn't make economic sense. The goal of 'most' businesses is to make money and in order to do so, money coming in has to be greater than money going out. If not, that company won't be in business too long.

From brain surgeon down to ditch digger, your income/wages are usually commensurate with your skill level and the higher or lower you go on each scale, the more or less money one makes. Pretty simple.

Yeah, why keep jobs in America? And the actual practice of paying people with more skill more money doesn't really happen.