Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Washington State and the City of San Francisco have raised the minimum wage up to nearly $10 an hour. What impact has this had on the amount of working poor? Would raising the minimum wage up to $12 eliminate many of the working poor? Would it save the government money because less people would be eligible for food stamps and earned income tax credits?
Rotflmao, People don't realize when you raise the min wage, you raise the cost of living for everyone!!
Washington State, one of the more expensive places to live in the northwest is currently 3% above the national average in overall cost of living.
Hmm, I wonder why?
And San Francisco, is one of the most expensive cities in the nation to live in..
Keep driving that minimum wage up, all you do is make the poor, poorer.
C'mon man!
That's just pathetic.
You really think like that?
It is pathetic. I want to see the poor with the opportunity to make a better life for themselves. Making them more dependent on government doesn't help them. When will these Obamaites learn?
They want to live off the backs of others. They are lazy freeloaders. Period. I wouldn't hire that idiot to sweep the floor!
If your working for minimum wage your not trying. Raising it only increases unemployment rates for teens especially black males as this article points out.
"According to new numbers from the Labor Department, in 2008 only 1.1% of Americans who work 40 hours a week or more even earned the minimum wage. In other words, 98.9% of 40-hour-a-week workers earn more than the minimum. The data also show that teenagers are five times more likely to earn the minimum wage than adults. Minimum wage jobs are nearly all first-time or part-time jobs, and an estimated two of every three minimum wage workers get a pay raise within a year on the job."
Your only "helping" 1% of the work force or so many claim but in reality pricing out many youth or those who want part time jobs.
It just raises the cost of living. Anyone who has studied economics knows raising the minimum wage has an adverse affect on job growth and inflation.
I'll use you as my example, but a solid half of the responses here so far have been, "we'll lose jobs."
Modern research disagrees. Sure, you can dig up old articles from the 1980's and earlier, which might support you. The last twenty plus years of research into the effects of minimum wage laws have been overwhelmingly positive. There is increased teenage unemployment--not neccessarily because they are being fired, but rather, because they don't need to work. Our children and teens have pushed back everything several years: marriage, kids, careers, moving out, major purchases, etc, but we still work them as early as possible.
The minimum wage law is supposed to ensure that people working can live off the wages they make--honest work deserves honest pay. We've lost that in the past thirty years due to skyrocketing executive pay, and plateaued worker pay.
98.9% of workers earn more than the minimum wage. How is raising it going to do much if anything at all other than make jobs more scarce for first time or part time workers who make min wage?
98.9% of workers earn more than the minimum wage. How is raising it going to do much if anything at all other than make jobs more scarce for first time or part time workers who make min wage?
The article I posted was going off '08 numbers from the same BLS.
This is of note from your link..........
"The industry with the highest proportion of workers with hourly wages at or below the Federal minimum wage was leisure and hospitality (23 percent). Nearly one-half of all workers paid at or below the Federal minimum wage were employed in this industry, primarily in restaurants and other food services. For many of these workers, tips and commissions supplement the hourly wages received."
So in essence these folks now make more than the min wage when the tips are added in.
Washington State and the City of San Francisco have raised the minimum wage up to nearly $10 an hour. What impact has this had on the amount of working poor? Would raising the minimum wage up to $12 eliminate many of the working poor? Would it save the government money because less people would be eligible for food stamps and earned income tax credits?
I lived and went to college in SF. The cost of living in SF is very, very high. Mass transit is very efficient there as well. It's like living in a bubble, people that live there generally rarely leave the city for anything so, wages need to be higher.......and they always were. I think that's why a $12/HR minimum wage works there...you do that to some place like in the middle of Kansas and you'll see problems.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
