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If you raise minimum wage to $9/hr, what happens to the folks already making $9/hr? Pretty soon, everyone is demanding a raise. We've had stagnant wages and low inflation. Rising wages do no good when it jump starts inflation. Times are tough, but a hike in minimum wage will do nothing to fix the structural issues that are plaguing this nation. Politicians who believe a minimum wage hike will fix what ails us are oblivious to the weakness in the U.S's economic foundation.
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Originally Posted by wutitiz
At a lower level, say $15/hr, the effect is still there; it's just reduced. Now McDonalds might marginally increase automation in order to reduce the number of staff needed. And they might hire and keep only the fasted, most productive, most reliable employees. The teenagers who call in sick at the drop of a hat, or the older person who is physically no longer as fast, will find it much harder to get a job. So the effect is still there, it's just not as blatantly obvious.
McDonalds is already heavily automated. Drinks that automatically fill after pushing the button, burgers that cook on both sides in 30 seconds... "Automation" is nothing more than an overused threat spouted by white collar management staff who do not understand it, how it is utilized, where to apply it, etc.
Having said that, to pay McDonald's workers $15/hr, somebody has to pay the difference. Franchise owners are already complaining about the low profit margins. They're also being forced to constantly renovate and pour money into their operations. Guess whose going to be paying for that wage hike??? Yup, the customer, and they won't be happy about it. Some may even decide to curtail their consumption of fast food. Let me fetch my violin...
If the minimum wage is raised to even $10 an hour than that means pay a competitive wage, I will have to give pay my current receptionist at least $16.22 an hour ....
If the economy is strong enough that is actually true, Obama is quite literally the best economic leader in the history of the world.
If the economy is strong enough that is actually true, Obama is quite literally the best economic leader in the history of the world.
What happens when the $10/hr worker has the buying power of the former $8/hr worker of the previous year?
Obama has been of no benefit to the economy. The stock market is going crazy simply because corporations can't find a better use for their cash besides buying back their own stock. There isn't much opportunity to make money in the traditional market, so they pour it all into the financial market. Meanwhile, corps lay people off to keep the balance sheet positive. Raising minimum wage won't do much to improve this, especially when things simultaneously become more expensive.
We are dealing with structural issues here. Obama wants to apply the equivalent of a band aid on a mortal flesh wound.
What happens when the $10/hr worker has the buying power of the former $8/hr worker of the previous year?
Obama has been of no benefit to the economy. The stock market is going crazy simply because corporations can't find a better use for their cash besides buying back their own stock. There isn't much opportunity to make money in the traditional market, so they pour it all into the financial market. Meanwhile, corps lay people off to keep the balance sheet positive. Raising minimum wage won't do much to improve this, especially when things simultaneously become more expensive.
We are dealing with structural issues here. Obama wants to apply the equivalent of a band aid on a mortal flesh wound.
People are either going to pay for accountants or they are not, how much they make is not going to be the deciding factor, but cost to benefit is the deciding factor. Places that hire people to stand on the corner in costumes may be able to raise their prices considerably, but the rest of us are not going to see the big jump, as most of our clients are small businesses and self employed people. You know people who will be hurt considerably having to pay a large increase in wages due to a jump in minimum wages, and are always looking to cut costs as much as possible.
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Originally Posted by Moby Hick
That clearly implies she would somehow automatically find another job at $16/hour or become stupid.
Sure if she can find a job, if not maybe Walmart can hire her to stock shelves as not many accountants will be needing her services.
Well why stop there then if here are no negative effects? Why not make the min wage $100k a year? Then everyone would be rich and live in a perfect little world. While were at it, why don't we get ride of immigration laws and allow everyone from poor countries over here and no one in the world would ever be poor anymore, after all, they would get to make $100k a year also by just working at mcdonalds. Anyone catching on yet? The liberal utopia doesn't exist and isn't possible. The first thing you learn in economics 101 is a rise in the minimum wage increases unemployment until the cost of living rises up, which eventually negated the wage hike. And there are no liberal or conservative economic facts. This has been PROVEN to be true. Get an education people!
If you raise minimum wage to $9/hr, what happens to the folks already making $9/hr? Pretty soon, everyone is demanding a raise. We've had stagnant wages and low inflation. Rising wages do no good when it jump starts inflation. Times are tough, but a hike in minimum wage will do nothing to fix the structural issues that are plaguing this nation. Politicians who believe a minimum wage hike will fix what ails us are oblivious to the weakness in the U.S's economic foundation.
What do you mean 'if'? It has already happened in WA state. This state has not economically imploded from the measly $2 an hour more people get at the bottom.
If you don't pay your workers anything, how can they afford to buy anything?
Raising minimum wage will not have the dramatic negative effects that some posters propose. You have to take wages in proportion to overall revenues.
Some years ago I was a manager at a big box retail store, with the vast majority of my employees making minimum wage, or just slightly more. But wages, including my much higher managerial salary, only comprised about 7.5% of sales. If you took out all managerial salaries, the min wage employees were only paid about 3.75% of sales.
I will guarantee that if minimum wage was increased, my 6 figure salary would not have budged by one dime. My department managers, who all earned $35k-$55k would also not have seen any increase.
This means that any increase to min wage would only effect 3.75% of my overall expenses. Let's say minimum wage increased by 25%, which is much higher than almost anybody proposes. That would increase the wages for that portion of my staff from 3.75% of sales all the way to 4.7% of gross sales. My location generated 9% profit, so could have completely absorbed an increase of this magnitude and still turned an 8% profit.
So, a minimum wage increase would give the lowest paid workers a much needed increase in purchasing power, which would in turn be spent and stimulate the economy. It would reduce their reliance on EITC, easing the burden on taxpayers. And, the company would still turn a reasonable profit.
Even if the company decided it needed to keep a 9% profit, that means that prices would need to increase less than 1%.
What do you mean 'if'? It has already happened in WA state. This state has not economically imploded from the measly $2 an hour more people get at the bottom.
If you don't pay your workers anything, how can they afford to buy anything?
It makes it harder for people trying to get their first job to get hired. It also increases the unemployment for those workers. This is an economic fact. Just because you can't see it from your couch doesn't mean it's not happening. Would you really notice one or two less workers at mcdonalds? Would you really notice a difference in the unemployment rate of a few percentage points of low wages workers from your couch?
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