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Welp if you know the economy sucks and a degree won't guarantee you a well-paying job, then don't on to get a four-year degree. Go work construction or manufacturing or salesw where you can make $15-25 an hour, or much more, and no student loans (or burdening your parents with college debt.)
Magical thinking is immature and won't get you anywhere. People who launch into a six-figure education KNOWING this is not a "healthy and growing economy" have no right to whine and snivel about not making $25 an hour.
$25 an hour is perfectly acceptable for a new college grad. Not for a fast food worker.
Construction has been in decline for years, as well as manufacturing, remember the 2008 recession? Not the best sectors to find work.
Why do you automatically assume parents are responsible for college debt? Many students take on that debt themselves.
People have every right to be concerned about the economy. A healthy economy benefits everyone. Obviously the growth rate can change over the four years someone is in college. Crystal ball anyone?
No, I don't agree or understand your logic. If wages go up inflation will go up but it will not double like you said. Because wages are only a part of business expense. If the minimum wage goes up the people benefiting from it will see an increase in their cost of living, sure, but also a higher standard of living because costs will not go up as much as the increased wage.
People say the fast food worker should move onto something better. Maybe they should, but an ever increasing number of jobs in America are like this and someone is going to do it. Either increase their wages or us taxpayers are going to support these people in welfare, section 8, low cost lunches, food stamps, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago87
I disagree with the $15 per hour minimum wage. As previously stated by many posters, there are many entry level jobs for college graduates that require actual skills, but only pay around $15 an hour.
A raise in minimum wage will also cause inflation. $15 an hour will have the same buying power as $7.25 once the economic dust settle. The economy is driven by supply and demand.
Currently a college graduate working an office job at $15 per hour has over twice the buying power of a non-skilled minimum wage worker. If the min gets raised to $15, the college graduate will have the same buying power as a non-skilled minimum wage worker!
A higher minimum wage reduces everyone else's buying power!
The minimum wage is the base! For example:
Min wage = $7.25 = lowest buying power = minimum buying power.
New college graduate earns $15 = 2.07 times more buying power than min wage.
Experienced college graduate earns $25 = 3.45 times more buying power than min wage.
Now this is what will happen if it gets raised to $15.
Min wage = $15 = lowest buying power = STILL ONLY minimum buying power!
New college graduate earns $15 = SAME buying power as min wage!
Experienced college graduate earns $25 = ONLY 1.67 times more buying power than min wage! This means if you are currently earning $25 per hour and the minimum wage gets raised to $15 per hour, your buying power will be reduced to the same as $12 per hour before the minimum wage increase!
Less buying power with the same amount of money EQUALS INFLATION! IT MEANS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BUY LESS THEREFORE HAVE A LOWER STANDARD OF LIVING!
If the minimum wage doubles, you will need to DOUBLE your current salary just to have the same buying power! Do you think there is any chance your employer will double your salary just to keep up with the inflation an minimum wage increase will cause?!
Did you notice that the minimum wage earners STILL only have MINIMUM buying power?! Raising the minimum wage just causes inflation and not only doesn't help anyone, but it harms the people that currently earn more!
McDonald's used to be a place for high school kids to make a few bucks while still in school or retiree's to make a few bucks because they were bored sitting around. The one's that truly tried making a "career" of it were working their way up the ladder to upper management.
Now-a-days it's a "career" for those who are lowest on the totem poles and seem to have no desire to try and "move up" or better themselves. I'm really not trying to bash these employees but it's frustrating to see and hear them act like a bunch of babies. Ask the next 100 people you see if they think they get paid enough and I bet you 99 of them will tell you they don't get paid enough.
Fact of the matter is... these people are crazy to demand that their salaries be DOUBLED. I do agree that the minimum wage is definitely low... I think it's more realistic to go to $10. Truth is though, McDonalds can fire every single one of these people and bring in a whole new staff within days if they wanted. Then these people will REALLY have problems.
-businesses either raise prices or fire workers
-prices go up, business goes down
-we'll be paying $10 for a Big Mac
-who is going to pay that?
-business goes down, business closes, everyone is unemployed
-enough businesses go under and the unemployed can't afford things
-local support businesses where those workers went to buy groceries, gas, etc. suffer
-they suffer and go out of business
Company stays in business by making money, buying low and selling high.
For those of you who say they should be paid $15+ an hour, why don't you set an example and pay some of your $ out of pocket first to them?
You're here telling people what to think instead of how to think...
$15 bucks an hour is probably not achievable. $12.50 is, however. $7.25 an hour is actually less money than low-level workers were paid in the '70's (when you do all the CoL figuring and buying-power calculations). Yes, those jobs are supposed to be stepping-stones to a better life down the road, but all too often in today's economy they are the only jobs available. I'm not going to fault someone or look down on them because they are at least working, even if it's not the world's best job. I want them to be able to do it well, do it while healthy (thanks ACA!) and to feel like they are contributing to society...because they are.
Right now, we taxpayers subsidize companies that pay their workers the minimum wage -- Wal-mart costs every community they enter about $600,000 a year in subsidies, whether thru food-stamps or other programs. If Wal-mart had to pay $12.00 an hour or more, the communities would no longer have that drain. And Wal-mart has found lately that cutting workers and worker-hours has back-fired by making their stores less inviting places to shop (I know...I didn't think that was possible either).
And if Fast Food and Wal-mart aren't paths to a better life, why are they always running ads talking about how they 'promote from within'?
I agree with most of you. My favorite was the woman with 5 kids asking "How am I supposed to feed my family?".
You're not supposed to on a McDonalds job. Sorry. Get into management or find something else to do.
Maybe you should have thought about it BEFORE you had 5 kids?
I worked minimum wage at many fast food joints when I was a young kid. Some of these folks saying it's hard work... trust me it's not. It can be a hectic and busy job, and it can tire you out if you work at a real busy place, but HARD? No. It's not.
A fast food manager should easily be able to calculate this. Let's say a store currently spends 80 man hours per day and the wage averages $10. Payroll is $800/day. If minimum wage goes to $15 we'll assume it costs the restaurant $18 per hour. Now payroll is $1440/day. They can probably cut some of the less productive employees and operate with 60 man hours per day, so now they got payroll down to $1080/day. Do you know of any fast food restaurants that employee people with disabilities? They will have to let them go. While those individuals don't care about pay and only want to feel productive, the restaurant won't be able to afford to pay them minimum wage.
So, back to costs. Now with employee cuts, the restaurant only needs to cover about $300/day. Let's say that they sell 1,000 meals/day. They only have to raise the costs by .30 cents per meal. Since service will be slightly slower and some people might boycott the slight price increase, let's assume that sales will drop slightly and they'll have to increase costs by .40 cents. Not a big increase in cost for me, and since I make my own lunches I'm swiss.
I may actually be better off. The high school kid that I saw working last weekend that walked out of the bathroom stall and didn't wash his hands probably won't be working there. Of course, a lot of other people won't be working that needed the money. Some of those workers will now be sitting at home wishing they could go back to their old life. All things considered, it shouldn't affect me much so I'll stay out of it.
Certified nursing assistants/nurses aides spend $1000-2000 in training, plus (depending on the state) annual charges for state certification. They usually have to pay for their own scrubs. And they do incredibly difficult, and sometimes incredibly distasteful, work, and the good ones do it with grace and compassion, and they work all shifts. They are bottom feeders in hospitals and nursing homes, but they are the ones getting paid to bathe, toilet, feed and care for everyone's loved ones.
And they make $8-12 (if they are lucky) an hour. No, I'm not a CNA, I am just familiar with the job.
If fast food workers get a raise, then it will be criminal if CNAs and other low-paid but essential workers don't get a commensurate raise.
And if fast food workers get a raise, then expect prices for everything to jump!
Excellent post ! A friend of mine is a CNA. She would work hard at anything she put her mind to do. She left a new nursing home job recently because a minority group of individuals made life very hard for her, didn't do their job at all and then laughed at her in their not English language. She took a private patient to get away from that kind of work ethic and is making about $11 an hour. She likes the patient and is giving her extra time at no charge. She raised two kids on practically minimum wage jobs but she could squeeze a dime until it yelled uncle. Both of the kids are in college now and doing very well. She cobbled together all kinds of ways to keep them there. She is amazing but, I know other people who have made the most out of what they had.
$15 maybe a stretch, but I think $12 is OK. I've worked in restaurants and fast food and it's not easy work. Cooks are on their feet for the entire shift, balancing tickets and servers who screw up orders and constantly need things. Servers and counter people have to deal with rude and indecisive customers. When the restaurant closes there is a lot of side work to be done, cleaning, taking out the trash etc. On top of this these types of jobs require night, weekend and holiday availability, when most would like to be home with their families. I think this work deserves more than $7.75 an hour without benefits.
I don't think people dream of these jobs, but not everyone is cut out for college or office work. Plus, someone has to do these jobs. I doubt there are enough HS and college kids to work all of the retail/service jobs that are out there. I think there is nothing wrong with someone making a career out of working at McDonald's. There are lawyers, there are accountants and there are fast food workers. It might not be glamorous but it's an honest job and you can't be brain dead to do it, it requires multitasking, dealing well under pressure, dealing with annoying clientele and co-workers etc.
I think it would be reasonable to hire someone for say $8 an hour into this type of position and then re-evaluate every 90 days or so for a year. If they are a good fit, going above and beyond etc, then they should get a raise, and not $0.50/hr but a decent raise and access to benefits.
We all don't need to go to college, drive BMWs and own McMansions. What's wrong with someone working at McDonald's, for a decent wage, being able to afford reasonable rent, reasonable car and healthcare?
Some people like you just do not get it; how much a job pays has nothing, zero, zip, on what the job is and how hard it is to do. The job pays based on the availability of the workforce to do a particular job in contrast the demand for workers to do a particular job.
It is real simple, I do not see why people still cannot get it; no wonder these people work fast food.
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