$15 wage protests (George: neighborhood, college, income)

[Cubey]

Originally Posted by victorianpunk

A living wage in Seattle for a single adult is $9.64 an hour at forty hours a week. The minimum wage in Washington state is $9.19 an hour. Why go up almost seven dollars to close a 45 cent gap?

Source:Living Wage Calculator - Living Wage Calculation for Seattle city, King County, Washington

That's around $1500 a month before taxes. Based on what I see in rent in Seattle, that's not a living wage unless you live in an RV park or in public housing which heavily subsidizes the rent you pay. It's not a living wage if you have to rely on welfare.

[Wilson502]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Have you ever lived in California?

Lived there for the last 28 years and was raised there. Just left in June. Dont see any reason to go back except to visit family and friends. Truth be told, its the most overrated place ever, and i equate it to a giant sinking ship.

[Hemlock140]

I think the minimum wage for San Francisco and much of the eastbay would have to be more than $15 to be liveable, but doubt that would happen. Here I think $10 is more realistic, considering the lower cost of living and no state income tax.
Our WA state minimum wage law will have it at $10 soon enough, it's going to $9.32 in less than a month.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I think the minimum wage for San Francisco and much of the eastbay would have to be more than $15 to be liveable, but doubt that would happen. Here I think $10 is more realistic, considering the lower cost of living and no state income tax.
Our WA state minimum wage law will have it at $10 soon enough, it's going to $9.32 in less than a month.

I think anyone with a family would need to earn 6 figures in San Francisco. If I were to go on the Bay Area forum and say a family of 3 wants to move to San Francisco on 99K/YR, is it doable? I know what the responses would be lol.

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by Cubey

That's around $1500 a month before taxes. Based on what I see in rent in Seattle, that's not a living wage unless you live in an RV park or in public housing which heavily subsidizes the rent you pay. It's not a living wage if you have to rely on welfare.

How do you intend to get around something as predictable as gravity; supply and demand? Let me put it this way. If I gave every fast food worker in Seattle a monthly stipend equal to the average rent in Seattle it would only cover the rent for a short while. Supply and demand would rear its ugly head and rents would increase and those people receiving the monthly stipend would return to being on the outside looking in. So I guess your movement would then move to rent controls...

I don't know if I accept the argument that every job in America must be "career worthy" and provide a livable wage. Maybe, but I have a hard time accepting that. Is your goal $15 an hour or is it to make a livable wage? Right off the bat one should see a flaw in the $15 argument if the goal is a livable wage. There should be no flat $15 across the country because each area can have drastically different costs of living. A livable wage in Cape Coral FL will be much different than a livable wage in Seattle. Where is the "index" and an adjustable wage scale that takes into consideration cost of living? Livable wage is full of gotchas. Do you take into account the size of the family, number of dependents? What if I have 6 kids and decide to make flipping burgers my career. It's all I want to do in life. Are you going to stand by my side and tell me I should make $30 and hour? Are you going to tell me I've made a poor career choice? If so, how is that any different than how many of us feel about anyone who makes a career out of burger flipping? I kinda see why Germany does it the way they do now.

To me the greater tragedy in America is the ever-increasing use of part-time workers. It's been happening for some time now. I know several people in the service sector and know they can't wait to be picked up full-time. It seems as if more and more workers are part-time nowadays.

[Cubey]

Fast workers are important to modern American society seeing has now most industry has been killed. Service and consumption is all that's left. Millions of people have no problem making the fast food workers do things for them but apparently preparing and handling your food isn't worth enough money to live on. Go figure!!

It's much like "teachers are paid too much!!". Bull!!

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by Cubey

Fast workers are important to modern American society seeing has now most industry has been killed. Service and consumption is all that's left. Millions of people have no problem making the fast food workers do things for them but apparently preparing and handling your food isn't worth enough money to live on. Go figure!!

It's much like "teachers are paid too much!!". Bull!!

Fast food is as important to our society as cigarettes, and probably kills as many people. But I digress....

Service and consumption is not all that is left. It's become a big part but it isn't everything. Do you even realize how royally screwed we will be as a nation if it really does become all that is left?

The far left and far right are nothing but cults. All they do is throw out catchy and ominous sounding soundbites. "Millions of people have no problem making the fast food workers do things for them but apparently preparing and handling your food isn't worth enough money to live on" Well there you have it. It's that simple. The world is more complex than a soundbite.

[Wilson502]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

Fast food is as important to our society as cigarettes, and probably kills as many people. But I digress....

Service and consumption is not all that is left. It's become a big part but it isn't everything. Do you even realize how royally screwed we will be as a nation if it really does become all that is left?

The far left and far right are nothing but cults. All they do is throw out catchy and ominous sounding soundbites. The world is more complex than a soundbite.

Ya and unfortunately the sheeple flock to those ideologies and soundbites and don't bother to investigate anything. What amazes me is considering how well educated this area is, people blindly vote for anyone it seems with a D in their name (this also applies to the other side), but dont seem to realize that those politicians don't give a rats ass about you or the people they supposedly represent.

[beenhereandthere]

Did anyone point out that if the employer negotiates, probably through a Union, a wage that they can agree on that the 15 dollar an hour mandate can be bypassed?

[CarawayDJ]

Originally Posted by Wilson502

Ya and unfortunately the sheeple flock to those ideologies and soundbites and don't bother to investigate anything.

That is going to be what kills our nation. With every passing year we have more and more voters who think in soundbites. They believe everything is really as simple as a soundbite so they vote for politicians promising solutions so simple they can be explained in a soundbite. Our country, our economy, the global economy, social policy, and how everything interacts is freakishly complex. That complexity is why you have can have many of the brightest scholars in the world disagreeing with each other on the best way to grow the economy, provide social justice, opportunity, etc. And then you have partisan ideology being thrown in there to make it even more difficult to sort through things.

Most soundbites are analogous to this: The sun is hot, just cool it down.