[sunrico90]

Will the increase in minimum wage affect our small business?

The Democratic-controlled House voted Wednesday to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, bringing America's lowest-paid workers a crucial step closer to their first raise in a decade.

The vote was 315-116.

http://www.[domain blocked due to spam].net/content/cbs/3662494327118975489109566505373398676599 (broken link)

[Ladywithafan]

Although I think this is a great idea, the impact that I've been reading is that in order to pay more on the min., business owners will have to cut their employees in order to pay more.

[Jammie]

YAY!!!! That is wonderful for so many people.

I honestly don't think that employers will be able to cut employees just because of the increase. So many of the people who will gain from this are in occupations where cuts can't be made. If they're in a factory, motel, restaurant, or whatever along those lines~it takes a certain amount of employees to keep things functioning.

Every legal citizen of the U.S. who is willing to work full time should be paid enough to be above the poverty level.

[sunrico90]

Will the cost of food, medical services, utilities, social services, housing and other get more expensive because of the new wages?

I'm concern that will be the case, as the small business is forced to reduce employees to accomodate the new wages, the increase in unemployment is around the corner. Very difficult to evaluate and to be fair to all....

[JBrown]

So if increasing the minimum to $7.25 is such a good thing then why stop there ?? Why not make it ..oh...lets say $10 per hour.. Yeah that's it ten...no wait...how about $15 no that would be even better . I mean no one can (or does) actually live on $7.25 anyway. lets get it pushed up to $15 and then why not try to push it to $20 ?? 20 is better than 15 right ??

[Jammie]

JB, it would be difficult to live on 7.25 an hour if you only work 40 hours per week. You'd definitely need another job or at least a part time job, BUT it would be more difficult to live on 5.15 an hour.

[sunrico90]

Originally Posted by JBrown

So if increasing the minimum to $7.25 is such a good thing then why stop there ?? Why not make it ..oh...lets say $10 per hour.. Yeah that's it ten...no wait...how about $15 no that would be even better . I mean no one can (or does) actually live on $7.25 anyway. lets get it pushed up to $15 and then why not try to push it to $20 ?? 20 is better than 15 right ??

We have to have a correlation between income and cost of goods. If the income in this case wages is increased drastically the increase to pay the workers to produce or develop the item or merchandise will increase in the same way.

California is a great example of what you mentioned... You make more per hour but the cost of living and expenses are sometimes double the cost in other states. So we must be careful to do the increases under calculated steps to prevent a stop of our economic growth.

Another example will be fast food: if the owner is paying minimum wages they can keep some of the overhead cost down. A drastic increase in wages will be passing directly to the customer(s). Same process in almost everything that we have to purchase, so we must be careful to keep a balance.

[Chicken Wing]

Originally Posted by JBrown

So if increasing the minimum to $7.25 is such a good thing then why stop there ?? Why not make it ..oh...lets say $10 per hour.. Yeah that's it ten...no wait...how about $15 no that would be even better . I mean no one can (or does) actually live on $7.25 anyway. lets get it pushed up to $15 and then why not try to push it to $20 ?? 20 is better than 15 right ??

You quoted that from someone......

You can look at it both ways. Yes, the employers might have to cut back on the # of employees they staff and in order to keep a sufficient # of employees, they might have to raise prices. However, these minimum-wage workers will now have more money in their pockets to spend which will help the economy. It's a double edged sword. However, with inflation rates over the past 30 years or so, I think an adjustment to minimum wage seems right.

[ottomobeale]

This will most likely have ZERO effect in Florida.
Fl minimum is 6.67 today. The first raise is less than that. It will be 7.25 in just over 2 years.
If Florida has the same increase (by %) in 2008 and 2009 as it did Jan 1, 2007 the Florida minimum will be roughly 7.45 by the time the Federal minimum is 7.25.
The answer of why this raise will have minimal effect is two fold. 1) Labor demand has pushed up typical pay to $6.50ish in most areas that still use the Federal Minimum. 2) Many states are above the federal minimum.

And yes, some people do live on 7 to 9 dollars an hour. After 9/11 I was laid off. I met them working at Dillards when I lived in Ohio. Many got real jobs a year or better later. Some are still doing it. They drive lousy cars. Rent rooms in houses instead of full apartments. Get hospitals to write off 75% of the bill when they show the hospital their previous years' W2. Some were dumb as rocks. Some were reasonably intelligent but seemed to lack the skill to actually get the better job even though work skills could probably get them into the ~$12.00 range.

[Need_affordable_home]

The rise in federal min wage is very big news for low income families and teens getting their first job to save for college! Yes some states had higher min wage but now those states MUST raise the min wage above federal min wage or the state has to drop the min wage and the federal min wage then takes over. Its been 10 years without an increase! Inflation has made the $5.15 federal min wage barely enough for food and cloth and thats if you are homeless! The $2.10 increase corresponds to an extra $4,200 a year which should get alot of homeless people off the street and into rented apartments, mobile homes or very cheap houses.