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It's pretty simple for me. I assist my father in law do the payroll for his two pizza stores (franchise). I don't ask for any money. Just offer my assistance using my educational background. About 60 employees full and part time. If you raised the minimum wage by say 5 dollars an hour (that's about an added cost of 4,000 a week if we just took the minimum wage employees) , we would be forced to eliminate at least 15 positions, but probably more for both locations. If we assumed that every employee be it, driver, cook, waiter and so on made wage of say 18 dollars an hour, we would probably be forced to close one of the restaurants, putting 25+ people out of work. Business profits right now are very tight. Why run an operation for no profit?
My father when he first came to this country made 1 dollar an hour and worked 60 hours a week in 1974 (when I was just two years old). He had no education, did not know the language. We were poor....
Republicans are keeping from them? You do know that many employers are Democrats. Companies are not required to keep wages low. I can not find a law that says that anywhere. I also can not for the life of me find any adults that I know that make minimum wage. I can find a lot of teens though that make the minimum wage. You do know that prices increase for all wage groups but incomes do not go up all the time.
Another person who doesn't understand economics. If two companies are competing, they seldom will pay higher wages than needed to stay competitive. This is a common theme in construction industries in Texas. Due to illegal workers, competitor construction companies have to hire illegals to keep labor prices on par.
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Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE
If someone has been working for a while and is still making minimum wage that has nothing to do with a specific party. Also last i checked, the Senate and the Executive Branch are under Democrat rule. As much as the Current President likes to break the Law you would think he would raise the minimum wage on his own.
Democrats all over the country are raising the minimum wage. Republicans want to see it repealed. Don't act like it is equal.
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Originally Posted by JimRom
Your paragraph is the only irony I see. You make it apparent that you don't believe minimum wage workers are capable of learning to do a more skilled job, yet accuse others of not "valuing" minimum wage workers. Who sees more value in them, the ones who want to encourage them to do better or the ones who don't believe that they can?
It isn't my place to motivate everyone in society. If someone is working 40 hours a week I don't care what they do for a living. They can flip burgers, shine shoes, or be a CEO. No person who works 40 hours per week should be in poverty. It is non-debateable.
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Originally Posted by JimRom
You need to ask yourself this question. It's apparent that your ideology trumps any common sense argument that anyone else throws at you.
Can you address something more specific?
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Originally Posted by JimRom
Raising the minimum wage will lift people out of poverty? You actually believe this? Okay, tell us the last time that raising the minimum wage resulted in a long-term reduction in poverty levels. It's been raised 10 times in the last 3 decades or so, and more than 2 dozen since it was enacted. You should be able to point out at least one instance where raising the minimum wage "lifted" people out of poverty for the long term.
The CBO projected it would immediately raise 500,000 people out of poverty.
I never said anything about long-term reduction in poverty. Long-term poverty is a structural problem caused by Republicans gutting unions, outsourcing jobs, and issuing austere fiscal policy.
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Originally Posted by JimRom
Small business employs somewhere between 40% and 55% of United States workers, yet because you are angry at the rich you are willing to throw small business owners under the bus and force them to pay excessive wages to their workers. I suppose you think that the small business owners will be just fine when they are no longer making a profit? Because after all, you've already said "The hell with the employers." What happens when those small business owners find that it's no longer cost effective to keep the doors open and decide that they're better off making the "living wage" flipping burgers for a living?
Small business owners get the short end of the stick in all of this. Most of them vote Republican for who knows what reason. I already explained this in detail; big box companies are making a killing off low minimum wage. They get to keep labor prices low as they shelter profits through corporate loopholes. Meanwhile the small business owner is stuck paying the welfare of the minimum wage workers.
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Originally Posted by JimRom
You want to throw the baby out with the bathwater because you're jealous of people who have succeeded, is what it comes down to.
It's pretty simple for me. I assist my father in law do the payroll for his two pizza stores (franchise). I don't ask for any money. Just offer my assistance using my educational background. About 60 employees full and part time. If you raised the minimum wage by say 5 dollars an hour (that's about an added cost of 4,000 a week if we just took the minimum wage employees) , we would be forced to eliminate at least 15 positions, but probably more for both locations. If we assumed that every employee be it, driver, cook, waiter and so on made wage of say 18 dollars an hour, we would probably be forced to close one of the restaurants, putting 25+ people out of work. Business profits right now are very tight. Why run an operation for no profit?
Large minimum wage hikes aren't implemented in one step. Small minimum wage hikes have no effect on employment.
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Originally Posted by chicagogeorge
My father when he first came to this country made 1 dollar an hour and worked 60 hours a week in 1974 (when I was just two years old). He had no education, did not know the language. We were poor....
Anecdotes are irrelevant.
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Originally Posted by chicagogeorge
Moral of the story, get an education.
Education has nothing to do with minimum wage.
But let's take it there. Suppose everyone gets a college degree. Who will flip burgers?
It's pretty simple for me. I assist my father in law do the payroll for his two pizza stores (franchise). I don't ask for any money. Just offer my assistance using my educational background. About 60 employees full and part time. If you raised the minimum wage by say 5 dollars an hour (that's about an added cost of 4,000 a week if we just took the minimum wage employees) , we would be forced to eliminate at least 15 positions, but probably more for both locations. If we assumed that every employee be it, driver, cook, waiter and so on made wage of say 18 dollars an hour, we would probably be forced to close one of the restaurants, putting 25+ people out of work. Business profits right now are very tight. Why run an operation for no profit?
No reason at all, either sell more pizzas or raise the price of a pizza. Since the minimum wage affect all merchants you'll still be competitive if you did the latter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagogeorge
My father when he first came to this country made 1 dollar an hour and worked 60 hours a week in 1974 (when I was just two years old). He had no education, did not know the language. We were poor....
But let's take it there. Suppose everyone gets a college degree. Who will flip burgers?
Yup. Some people believe that burger flippers should just get education and the problem solved.
Seriously, what would we do with few million lawyers if all burger flippers would pass the bar on Monday?
I have not read the replies, but I suspect many have told you that you are only looking at this from a biased, myopic viewpoint. No where do you account for the business owners cost/ability to earn a decent living(presumably you think they should earn more for having the ambition and shouldering the risk of being self employed).
You do not account for higher costs equating to higher prices, thereby reducing revenue, nor do you account for the reality(whether you like it or not) that more people will lose their jobs since fewer can be hired due to mandated price increases in the form of wages. When the bottom end workers get that much more it means that all costs go up, including supplies the company must buy to stay in business, which you fail to mention. Many small business owners and franchisee owners do not make the type of money you assume they do to be able to pay out huge wage increases.
A Subway franchisee for instance makes very little profit off of a typical sub after expenses. Even when they sell bottled Coke's vs. a fountain drink in a combo meal, that is only an additional 12 cents in profit. Many owners work behind the counter and after hours preparing for the next day. They do that to save on labor costs so they can make a little more money. So taking your $7.62ph figure, he will save an extra $61.00 over 8 hours by doing the work himself. These are hardly amounts that will make him affluent, yet they need to do it to try and get ahead.
There are other things I could mention that you seem to either not be aware of, or have not thought through on the consequences of the action you propose. Sure it might sound good from a low education/skilled persons standpoint, but for every action, there is a reaction, because a wage increase does not occur in a vacuum.
I think what a lot of people are upset about is that there are not enough good paying jobs to go around due to Obama's failed economic policies. Heck when he had control of the entire government for the first two years, did he focus on the economy which was our #1 problem?
No, instead he pushed for and got a totally partisan healthcare bill passed and spent a ton of political capitol in doing so. Not only did that cause the (D's) to lose the House, but it caused our economy to further decline while his and the (D's) focus was elsewhere.
He is the worst president since Carter, and may wind up being even worse by the end of the his term.
The only reason he is not worse at this point is because Carter allowed the Mariel Boat Lift to destroy South Florida and some other cities as well. Then again Obama's proposed illegal alien policies would probably dwarf the number of criminals he would allow to stay in this country if he gets his way.
But I digress.
Bottom line is that those people who either failed to get an education or did not develop marketable skills only have themselves to blame for being minimum wage workers with no chance to better themselves.
It is not societies obligation to raise their standard of living, instead that falls to them. I worked a bunch of low paying jobs, but also went back to school while doing so. I studied on breaks and after work instead of going out and blowing what little money I had. At one point I was working 2 1/2 jobs to make ends meet and pay for the means of me making a better life for myself. Then again I took jobs that afforded me time to study, such as a midnight shift gas attendant, game room bouncer/attendant, wrecker driver, etc.
I lived with roommates to save money, and to keep myself entertained in my spare time, I played sports like basketball & tennis at public parks for free.
If I could do it, so can others, and my story is not unique. Others who have had it harder than me have made it as well. So unless a person is physically or mentally handicapped, there is no excuse to not better oneself.
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If a Subway can not make much money off their products that is the owners/managers fault they should be not be in that job if they do not know how to run a business. Of course it is easier like many people do here to not blame the employee not the employer for a business failing anything to cover your failures. People only have themselves to blame really like everyone has the opportunity to or is smart enough to go to So just because some people who had it hard now that means everyone can that is not logic is it just plain dumb. Just face the facts you and other RW Nuts do not want to admit not everyone can get a higher paying job because that would mean you would have to actually care or help them or you would have to admit you did not do it own your own and that would hurt your ego.
The CBO projected it would immediately raise 500,000 people out of poverty.
The CBO also said that we would lose 500,000 jobs if the min wage was raised to $10.10. Maybe you call that a win or maybe I'm in the minority here, but I would rather have more people working even if that means a lower wage. Let the states decide on min wage. There are far too many variations nationwide for the Federal Gov. to dictate the min wage. In NYC, you aren't living on min wage on your own without 10 roommates, but you can rent a 2/3 bedroom house in KS for $650.
your demands are based upon your needs not your worth. want more money???, increase your worth. your demands are based upon what you think you deserve as a person, but you are low to no skill labor. your employer does not pay you based on your worth as a person he pays you based on your skills, and you dont have any.
go get some.
Let me guess... your husband is also expecting a union pension. I hope you realize that union pensions absolutely depend on corporate profits (union pension systems hold trillions of dollars worth of investments) to be able to pay union retirees their defined pension benefits.
Sorry, my husband actually runs the pension funds so I think he knows more than you do
Sorry, my husband actually runs the pension funds so I think he knows more than you do
maybe so, and i love unions dont get me wrong but pension funds are invested
in corporations and those corporations do need to make a profit so that those stocks will cough up the money that is needed for all those retirees.
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