Raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and poof no more working poor! (unemployment rate, ethic)

[Workaholic?]

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?

[ReturningWest]

It depends on the COL. And again, there are still 5 people for every one job.

[LauraC]

Raise the minimum wage to $12 and poof, even less jobs. To force job creators to pay that wage means they will have to let some people go. And the people they will let go, will be from the same two groups suffering the most from current unemployment numbers: Adults without a high school diploma and young people age 16 - 19 years old.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Unemployment Rates Based on Educational Attainment - Age 25 and Older :

Less than a high school diploma: 13.8 percent
High School diploma: 8.7 percent
Some College or Associates degree: 7.7 percent
Bachelor's degree and higher: 4.1 percent

By Race, Sex and Age:

Both white sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 20.3 percent
Both black sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 42.1 percent
Both hispanic/latino sexes, 16 - 19 years old: 26.3 percent

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by ReturningWest

It depends on the COL. And again, there are still 5 people for every one job.

Yeah, that.

Do you guys have any idea how much it costs to live in San Francisco? I lived there for 4 years making nearly triple of the minimum wage - living in a reasonably-priced house in an iffy neighborhood with 2 roommates, and fairly low monthly expenses. And I was barely scraping by every month! The recent increase is a move in the right direction, but $10/hr is still basically poverty around here.

[chielgirl]

The OP seems to want people to die.
This is the second thread he's started today wanting to abolish food stamps and help for the poor.

[gizmo980]

Originally Posted by chielgirl

The OP seems to want people to die.
This is the second thread he's started today wanting to abolish food stamps and help for the poor.

I guess he thinks everyone should be a workaholic! LOL

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by Workaholic?

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?

Raising the minimum wage to almost $10 an hour means that a person earning minimum wage in Washington State and San Francisco will have the same purchasing power as a person on minimum wage in 1968. We went for a decade (1997 - 2007) without any increase in the minimum wage, yet when the minimum wage had its greatest purchasing power (1968) we had low unemployment and fewer people (as a percentage of the population) on food stamps and among the working poor.

Let Justice Roll, a national faith, community, labor and business coalition, which I advise, is calling for a minimum wage of $10 in 2010.

$10 in 2010 will bring the minimum wage closer to the value it had in 1968, a year when the unemployment rate was a low 3.6 percent.

McClatchy-Tribune News Op-Ed: Holly Sklar, Minimum wage raise too little, too late | Business For a Fair Minimum Wage

[Little-Acorn]

Raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour and poof no more working poor!


That's right. You get unemployed poor instead.

GREAT plan.

[EdwardA]

You'd just get wage inflation and they'd be right back to where they were in a year so.

[malamute]

They keep raising minimum wage --- yet the food stamp program just grows and grows.

They would simply widen eligibility rules so that workers making $14 an hour would get food stamps. Too many people now think food stamps are some right, too many people believe in cradle to grave socialism and have lost any kind of work ethic.