23 replies to this topic

[Ugly1]

Wednesday morning, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) introduced the “Catching Up to 1968 Act of 2012” (H.R. 5901) – legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 per hour. The present minimum wage is $7.25, way below the unrealistically low federal poverty definition of $18,123 per year for a family of three. Adjusted for inflation, the 1968 minimum wage today would be a little above $10 per hour.


http://www.commondre...ew/2012/06/08-2

[Hilander]

Minimum wage isn't enough to live on.  There are lots of people that are against food stamps, etc, maybe if they raised minimum wage we could get these people off food stamps.  Empoyers would probably just hire less people if they did raise it that much.  Then claim they had to raise prices to make up for it because they want to keep giving themselves that big bonus.

Edited by Hilander, 13 June 2012 - 01:53 AM.

[StarMountainKid]

$7.25 isn't minimum wage, it's slave wage.

[Habitat]

StarMountainKid, on 13 June 2012 - 03:36 AM, said:

$7.25 isn't minimum wage, it's slave wage.

I agree, in Australia is about twice that. And the $USD is about at parity with $AUD.

[Babe Ruth]

I'm all for this legislation!

[acidhead]

Quote

Senators call for minimum wage increase for 30 million

Seems rather pointless to keep on with the wage controls.. be it from unions or government.  All that results is product and labor end up rising much quicker than it already does... like a dog chasing it's tail.

What we need is prices to go down.  Think about individuals who are living on a fixed income.

Edited by acidhead, 13 June 2012 - 01:41 PM.

[Socio]

Downside is it will further impede hiring and no doubt case more layoffs, thus may end up putting more people on welfare and hurting the economy more than it helps.

For example; if you have 10 employees getting minimum wage and it gets raised you can bet 2-3 of those jobs will go away to make up for it and those 2-3 laid off employees will have no choice but to hop on the welfare train.

[Taun]

I could see keeping the current minimum wage but only for 'special cases' such as high school kids working summer jobs, or people who traditionally suppliment their wage with tips (waitresses, waiters, etc)... For the majority though, yeah we probably should raise the minumum..

As much as it galls me to agree with Mr Jackson on almost anything...

[tapirmusic]

Only something like 1-2 percent of the population earns minimum wage.  And like Taun says, many of them supplement the wage with tips.  And those that are not under the age of say, 25, who do not also collect tips, are collecting welfare of some kind.

If we are to raise minimum wage, then we must get rid of welfare and it's massive costs.

[Michelle]

Wait staff make as little as $3.00 an hour. They aren't subject to minimum wage and are expected to make the rest in tips. It used to be great, because you could make up to $100 or a lot more a day in tips, but then it was required you share your tips with busboys and sometimes even dishwashers depending on where you work. I never thought that was right because the people they have to share their tips with do make minimum wage. The other people don't have to put on the smiley face and put up with the whims and abuse of the customers either.

Edited by Michelle, 13 June 2012 - 10:11 PM.

[Taun]

tapirmusic, on 13 June 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

Only something like 1-2 percent of the population earns minimum wage.  And like Taun says, many of them supplement the wage with tips.  And those that are not under the age of say, 25, who do not also collect tips, are collecting welfare of some kind.

If we are to raise minimum wage, then we must get rid of welfare and it's massive costs.

I'm not in favor of totally abolishing welfare, but I am wholeheartedly in favor of reforming it... Many people on welfare genuinely need it and deserve a helping hand... But some 'work the system' and should be cut off completely... also I am in favor of reducing or eliminating some of the categories of welfare.  And those on welfare should get assistance in re-education or new job placement. Welfare should not be a life time 'occupation' but should be a temporary 'assist'. And as I posted in another thread, those on welfare should work at community 'projects' or jobs - making it "workfare" - not welfare (of course that is dependent on medical conditions, etc)

We need to get welfare back to what it was intended to be...

[tapirmusic]

Michelle, on 13 June 2012 - 09:53 PM, said:

Wait staff make as little as $3.00 an hour. They aren't subject to minimum wage and are expected to make the rest in tips. It used to be great, because you could make up to $100 or a lot more a day in tips, but then it was required you share your tips with busboys and sometimes even dishwashers depending on where you work. I never thought that was right because the people they have to share their tips with do make minimum wage. The other people don't have to put on the smiley face and put up with the whims and abuse of the customers either.

Being a waitress is a choice.

[acidhead]

See, this is the problem.  Statists are conned into believing that prosperity can be achieved by the use of force.

[Mr. Smith]

It's impossible for the lap puppets in wasington to not only determine an accurate federal minimum wage, they sure as hell aren't honest enough, fast enough or intelligent enough to pull this magic number out of their *** on the regular basis it would need top be in order to work -i.e. annual increases.  

Just fire the govt from this function. they are hideous at it. The devil himself could do it better. Let employers decide what the fair wage is for that job, if they keep getting screw ups they'll soon accept the local reality and offer more for better employees if they want to stay in business. Every employer who hires low wage hourly employees will learn how to improve their business in the process.

[F3SS]

Raise minimum wages all you want. Prices go up and inflate the cost of living then new minimum wage doesn't cut it after a few years.
When I started working 16 years ago minimum wage was $4.25, gas was around $1, cigarettes were around a buck and cars were far cheaper, rent was cheaper, ect... Now minimum wages are higher and so is the cost of living in every possible way. See a connection? Like Framling said above, let someone run a slave wage business. They'll get slave wage quality production and products in the end. Workers will be fly-by-night always coming and going. The owner will be constantly training new guys, stressing out and never focusing on the goal; a successful business. Consumers won't be consuming anything he has to sell and the business will quickly fail. Therefor the nightmare situation of a slave wage capitalist system won't run rampant in this country. Nobodies going to work for $2 an hour and nobodies going to pay $2 an hour because you get what you pay for. Crap. At the very least, this is a free country and if someone chooses to work for $2 an hour just remember no one put a gun to thir head. That's their choice. Anyone with that type of self worth isn't going to be productive enough for anyone paying more anyways. So let em.

An Occupier or someone who knows jack about running a business will say the owners should just eat the cost or owners claim that prices go up because of the increase in wages just so the evil bstrds can "take a huge bonus." Sometimes in business you do have to eat costs but you need to figure out how to charge more or pay less and keep everyone happy [as possible]. You run a business to make as much money as possible, otherwise what's the point? Go ahead and run a business and eat the costs. Youll find that you don't just rent a building, open the doors, plant a flag and declare yourself the big evil capitalist business owner. There's a litany of headaches behind the scenes tat you'll soon realize why the owner should make far more than the employees.