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In an ideal world, companies would not need someone to step in and say 'You can't pay anyone less than this', but in reality, they would get away with paying what they pay in third world countries. There's already a great disparity between income brackets, do we want to make that worse?
I'm sorry, but that data just doesn't add up. Minimum wage was once half what a middle income was, and now it's under a quarter of it and hasn't increased in at least two years, and you want to tell me there's not a problem?
The problem that has arisen from wages as they are is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer...yet people still say that minimum wage might be too much for some people. I personally think a million plus three million in bonuses plus benefits is too much for someone to make...
Everyone knows about the 'housing bubble' that lead up into the recession, yet it seems you're not thinking about what's keeping us there, low wages, unemployment, and high prices. If people are able to make enough money that they can spend and boost the economy, then the money that their employers had to invest in them is now offset by the money that those workers invest back into the company or that other people who otherwise would not have had to spend now put into it.
What do you think would get someone to spend again? Giving them a few extra dollars an hour, or telling them they're job aint that hard, I think you're worth a couple dollars less than what you used to be mandated as worth.
Have you even investigated who is the person normally working for minimum wage? It's not MOST people who have been working for several years, it's normally the teenager, or college student working part time.
Everything you are complaining about it useless due to that.
Additionally, again, every time you raise the minimum wage, you deflate the wages of everyone already making more, AND you increase the cost of goods and services, hurting every single person making lower wages.
So if we raise minimum wage, more people get dropped from the employment rolls, prices go up, and the economy tanks more.
Go ahead and advocate for no minimum wage if you want. When thousands of people around you suddenly become affected by it and start rioting and either you get killed or injured in the insuing unrest, your home gets burned down, you home is pillaged by scavangers trying to collect just to survive, then don't be angry. This probably sound ludacris to you...I'm sure it does. It always seems difficult for the human brain to contemplate it until it actually happens.
Sorry, I lost my morals at test depth, If there's a riot, and it threatens my family, rioters will die, because I will shoot without hesitation.
Have you even investigated who is the person normally working for minimum wage? It's not MOST people who have been working for several years, it's normally the teenager, or college student
Half of all minimum wage workers are at least 25 years old. That's not normally teenagers or college students.
Welcome to Two Americas, where minimum wage isn't just for teens anymore.
Housing and zoning codes artificially increase the cost of housing and increase homelessness. Where's the outrage?
Teens don't qualify for unemployment insurance. How is "teenage unemployment" measured, anyway? It's not as if they go to a government office and sign up for something.
Should adults who need to eat and pay rent be laid off first? Minimum wage jobs have high turnover so it should be easy to quicky get another job. It's not as if laid off teens are going to starve and become homeless.
Teenage unemployment is a figure that I have NO IDEA how the Federal Department of Labor has calculated, but the bottom line that they have, and I am sure they have methods of doing so, possibly by looking at how many teens in school of working age, vs previous numbers vs percentage working previous vs working now.
Bottom line, it's calculated by those who have data you and I don't.
Have you even investigated who is the person normally working for minimum wage? It's not MOST people who have been working for several years, it's normally the teenager, or college student working part time. .
And a huge number of minimum wage people also earn tips. Many also are part time.
There are very few adults working full time who only make minimum wage.
But regardless, there should be no minimum wage. Government should not tell businesses what to pay their employees.
As a business owner I pay more than minimum wage because my employees are skilled and educated. However, I resent the fact that Uncle Sam places a minimum for new hires if I want to hire teens or those that don't have as much experience or education. I understand the premise of minimum wage and the thought process behind it (to give workers a livable wage) but frankly this is America. You can better yourself through more education or learn a trade and make much more than minimum wage. The people that get caught in the gap are the ones that I feel for (i.e. older workers that have been downsized out and now with the current economy are too proud to not work and go to work in minimum wage jobs).
Half of all minimum wage workers are at least 25 years old. That's not normally teenagers or college students.
Welcome to Two Americas, where minimum wage isn't just for teens anymore.
Housing and zoning codes artificially increase the cost of housing and increase homelessness. Where's the outrage?
Wow, half of all min wage workers are over 25.
Now, here's the hard part for you, How many people make minimum wage, divide that by 2, and then apply to the number of people over the age of 25 who are working, to ascertain the percentage of people making min wage for that age group
if there are 7.5 million teens and 750K make min wage, that's 10% of all teens. If there are 100 million over the age of 25 and 750K make min wage, that's .75% of the adults.
See, percentages are strange things, so half of the people making minimum wage under 25 is a larger percentage of people than half of the minimum wage people applied to the number of workers OVER 25.
So again, your numbers are meaningless. Now if the number of people OVER 25 was equal to the number of people under 25 able to work, was equal, then your complaints would have merit.
It seems most people's here 'miracle solution' to minimum wage is those who seek better pay should look for a better job and/or should go for more education.
Well, I implore those same people now to tell me how do you seek better pay when everything within that 'field' is at the same level. It applies to people looking not just within a fast food industry, but retail, factory workers, drivers, even some positions in health care...there are plenty of people there making at or around minimum wage. So if say you 'kick the floor out from under them' with no minimum wage law, then where do they go to? Another job that pays more, right? Well see, when every other job that they fit the qualifications for is now reduced down to that same average amount (lets say on the 'free market', the local agreement is roughly $3 an hour) now these people are forced to either take the severly reduced wage, or move, which they most likely don't want to do, or even if they do, how can they expect to do that if they didn't have the money to before, and now they have even less money?
Now, on about education. How do you propose someone pay for four or even two years of school? Not everyone can spend mom and dad's money, but hey, let's go beyond that one because I realize plenty of people payed it off themselves. Ok, let's also assume that out of the 1 out of 10 on average who apply and actually get grants/scholarships, you get enough to pay off about 15% of the cost, where do you pay for the rest of it? Well loans of course, right? You go through school, you have a little bit already paid off, and help yourself out a bit more by voluntering for the school, though you have less if any time for your job...unless you're spacing your class load out even longer... So then finally you graduated after about four years (I'm not going through the technical course, because a two year degree in all but a couple of programs wont earn you much more than minimum wage), you've been seeking a job and fortunately, you got an internship your junior year. You get paid about 600-700$ a week, but when you get the first bill for your college loan, that you owe monthly, is 1500$...over 30 years (this is also assuming you go to a public four year school where tuition is actually below average, along with those scholarships). You also have to pay $340 a month in rent, though this is assuming you roommate in a relatively low cost apartment. This basically leaves you with a little less than 1,000$ a month to pay for food, utilities, gas and/or car maintanice (if that applies), any insurance, and anything else...
...and that all assumes a very good cause scenario where you went to a relatively cheap school, got scholarship money, got a job halfway through, got a cheap apartment and roommate, and got a pretty reasonable loan...
So just imagine the crisis that you could face, and a lot of college graduates are already facing as they get out of school, can't find jobs, and then suddenly end up tens of thousands of dollars in debt by not being able to pay of the loans and have a hard time getting approved for anything...
...and then they will even up working at a minimum wage job
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