$15 minimum wage in KCMO? Are you serious? (Kansas City, Bernie: job market, income)

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by yabanci

Paid medical testing and clinical trials?

Originally Posted by yabanci

I think the minimum wage should be at least $15. I also think that people should be driven to do something that adds to the development and improvement of society. Before the former can be realized, the latter must become a common cultural value.

The US medical industry is already the most corrupt industry in the history of man. And now you want to use minimum wage as a social engineering tool to further prop them up?

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

The US medical industry is already the most corrupt industry in the history of man. And now you want to use minimum wage as a social engineering tool to further prop them up?

The comment about medical testing wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I guess I should have added

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by CrownVic95

The US medical industry is already the most corrupt industry in the history of man. And now you want to use minimum wage as a social engineering tool to further prop them up?

Hate to say it, but I almost agreed with Crown Vic on something just now - the corruption of the US medical industry.

UNFORTUNATELY, he both completely missed the point of the comment he was responding to, and the basic facts surrounding this conversation. NOBODY doing medical trials is getting paid less than $15/hr. IF you can get this kind of "work" consistently, you're raking it in.

So I think we can leave this little corner of our economy out of the discussion at hand. It has nothing to do with the minimum wage, and will be unaffected by any change thereof.

[K-Train]

And small food businesses would have to cope with this as well.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by K-Train

And small food businesses would have to cope with this as well.

Only if they have more than 15 employees, per the ordinance. So it would depend on how small.

[gfisch95]

I'm not knowledgeable in the real inner-workings of economics, but when I see the city of KCMO raising the minimum wage considerably higher than the rest of the metro it seems like another excuse for restaurants, grocery stores, small startup businesses, etc., to start their businesses in the suburbs instead of in the urban core that the city has been working so desperately to build back up. It seems counterproductive to me.

Is this not the way things will happen if the increase in minimum wage does make it through the courts?

[zach_33]

It's hard to say. I believe a rising tide lifts all ships, so to speak, and if the major city at the center of the metro area raises the wage floor, all of the surrounding suburbs with a similar cost of living will be foolish not to do the same, otherwise nobody will want to work in the suburbs; businesses need employees as much as employees need businesses.

KC politicians are just trying to move the region in a more progressive direction. I think that will actually attract smart people, cutting edge entrepreneurs and top talent. I'm not sure if $15 is an appropriate minimum wage for KC, but if nothing else they have made a smart PR move to try to increase the current floor of $7.65.

[MLSFan]

With google fiber and new smart city light rail, I could see KC trying to move in the direction of becoming a tech city, and people in tech make more than minimum wage so it won't affect those type of companies as much...

but it does suck for the people who do make minimum wage as they get forced out to suburbs to live since the COL will increase, they will work in the city for the better pay but end up with a longer commute...

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by zach_33

It's hard to say. I believe a rising tide lifts all ships, so to speak, and if the major city at the center of the metro area raises the wage floor, all of the surrounding suburbs with a similar cost of living will be foolish not to do the same, otherwise nobody will want to work in the suburbs; businesses need employees as much as employees need businesses.

KC politicians are just trying to move the region in a more progressive direction. I think that will actually attract smart people, cutting edge entrepreneurs and top talent. I'm not sure if $15 is an appropriate minimum wage for KC, but if nothing else they have made a smart PR move to try to increase the current floor of $7.65.

I'm with you in spirit, zach, but the demand has to be there to support it. So, yeah, it's hard to say.

Thirty four years ago, the Reagan administration gave a wink and a nod to Big Business' abandonment of ethical principle in their relationship with the workers who made them rich and powerful. It was during those years that our economic direction as a nation profoundly changed....downwardly. It was plain to see then what would happen upon exporting our manufacturing and importing third world labor, despite all the BS that then lauded the "new American economy". Our march to third world status began in earnest during those Reagan years.

Had Big Business not abandoned Americans and the country at their foundation, I would likely cast this idea aside very quickly. But they did. So a clear case can be made to attempt to compensate legislatively for the damage done by myopic greed.

[TabulaRasa]

I'm not sure if $15 is an appropriate minimum wage for KC, but if nothing else they have made a smart PR move to try to increase the current floor of $7.65.

It's not 15, anyway, It's 13, incrementally over the next five years.