I wonder if Tampa or any other big Florida city will ever do this (Spring Hill: house, to buy)

[DUNNDFRNT]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

He owned a house here and one in Queens NY. He retired after 40 years with Duane/Reade.

A stocker who makes 9/hr to 12/hr, how is he supposed to buy a house in Queens which even in South Jamaica would be 400k and one here. Thats impossible in this day and age, he could work 80 years and still wouldnt swing it.

[HWTechGuy]

Minimum wage jobs are not intended to be a permanent career path. Almost everyone probably works one at some point in their lives, sure.

Heck, I worked minimum wage jobs - well over 20 years ago. Since then, I bettered myself and moved up in salary as I went through different jobs. Even took a step back in the early 2000's recession due to a layoff as a result from company downsizing. But, I kept grinding it out and got a better job five years later and have continued to advance from there.

Lets just see how many businesses go under and/or flee these areas where these unsustainable minimum wage rates are mandated... It'll be interesting to watch in the next few years.

[DUNNDFRNT]

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

Minimum wage jobs are not intended to be a permanent career path. Almost everyone probably works one at some point in their lives, sure.

Heck, I worked minimum wage jobs - well over 20 years ago. Since then, I bettered myself and moved up in salary as I went through different jobs. Even took a step back in the early 2000's recession due to a layoff as a result from company downsizing. But, I kept grinding it out and got a better job five years later and have continued to advance from there.

Lets just see how many businesses go under and/or flee these areas where these unsustainable minimum wage rates are mandated... It'll be interesting to watch in the next few years.

Over 25% of private industry workers make less than 10/hr, if you were to weight the minimum wage with inflation you would find that historically the minimum wage has been around $10.50 in today's dollars so we can say that a quarter of workers in private industry make effectively less that the minimum wage. Bottom line is when industry does not pay a living wage our safety net makes up the difference, forcing employers to pay a living wage even at the expense of jobs would be better long term for our economy. Having said that increasing the mw can also have a ton of negative consequences such as inflation.

[floridarebel]

The minimum wage should be replaced with a living wage based on what you need make in order to live on your own without falling into poverty and/or needing govt assistance. For married men, they should receive a family living wage. it should be based on what he would need to earn in order to support his wife and two to four children. We could do this by getting rid of section 8 housing, and WIC and severely cutting back on welfare and food stamps. We also need to implement maternity leave, along with vacation and sick time and pay.

[DUNNDFRNT]

I think companies should pay into a fund if one of their employees qualifies and gets welfare a portion of it should come out of that fund, unused funds rollover if a company does not use the money then the fund can be reduced.

[spbbound]

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

"Workers" in Florida are stupid; they don't have unions to protect them from the greedy employers who take advantage of them, and so they take whatever they can get. Shameful really to not stand up for what you need. (forget what you deserve).

There are just as many stupid union members as there are stupid non-union members. I'll give you a couple examples. For over a decade, the unions involved in phone line install/repair showed no interest in new technology, even vehemently opposed learning anything other than what they already knew. Cellular grew at an alarming pace, as did voice over IP offerings, more and more homes are 'cutting the cord' on their wire line phone service, now you've got a bunch of laid off union workers as those business units disappear. They could have been on the forefront of changing technology and honed their skills making themselves that much more valuable but chose not to.

I worked at Verizon a while back. My group wrote some software that allowed a certain trade to cut about two hours off the typical provisioning of a certain type of phone circuit. This was a win for everyone I thought. Months later union leadership caught wind of what we had done from chit chat from our local members making it out to other markets who wanted the same thing, and it all got shut down at that point because technically, even though we were saving two hours of work, that step was not part of the work negotiated in the union contract. The time saved was not on the union side either, so it's not like they were losing hours of work as a result, they simply didn't want the membership doing even two minutes of typing on a computer to save two hours of wasted time, make themselves look better for delivering more circuit turn ups per day, make the customers happier from decreased install lead times, etc.

Originally Posted by Vannort54

Ok what are the wages that were being paid here in Florida compared to northern cities. Me personally I could not of made a living here compared to what I was making in Michigan. I retired here but no way in hell could I keep my standard of living on the wages they pay here. Sorry you come from a anti union state but at least with a union your employer cannot walk all over you like they do here. And with a union like the UAW your medical is second to none. And the week between Xmas and new year you get it off with pay. Do they do that here. Hell no.thy don't . Unions made the middle class and people tend to forget that. Jimmy Hoffa and Walter Ruther did not get the hell beat out of them for nothing.

On the flip side, no way in hell some businesses can survive in union states. I had a small business I created back in the early 90's before the web was heavily utilized. I thought it was a fairly good idea; it was winter coats. Started out with a local Tampa company doing the sewing and had enough word of mouth sales to keep things afloat. To really take it to the next level though, I needed to do trade shows in states up north and out west since of course that's where the market for winter clothing is. Well, I'll tell you how a trade show works in Chicago. I ship a bunch of merchandise up in a crate via UPS for $200 (at the time). I'm thinking this is great, $200 plus the couple hundred to exhibit and I'll really get things going. Oh, turns out I have to pay a union to receive my create on their loading dock. Well, seems the union in charge of the loading dock at the convention center only controls things coming and going from the dock, nothing else. A second union has to be contracted to move pallets up and down elevators and out onto the convention floor. Well we're not done yet. A third union has to be involved for anything and everything involving electricity. There were power outlets up and down each row, but I was not allowed to plug my own power strip into them, I had to hire a union worker to do that dangerous task for me. Once all was said and done, it cost me nearly $1600 in union fees to put on one exhibit for three days. I gave it a shot for a few months but I was bleeding money to unions and they basically ran me out of business. What I thought was enough budget to last a couple years to see where the business would go, was blown in one season and I gave up.

Originally Posted by HWTechGuy

Minimum wage jobs are not intended to be a permanent career path. Almost everyone probably works one at some point in their lives, sure.

Heck, I worked minimum wage jobs - well over 20 years ago. Since then, I bettered myself and moved up in salary as I went through different jobs. Even took a step back in the early 2000's recession due to a layoff as a result from company downsizing. But, I kept grinding it out and got a better job five years later and have continued to advance from there.

Lets just see how many businesses go under and/or flee these areas where these unsustainable minimum wage rates are mandated... It'll be interesting to watch in the next few years.

+1, I did the exact same thing. Washed boats during my summers, worked in the kitchen at a local seafood place, worked as a server, etc. All kinds of odd jobs when I was in high school, and most likely, jobs that would not exist if they had to pay me more than minimum wage because the work I was doing was not something that people could not live without, it was something that was a convenience that was made possible with low wage employees.

My company is currently moving 100+ people out of California to Tampa. We pay for the move, salary stays the same, the company saves a great deal on taxes since California takes quite a bit for all their nanny programs, the employee can afford a house for what would only get them an apartment in Cali. These are all well above minimum wage staff, but if minimum wage goes up for stupid jobs, it's going to impact the cost of living for people who actually did work hard to get ahead.

[BucFan]

Seems to me the more a government dictates salary to private companies, the less likely the company will want to do business in that state - meaning jobs will go to states more friendly to businesses.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by BucFan

Seems to me the more a government dictates salary to private companies, the less likely the company will want to do business in that state - meaning jobs will go to states more friendly to businesses.

Right, but look who IS this Gov made up from: Former(or current) BUSINESS OWNERS! Someone invented silly bands, they made millions of dollars, and now they can pay to campaign for a senate seat. Do you think someone working minimum wage at Target can do that?

Basically, it seems like the Gov is "dictating", when in fact it is not anyone but business owners themselves playing a dirty little game. These business owners running this Gov will maintain minimum wage just so they make their profits that much bigger. They are retarded enough though to not understand the basic fact that if someone's money is tied up in bills, these people will not be supporting the economy...

The gov is not made up from responsible people, people in tune with proper budgeting, or prioritizing things that are FOR the citizens etc...it is a disgusting status quo that's being kept by the very people who refuse to offer benefits, or pay livable wages; These people are so used to living off of 6 figures that they have zero understanding of what it is like NOT to live off of 6 figures.

"Technically" a Gov is there to protect the best interests of a country, and protect its country citizens from being scammed, but when you have PRIVATE BUSINESS OWNERS running the Gov, how could you possibly expect to see changes for the betterment of the life of the average citizen? These people are familiar with how to kill mom and pop shops with Walmart, and don't care one bit who they put out of work. Look at Sweden, also capitalist, but none of this crap happens there...or is this rampant...

[Ericthebean]

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

It won't if the cereal box you bought at $8.25 was $2,50, and now at $13 it's price rose to $4.99!

Maybe the Govt can subsidize the cost of the cereal box so it still costs $2.50 out of pocket and also pay part of the $13 an hour, and instead we just raise income taxes on the weakthiest tax bracket...Govt to redistribute that wealth to consumers and employees who make cereal boxes.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by Ericthebean

Maybe the Govt can subsidize the cost of the cereal box so it still costs $2.50 out of pocket and also pay part of the $13 an hour, and instead we just raise income taxes on the weakthiest tax bracket...Govt to redistribute that wealth to consumers and employees who make cereal boxes.

The Gov is made from those hiking up prices to the various products, so I don't expect that to happen any time soon.