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I promise you that no one on a national or state labor board will agree to $2 an hour. When I said "industry leaders", I wasn't referring only to management. I should have clarified that there should be industry-wide labor boards to be involved in negotiations, so I'm clarifying that now.
Labor doesn't have effective representation in most industries.
And, in theory, people would refuse to work for $2 so they wouldn't be able to get away with paying that little. Employers do have to compete for employees. That is a fair market.
That being said, I'm not completely comfortable with eliminating or reducing it and it's not causing that many problems as whogo pointed out, so let's just not raise it and accept minimum wage won't be a "living wage."
HA! Yeah, cuz that's how it's working now right? Employers aren't competing for employees, you're looked at as almost completely disposable and people would mostly have to either accept these even lower wages or not be hired.
And no I think it's less about it being a living wage as opposed to a decent wage. As it is right now you're lucky to get by living at a parent's/with family/with a friend without bills on minimum wage. What's holding the economy back is this very factor. People don't have the money to spend in the first place so the economy isn't improving. If people make enough so that they maybe could get their foot in the door to independence then we might actually have a chance.
I think the living wage argument is somewhat silly. People should not be supporting a family of four on minimum wage. I encounter a lot of people who don't deserve much more than a minimal wage. Just today, I'm at Duane reade in nyc....give things to cashier....she doesn't say a word. I ask her how she's doing...she says 'fine' I wait for a second after she says nothing and I say 'I am doing just fine as well, thank you.' She rolls her eyes and goes 'ugh'
When she's done ringing my things up, she doesn't say anything....just does something on her i phone on the counter. So I just finally swipe my card, press okay and put my card in pocket. She just says 'sign'
What a great, productive employee. Let me guess....she'd be a ball of sunshine if she made $15/hr? No, she'd have the same awful ghetto attitude, just with a larger data plan on her iPhone
Yes. Zero. Government should not tell anyone what wages to pay.
Let's see how long you agree to that when you all of a sudden have your pay cut back to about a quarter of what it is. Or maybe you own your own business and think you're secure? Wonder how people will pay for your product when they can't even afford a cartoon of eggs and a gallon of milk off a full days work.
All one has to do is look at the agriculture industry. Not just the farms, but the entire industry from farm to table. While ag is the easiest example, there are lots of others, large and small.
Does your home state have active enforcement afoigrokerkok? Can you provide examples of employers brought to court over non-enforcement?
I can't in my state, and as far as I know, there are no means of enforcement here.
There's plenty of evidence, but I'm not prepared to lock horns with millionaires over it, so I'm not going to start quoting references on a forum. All you have to do is a couple of minutes of googling to find it.
There aren't too many jobs out there where employers are literally paying below minimum wage, except to illegals. Obviously many illegals aren't going to be making minimum wage. That's part of the incentive some have to hire illegals.
Now there are issues where non-exempt employees are improperly classified as exempt and therefore not paid overtime, issues with employers not paying hourly (non-exempt) employees for time at the beginning of the day where they're not working but required to be there for one reason or another, etc., but there aren't huge issues with employers literally simply ignoring minimum wage.
I think the living wage argument is somewhat silly. People should not be supporting a family of four on minimum wage. I encounter a lot of people who don't deserve much more than a minimal wage. Just today, I'm at Duane reade in nyc....give things to cashier....she doesn't say a word. I ask her how she's doing...she says 'fine' I wait for a second after she says nothing and I say 'I am doing just fine as well, thank you.' She rolls her eyes and goes 'ugh'
When she's done ringing my things up, she doesn't say anything....just does something on her i phone on the counter. So I just finally swipe my card, press okay and put my card in pocket. She just says 'sign'
What a great, productive employee. Let me guess....she'd be a ball of sunshine if she made $15/hr? No, she'd have the same awful ghetto attitude, just with a larger data plan on her iPhone
The problem is not with how much she makes then, it's about the fact she's being paid period. You should've spoken to her supervisor about the incident and addressed how you felt. If you still felt dis-satisfied, report it to corporate and follow up with it. Like I said, instead of worrying about how much she should get paid, I think the bigger issue is that someone with that attitude still has her job.
And that's why I said there should be a labor board for every single industry.
Who is going to select the labor board?
WhyTF doesn't the QUOTE function work???
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