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As a democrat and strong supporter of what most people consider to be "liberal policies" I must admit I cannot say I am fully on board with this $15 an hour for minimum wage push.
Fast food workers across the country are striking for higher pay, and the mayor of Seattle is pushing hard to raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour. That seems way too high for unskilled labor. I do agree that the minimum wage SHOULD be raised, I'm personally on board with Obama's proposal of about $10-$11 an hour. Minimum wage SHOULD be a living wage, that is what FDR said when it was first passed back in the 1930's. However, it should not be a way to live well or comfortably.
Minimum wage work is primarily for people who have little to no education and very little in the way of skills or laboring. It's mostly for high school kids or people who chose not to pursue a career path. There are a LOT of skilled jobs and jobs that require education that don't pay $15 an hour. Hell, teaching positions in most states pay a salary of around 30-35k annually, which is around $15-$19 an hour, so now we are proposing to pay minimum wage workers as much as a teacher with a bachelor's degree and a much more stressful job who can't get paid for overtime?
Also, I'm not sure how people think that more than doubling the minimum wage won't cause an increase in prices. Sure, you're giving more spending power to the poorer class, and that will likely mean that these people are less dependent on government programs, so that'd be a boost to the government's budget, but it would likely be at the cost of the economy. Businesses won't be able to afford paying people that much money, and if they are forced to pay that much they will then be forced to lay off a lot of their workforce.
Am I way out of line for thinking this way as a democrat? Am I that misinformed? Or am I just more of a realist? I don't know, I really don't understand how or why people think burger flippers are entitled to make over $30,000 a year. Maybe I'm not as liberal as I thought and people claim me to be.
i'm not saying i agree with $15 either, but you're contradicting yourself by saying you don't support it but then saying it should be a "living wage". unless your definition of living wage is different than what's commonly been used.
Unions will love it because contracts are typically tied to minimum wage.
Very very few are actually. This is a common refrain with no basis in fact, their contracts are NOT in fact typically tied to it. You should be ashamed for spreading this propaganda.
As a democrat and strong supporter of what most people consider to be "liberal policies" I must admit I cannot say I am fully on board with this $15 an hour for minimum wage push.
Fast food workers across the country are striking for higher pay, and the mayor of Seattle is pushing hard to raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour. That seems way too high for unskilled labor. I do agree that the minimum wage SHOULD be raised, I'm personally on board with Obama's proposal of about $10-$11 an hour. Minimum wage SHOULD be a living wage, that is what FDR said when it was first passed back in the 1930's. However, it should not be a way to live well or comfortably.
Minimum wage work is primarily for people who have little to no education and very little in the way of skills or laboring. It's mostly for high school kids or people who chose not to pursue a career path. There are a LOT of skilled jobs and jobs that require education that don't pay $15 an hour. Hell, teaching positions in most states pay a salary of around 30-35k annually, which is around $15-$19 an hour, so now we are proposing to pay minimum wage workers as much as a teacher with a bachelor's degree and a much more stressful job who can't get paid for overtime?
Also, I'm not sure how people think that more than doubling the minimum wage won't cause an increase in prices. Sure, you're giving more spending power to the poorer class, and that will likely mean that these people are less dependent on government programs, so that'd be a boost to the government's budget, but it would likely be at the cost of the economy. Businesses won't be able to afford paying people that much money, and if they are forced to pay that much they will then be forced to lay off a lot of their workforce.
Am I way out of line for thinking this way as a democrat? Am I that misinformed? Or am I just more of a realist? I don't know, I really don't understand how or why people think burger flippers are entitled to make over $30,000 a year. Maybe I'm not as liberal as I thought and people claim me to be.
The problem is that we look at the whole minimum wage debate strictly from the POV of "unskilled" labor and how easy it is to replace it. We should be looking at the value of "unskilled" labor to see what kind of revenue it generates for the employer.
If the "unskilled" labor of a job only generates $20/hour in revenue, then you have an argument that paying 3/4 of the revenue to an employee doesn't make sense.
If the "unskilled" labor of job generates $500/hr in revenue, then that argument holds no weight.
The best minimum wage is no minimum wage. The guy who hired me for my current job started out in the company as a floor sweep/errand boy as a teenager, and worked his way up to being 2nd in command of a plant with over 100 workers.
It's difficult to impossible for teens to get hired in entry level jobs now. Walk into any grocery store or fast food restaurant. At least in my area (Seattle area) you'll find few teenagers working there. Those jobs are now done by adults, often even people in their 40's and 50's.
OP, I don't feel like reading this whole thread, but I do support raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour because that's a liveable wage. I don't know what it's like in your city, but in my city, you need to earn at least $17.50 an hour in order to afford a one-bedroom apartment (according to a recent article). A higher minimum wage = less dependency on government assistance.
Keep in mind that the minimum wage increases every so often. The exact same jobs (flipping burgers, etc) that people were doing decades ago pay a higher wage today than they did back then. So really, what's the problem with raising the minimum wage? It seems that those who are opposed to raising the minimum wage are looking at this situation from the frame of reference of current wages. But what exactly determines that a burger-flipping job should only pay around $8.00 an hour??? That's simply the wage amount that some companies decided to set arbitrarily for that type of work. Nobody can live off of that.
Remember, these people calling for $15.00 an hour are not looking to buy luxury items. They simply want to earn a living wage.
It's difficult to impossible for teens to get hired in entry level jobs now. Walk into any grocery store or fast food restaurant. At least in my area (Seattle area) you'll find few teenagers working there. Those jobs are now done by adults, often even people in their 40's and 50's.
OP, I don't feel like reading this whole thread, but I do support raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour because that's a liveable wage. I don't know what it's like in your city, but in my city, you need to earn at least $17.50 an hour in order to afford a one-bedroom apartment (according to a recent article). A higher minimum wage = less dependency on government assistance.
Keep in mind that the minimum wage increases every so often. The exact same jobs (flipping burgers, etc) that people were doing decades ago pay a higher wage today than they did back then. So really, what's the problem with raising the minimum wage? It seems that those who are opposed to raising the minimum wage are looking at this situation from the frame of reference of current wages. But what exactly determines that a burger-flipping job should only pay around $8.00 an hour??? That's simply the wage amount that some companies decided to set arbitrarily for that type of work. Nobody can live off of that.
Remember, these people calling for $15.00 an hour are not looking to buy luxury items. They simply want to earn a living wage.
What's wrong with minimum wage: Simple, its hard to enforce. When thousands are willing to work for $5 or less an hour its a push to continue hiring illegals and an incentive for more immigrants to cross the border.
Also, min wage is not for burger flippers only. The whole retail industry, even luxury labels are paying that to collage graduates. Thousands of jobs who were once $30K a year, are now minimum wage hourly jobs!
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