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Seriously increase the minimum wage to about 10 or $12
The minimum wage in Australia is high and most people are much better off, at least the people in the low end of society could at least have better breathing room. And the money gets pumped back into the economy anyway. So it's a no brainer.
Pure greed is the reason why the wages are appualing. But that's expected from USA, a country driven by greed and the elite for the purpose and intentions of their best interest.
key word is "2nd tier workers" and thats the problem. they do not have the skill set yet to make them worthy of high paying jobs.
That is true.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
you are dreaming if you think employers will pay more than any job function is worth or skill set demands.
They will have to raise prices to cover higher wages. Or find something else to do.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
you are getting to wrapped up in economic crap. it is basics, strictly basics . develop your skills in a field with job demand and you will get payed more.
The economic crap is this. Deep dodo. Unless we do something about it sooner rather than later we will pay a higher price.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
the problem is business are specialized today so even a degree is relatively useless for quite a long time in a company.
we hire electrical engineers and it still takes them 1 to 2 years of training in our business to learn what we do and to be useful at a level that commands a high salary.
That high salary is relative. If you up the minimum wage a lot the good workers will demand a premium. The not so good ones will be left behind.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
one of our key people left. you have to see all the job offers come out of hiding. believe me there are more jobs out there than you think for those in demand .
it always seems to be that those with the lowest paying jobs and the least amount of skills that are in demand turn out to be the same ones who complain about the low pay on internet forums. the fact is they do not qualify for more with what they bring to the party ..
My personal skill set is mixed. I have done some theoretical work in physics at a very high level. But other skills I lack. I'm about ¾ of the way done laying out a sales plan that should net my buddy $1 million a month. But there are simple things that are beyond me.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
see a pattern here?
Not the one you are getting at.
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Originally Posted by mathjak107
i was out of work 2x since 2008 as i left a company, got a different job and that company failed within a year.
i can tell you i had another job before i even left the final day at the company that failed . in the mean time we have people out of work years in our industry who cannot get picked up by another company.
it is all skill set and demand for that skill set.
That is true for most. And I'm not disagreeing with you about what you are talking about. But you are talking micro economics and I am talking macro economics. The country needs to replace the missing income from the jobs that have gone away. We need to run a budget surplus and start buying back our national debt. The alternative to this is really hard economic times as the transition from being the world's reserve currency to not takes place. We need a plan and to execute it.
Just wondering, have you lived in both countries? Not having a go at you. Its just that you seem pretty worked up about the US minimum wage!
We have plenty of issues in Australia too. Cost of housing is the main issue in my opinion. As for everyday living expenses, I can't see a HUGE difference. When I was in the states last year I took a lot of notice of the cost of everyday items and to be honest I didn't think it was as cheap as everyone makes out. For example at McDonalds in the US they advertise a Small Big Mac meal for say $4.99 BUT to my surprise the girl behind the counter was asking for $6.41 (if i recall correctly). As opposed to here where its advertised as $7.25 and you PAY $7.25 (and get better quality meat). Every shop I went into was the same. That was a big shock! Then if you go anywhere that offers service the minimum tip required is 15%.
Maybe the best thing to help minimum wage workers in the US is to close the mexican border properly and treat illegals as ILLEGALS!
Having said all that, I'd still love to spend a few years in the states as I love the place. Americans seem way more friendly than us Aussies and harder workers for sure! The latter might take some getting used to
Last edited by Oz Train Driver; 03-02-2013 at 06:08 AM..
Just wondering, have you lived in both countries? Not having a go at you. Its just that you seem pretty worked up about the US minimum wage!
We have plenty of issues in Australia too. Cost of housing is the main issue in my opinion. As for everyday living expenses, I can't see a HUGE difference. When I was in the states last year I took a lot of notice of the cost of everyday items and to be honest I didn't think it was as cheap as everyone makes out. For example at McDonalds in the US they advertise a Small Big Mac meal for say $4.99 BUT to my surprise the girl behind the counter was asking for $6.41 (if i recall correctly). As opposed to here where its advertised as $7.25 and you PAY $7.25 (and get better quality meat). Every shop I went into was the same. That was a big shock! Then if you go anywhere that offers service the minimum tip required is 15%.
Maybe the best thing to help minimum wage workers in the US is to close the mexican border properly and treat illegals as ILLEGALS!
Having said all that, I'd still love to spend a few years in the states as I love the place. Americans seem way more friendly than us Aussies and harder workers for sure! The latter might take some getting used to
Yes I constantly travel between California & Sydney..
And yeah, USA isn't as cheap as everyone made it out to be, but I've never had the issues of the counter thing you are referring to..?
Yeah Australia defiantly has its problems, mainly high cost of rent and house prices, also utility prices are quite high..
But other than that, it's much the same price wise compared with, at least California. Cost of living is the same, cars, food and everything else cost the same.
Where as the wages are much higher in Australia, the same job that I could be working on would merely pay $30k in USA, where as I could easily yield $75k in Australia.
Yes I constantly travel between California & Sydney..\
But other than that, it's much the same price wise compared with, at least California.
Cost of living is the same, cars, food and everything else cost the same.
Just so you know compared to (most of) the rest of the US CA prices are objectively high.
Some categories, like real estate, are insanely high compared to the rest of the US.
If you're ever inclined to do actual research on costs relative to income...
the most unbiased source of objective data is the US Census LINK
You can do that state by state or city by city.
Make a point of comparing the median home price of an area to the median household income.
Then compare that ratio to other areas. Affordability is generally considered to be 3:1 or less.
the problem i have with the census financial info is it is far from accurate. financial info IS NOT part of the census questions.
the financial data is based on a seperate survey. it only has 150,000 people surveyed. while that may be okay for yes and no questions something as variable as net worth really needs input from everyone.
i doubt you can even draw a valid conclusion about incomes here in nyc with just 150,000 asked.
i don't know why they just don't make the financial info part of the census so it is accurate. for the most part my own experiences have been it is not accurate at all the way it is done.
we are just to geographically mixed to draw conclusions .
btw... neither the census (or I) claimed the data included net worth.
I don't know where that even applies to the basic issue of COL affordability.
If you're inclined to drill down for even more data... check out this block by block tool:
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Last edited by Yac; 03-29-2013 at 07:40 AM..
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