Should the minimum wage be increased? (Kennedy, wisdom, revolution, paycheck)
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.
Minimum wage increase hurts the business owner. People who work for minimun wage are students, people who are retired. You should not be depending on a minimum wage job to support a family. So what difference does it make for the student if he is making 5 or 7 dollors an hour???
IF there are no other jobs, you take what you can get.
Many of the people working in the service industry (hotels, restaurants, bars) which has it's own minimums, far less then the national amount (thanks to politician deals with lobbyists from the restaurant association). The last time I checked tipped employees cay be paid as low as $2.65 per hour in Michigan and as low as $2.15 in other states.
Those under 18, (in any other area of work) in Michigan , can be paid at 85% the state minimum. Of course new employees (in any business) can be paid a whole 4.25 per hour while being "trained" for the first 90 days. (Wonder why many places have new people every 90 days)
The people who sweep floors should at least be paid enough to eat. Wouldn't it be nice if all company owners had the common sense to do this? If they did, we wouldn't need minimum wage laws. Unfortunately, there are some company owners that really would pay workers $2 an hour if they could.
It doesn't have to be anywhere near $20 an hour, but it shouldn't be $2 an hour either.
It's pure greed to not pay someone enough to eat.
And it is pure greed for someone to not learn a skill or have a talent so they can EARN enough to buy food.
It is pure stealing to demand more pay then you are worth and take it from the business so they cannot grow and hire more people.
Were you never told that when you become an adult you will have to provide for yourself and your family? If a 35 year old is working for minimum wage then that 35 year old has been a laze bag and not willing to have taken the time to learn a trade or a skill.
Not true. The constitution allows the congress and president to set minimum wage laws. If someone doesn't like them, they can sue and it will be up to the courts to decide. So far no court has struck down the minimum wage and I don't see it happening any time soon.
And it is pure greed for someone to not learn a skill or have a talent so they can EARN enough to buy food.
It is pure stealing to demand more pay then you are worth and take it from the business so they cannot grow and hire more people.
Were you never told that when you become an adult you will have to provide for yourself and your family? If a 35 year old is working for minimum wage then that 35 year old has been a laze bag and not willing to have taken the time to learn a trade or a skill.
I disagree. Let me explain. A business is set up to produce something. Let's take a widget.
They hire people, get materials, equipment, and put it all in a building. They compute:
Wages used to produce:
Building costs:
Utilities:
Equipment:
Materials used:
Add that up and it's the cost of producing a widget. Now, they add on 30% markup and put it on the shelves for sale.
Wait a minute, the cost of labor was already in the cost of producing the widget. Who get's that 30%? I'm robbing the company because I want minimum wage?
When I set my business up, I cut myself a paycheck just like the people I hired. The 30% went in the bank to buy new equipment and provide for growth. At the end of the year, what was in the bank was divided among the workers. It's called profit sharing and it works like a champ. I made money, so did everybody else. As long as I had my business, I never once had an employee ask for a raise. I never once had a person quit. At that time minimum wage was $4. something. I started my people at $10 an hour, including the secretary and the guy that swept up the shop.
There is NO reason for any business to pay minimum wage. If a person cannot function to that level, don't hire them. If you, as the owner, are paying minimum wage, you are stealing from the workers, not them stealing from you.
I was wondering what everyone's opinions are on a minimum wage increase?
I think its ironic that people have objections to the increase from 5.15 to 7.25
an hour at the federal level, many states have already raised the minumum wage to about that level.
According to the CBO in the next 5 years the minimum wage increase would cost 16.5 billion dollars from private sector employers.
I personally think that government should cover half the cost of the 16.5 billion dollar in wage hikes do to the minimum wage increase. That way the small locally owned retail and service companies wouldnt need to lay people off if this passes or cut hours.
I think a good idea would be for the goverment to cover the increase in minimum wage in economically depressed counties with unemployment rates above say 6% or in areas with poverty rates above 15%. That way the employer would still only have to pay 5.15 and the government could pay the 2.10.
While minimum wage hikes are good alot of small and medium sized retail and food servicecompanies in economically depressed areas could need to lay people off if this increase passes, so thus I dont see why the government doesnt cover the minimum wage increase for these companies.
I think the government is the problem and should stay out,government only makes thing worse then they are!!! an increase in the minimum wage is not going to cost the private sector employers anything, they will simply pass down the cost to the consumer, and the government will want to collect more taxes to cover their share, ridiculous why dont we just ask china to teach us how to be good communist!!!
And it is pure greed for someone to not learn a skill or have a talent so they can EARN enough to buy food.
It is pure stealing to demand more pay then you are worth and take it from the business so they cannot grow and hire more people.
Were you never told that when you become an adult you will have to provide for yourself and your family? If a 35 year old is working for minimum wage then that 35 year old has been a laze bag and not willing to have taken the time to learn a trade or a skill.
You are just showing that all you care about is yourself and how your buiness can benefit yourself without regard for anyone else. I am sure people in Africa who are starving love your idea how they are not worth enough to eat while people are starving to death there all the time. But I guess it is there fault they should have learned a skill so they would not die.
And it is pure greed for someone to not learn a skill or have a talent so they can EARN enough to buy food.
With 20% unemployment the macro picture means that some good hard workers are working minimum wage because that is all that they can get. No amount of self improvement will turn 20% unemployment into 2% unemployment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90
It is pure stealing to demand more pay then you are worth and take it from the business so they cannot grow and hire more people.
We have a macro economic pitcture that would be fixed by having the minimum wage go up by 4X. We have deflation pushed by the falling prices of houses. With a lot of printing of money going on we have consumer price inflation. M3 is contracting. With it contracting we have economic contraction. With a higher minimum wage we would have M3 expanding because of increased demand for houses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90
Were you never told that when you become an adult you will have to provide for yourself and your family? If a 35 year old is working for minimum wage then that 35 year old has been a laze bag and not willing to have taken the time to learn a trade or a skill.
The economy in the state that it is means that we are seeing people that are worth well more than minimum wage working for it.
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.