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I walk a mile in their shoes.I care if my fellow citizens cannot support their basic needs because they are not paid a living wage.
It will take a while before employers recognize they will not attract college grads without offering more attractive higher-wage packages.
Where I live, a $15 hr wage for a single person takes some doing to make ends meet.
What IS a living wage though? Is it a set amount? Or does a living wage depends on your lifestyle, geographic location, your personal situation, etc.? A single person with little to no debt, no kids, no pets, who is at least somewhat frugal with their lifestyle, who has no car payments(which are luxury bills; take the bus or get a used car with lower mileage) can afford a studio apt in most of this country with $15/hr FT.
If you're bent on sticking with a low-skilled, min wage job and can't afford to stay in your location, move to an area where you can afford it. Otherwise strive for a better paying job.
What IS a living wage though? Is it a set amount? Or does a living wage depends on your lifestyle, geographic location, your personal situation, etc.? A single person with little to no debt, no kids, no pets, who is at least somewhat frugal with their lifestyle, who has no car payments(which are luxury bills; take the bus or get a used car with lower mileage) can afford a studio apt in most of this country with $15/hr FT.
If you're bent on sticking with a low-skilled, min wage job and can't afford to stay in your location, move to an area where you can afford it. Otherwise strive for a better paying job.
I would say a living wage should be based on Cost of living in that area that would be based on what rent and food and transportation costs are.
If you want a living wage, go get an education which will enhance your chances of securing a job that will allow you to do so.
That's not rocket science, folks.
You do know that many people do not have the money to get an education and even if everyone got an education there would not be enough higher paying jobs for everyone. Someone has to do these lower wage jobs.
I make just under $20/hr and I find that reasonable given age, skills and qualifications, but I cannot afford to live on my own unless I wanted to live paycheck by paycheck with no savings in the city I am. So in a way I feel that I should be making more.
Truth be told everyone needs to be making more money, including minimum wage. But the lower and middle class all need pay raises. We are the groups that has seen stagnant wage growth yet we are seeing record productivity numbers and a giant GDP. That clearly is not getting to us...
As far as the housing argument goes, make these laws:
1) You can only own one property OR your second property being subjected to a huge, huge tax. Something needs to be done to curb people using real estate to grow their finances so people can get shelter which we all agree is a basic need. Many food staples have caps because they are considered needs, why not housing?
2) Only American citizens can OWN (own, you can still rent) land in the United States.
3) Ban services like AirBnB from main residences (exceptions for guest houses or ADUs).
That should fix that real quick. If you can make the tax policy so unfriendly for people who own more than one property, then that opens so much more supply so people don't have to rent for the rest of their life if they don't have to. It also gets foreign billionaires out of our real estate market. Also limit AirBnB to accessory units will still give housing supply without interfering with the rental market in a significant way, though as long as AirBnB exists it will interfere with the housing market.
I agree completely— especially point #1. People should be heavily penalized for owning other properties beyond their sole primary residence, and this is especially important in real estate markets that are out of control. Real estate is a basic human need, and thus should not be treated like any other financial investment. I live in Toronto, where real estate has spiralled to insanity; the average price of a detached house (even a small cabin-sized one) is around a million dollars (CAD). The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment (NOT a fancy new condo unit) is $1500/month ($1300/month for a bachelor). For perspective, the average individual salary is probably around 50k. We have become a city where only the wealthy can afford property — and they continue to gobble up more properties for investment purposes and continue to get wealthier, while renting them out to the rest of us who are less well off and are forced to rent and pay those insane rent prices, because we can’t afford to buy. While I was looking into moving out of my parents’ house a few months ago, about 90% of the rental properties had bidding wars — potential tentants jacking up the rent against each other in order to secure a roof over their heads. The landlords all encouraged it (obviously), and it was a dehumanizing experience. It’s the reason I and most of my peers are still living with their parents (late 20s - early 30s age group). We are stuck, unless we want to shell out 60% of our monthly income on rent and have no savings left over. Those who have moved out are either splitting costs with a partner, or living in a sharehouse with 6 other roommates. Last year, our provincial government instituted a 15% tax on foreign buyers of real estate, and it certainly helps a bit, but I want their policies to go further — like a similar heavy tax on those who want to purchase a 2nd (or 3rd, etc..) property for investment purposes. In stressed markets like Toronto with a housing affordability and availability problem, that behaviour should be discouraged.
Edit: And of course, improvements in Labour laws should go hand-in-hand with the above. Companies who exploit labour from “perma-temps” (of which I am one) and/or offshore their jobs should be penalized, and incentives should be put in place to encourage hiring more full-time permanent employees and creating jobs for the local market.
I would say as an employee at the company I am not worth 15 dollars an hour because I only took it out of desperation and they probably hired me out of desperation. I'm not good at being a people person which is part of what the job requires so I would say I'm not very good at my job.
However I would say I'm worth paying more because of the sad fact that life is expensive like someone else said and as a person I am worth more because of my strong work ethic. I would be happy with more opportunities to make more money that I could do on the side but sadly I cannot find any I can do. I don't drive so that limits me severely.
I hate those contraptions. I'm all for better technology in a general sense but self checkout does not fit the bill. If you worked near a talking machine all day you would desire real cashiers even more. I'm at the point where I'm surprised I don't hear them while I'm sleeping. Sometimes I think machines just shouldn't talk. If they had more to say maybe..but it's always the same stuff and the more machines there are the worse it is. Imagine all of those robotic voices greeting you at the same time for 6 hours straight.
Car payments are a necessary frustration. Don't lump a car as a luxury even though they are branded as such.
Yes technically you can get by without one but should you? Unless you mean a sports car but ideally people should have their own car unless they really don't want one and are able to walk everywhere they need to go.
That would be nice but I don't have a competitive bone in my body. I was lucky to get any job so I had to settle for a job I didn't even like for less than 15 dollars an hour with no sick or vacation leave.
Well good thing I don't eat much fast food because I don't like that idea. It's fine for some places but I don't like the idea of it being everywhere. We're already technology dependent as it is do we really need a screen to order our food for us too?
Don't get me wrong I love technology but I also like a break from it in a sense. I know at a few casual restaurants you can order what you want on a screen but I never do that. I just tell the waitress what I want. If you use machines as much as I do which many other millenials do that's too much on your eyes.
I also worry when will it end if they start doing that? We're all going to ruin our eyes if this keeps up.
Well the thing is we don't need money to pay the loans we need the loans to just disappear completely. That would be a far better option than worrying about having to pay them. In certain cases it's fine to need to pay the loan but that's if it's a worthy school putting out results but if you're like me and you went to the joke college University of Phoenix you better be forgiving my loans forever because it was most definitely a scam.
Like I said many times before unless you weren't referring to me.
In my case essentially I was forced to take out those loans. If you mean literally no I didn't have a gun put to my head or anything like that but I was left with no other option.
I had no guidance from my parents because my father was too busy trying to ruin my mother (my mom doesn't remember a lot of my childhood because of it). When it came senior year of course the guidance counselor asked me what I was going to do after school. I told them I had no idea. I don't remember exactly what they said but I know they sent me on my way left with more questions than answers. I almost didn't graduate because I was afraid to leave. I was that lost that I ended up playing hooky out of sheer paranoia. I knew I had to do something because I remember the times we were almost homeless when I was 14 (I got my very first panic attack then partially due to that) but what was I to do? The school pushes the idea in your head that you're supposed to go to college and have you go on all these tours to see them. I would have gone to a different school except I had no way to get there so Phoenix was my only option because at that time online classes were not as prevalent. They never warned me that Phoenix was a bad idea. No one did. It wasn't until I already started taking classes that I realized what kind of school they were and I had to finish because either way you have to pay it back.
This doesn't even include the fact I was an introverted person with a learning disability that I didn't even know I had so with my grades I probably wouldn't have gotten into a prestigious college anyway.
The important thing is, can you pay the rent? The recommended level is 30% of pay but in practice it could be 35 to 50 percent.
I never did understand people who never went to college who seem to think students are on some kind of vacation. Depending in part on choice of college and major, of course, it is an EXTREMELY difficult undertaking. Especially if you have to work your way through, maintain a certain GPA for scholarship purposes, complete internships, have responsibilities outside of the classroom, etc. Not everyone can do. Contrary to what many on this board and in this country seem to think, a college degree is something to be proud of, not treated with condescension or derision.
You do know that many people do not have the money to get an education and even if everyone got an education there would not be enough higher paying jobs for everyone. Someone has to do these lower wage jobs.
If everyone gets a degree it kind of waters down the value of them. It's already happened. I see job postings that require a bachelors paying $12 an hour with no benefits.
But this is what big corporate wants. They want to kill wages in literally every industry from tech to even now I see skilled trades being gutted. If they had their way (and they will) they would require a masters degree for a minimum wage job.
Back when I was younger, (many decades ago) a bachelors degree, in anything would the sure ticket to a middle class job. Now you're lucky if you get the shift manager job at McDicks.
I'm worth what my paycheck says I'm worth. Simple as that.
So then you must be providing value to your employer then. Rule of thumb I have always used is I bring in on minimum 3X what I get paid in cash and benefits. If I can not say I am bringing in that as a minimum then I have no knowledge of if I am a benefit or not. Realize that not only is it our pay and benefits, the employer has a cost to keep us on site, we also share a small part of the business infrastructure and profits.
Many people get a check on pay day. Not all bring in a return on that investment. Employees are an investment that the employer has to pay for. They need to have a return on that investment. If not then the employee not producing has no reason to be there.
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