By ssssssss

Nov 19, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

sss

By Chelsea Perez

Aug 29, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this

Hey y do we have minimum wage

By Bill

Aug 28, 2008 8:57 PM | Link to this

I'm going to make my stance very simple and I'm not going to put a bunch of big words in it to sound smart or important.

Minimum wage and pay in general is supposed to have a standard cost-of-living fluctuation. With the way gas prices are, this should have been done years ago.

I know quite a few people with minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs that barely have $75 or even $50 after paying for the gas that has to get them back and forth to work.

By Ramblin'Wreck

Jul 24, 2008 2:00 PM | Link to this

cliffbearton:
First off, I have worked a minimum wage job. For years actually. All through high school, college, and 2.5 years after I graduated I worked at a fast food restaurant. So please don't tell me I'm being judgemental when you're incorrectly pointing fingers at someone who HAS been there.

Secondly, don't pretend that the rest of the world has higher pays that in the US. That's just ignorant to suggest that. How is it that China has cheaper labor if they pay so much better? Mexico? Thailand? Phillipines? Funny that in the Phillipines, people are willing to work for and live on FAR less than we are in America. There are less jobs there, so the job is in demand while there is an abundance of willing workers. Thus, cheap labor. Minimum wage eliminates that part of the equation, and so we outsource our jobs. I'm completely fine with outsourcing. It provides a job to a person in another country who is willing to WORK for their EARNED wage where they wouldn't even have the opportunity to work otherwise. It's that all of these companies are so calculating that they will work their employees to death. It's that the minimum wage causes complacent workers to receive a wage they don't earn. It lowers productivity while raising labor costs, thus inflating costs and diluting the value of the dollar. It's sad that you don't think these things through yourself. You can call me what you want, but at the end of the day, I've been there. Have you? I can talk from experience, can you? As a person that has worked hard from the ground up, I know that I have EARNED my wage, have you? Or do you feel entitled to a higher wage? Do you feel that being American gives you right to a certain lifestyle regardless of what you do? I think that is the self-centered attitude that needs to be looked at.

By BexB

Jul 24, 2008 1:51 PM | Link to this

Minimum wage isn't supposed to be for someone supporting a family of three. Those people should get training and get a better job. They're available if only you try hard enough. Try being manager of a Burger King, not just a cashier. Get motivated and get a better job. The economy will not get better because of this, only worse. Because all prices will rise, but not everybody's paychecks will. Just because these folks get $0.70 more doesn't mean anyone else will. So those folks will spend less. Min wage jobs are for high school students and supplemental income. Anyone who expects to make fries for a living apparently doesn't want to earn more. Do you really want the bad-attitude 40 year old lifer at Arby's making almost as much as you? Heck no. You want to know that your striving to achieve more has earned you a better job and better pay!

By Ramblin'Wreck

Jul 24, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this

Jake:
Answer this: A burger flipper, how many people can do that job? How many millions of people are qualified? Now, an engineer. How many? Which one is easier to replace? A doctor? Because there are requirements stating that you can't operate as a doctor UNLESS you have the appropriate training, not just anyone can do it. Almost anyone can flip burgers at minimum wage. It's that the engineer or doctor is any more important that burger boy, but just simply based on the training and knowledge that has been obtained, the professional position is more difficult to replace.

Beyond all of this, if a company is only willing to pay me $X to flip burgers, then my value to the company is what they are willing to pay me. By forcing labor costs up, production cost goes up. The guy flipping the burger is more costly to the company, the guy packing burgers into a box to be shipped is more costly, the guy slaughtering the cow is more costly, the guy feeding the cow is more costly, etc., etc., etc. It's a HUGE reason why inflation is as high as it is.

I would say raising the min. wage is common sense on the surface. If you don't bother yourself to think about the big picture, it's common sense. I challenge you to think about the whole situation from other angles than your own. As a business owner, what happens? As the indirect supplier, what happens? From the millionaire's perspective, what happens? From the minimum wage employee's perspective, what happens?

It's a domino effect of increasing costs, and diluted dollar worth. It's common sense not to have a minimum wage, but to simply pay people what the company feels they are worth. The people who perform will get raises. The people who don't, won't. The free market has an amazing way of regulating itself.

By cliffbearton

Jul 24, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this

I guess the people that make your food at a fast food place are all just lazy bums huh? Maybe you should shut up until you have been in one of those jobs or worse yet been forced to work one of those jobs because the job you normally do has no openings in your area. T simply act like its the fault of the employee that the employer wants to take all the money and run is as self-centered as anything could be. This country has one of the worst labor situations in the world. Other places require higher pay, insurance, vacation, etc. Or maybe you just want to work these people till they are sick, can't get medical care and die so your greedy self-centered you know what can have more by living off the backs of those who do work. Show respect to people you loser - its sad that someone has to tell you that.

By Ramblin'Wreck

Jul 24, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this

Brandon:
The wage isn't communism. Taking money from a company and redistributing it to the "poor" is communism. What defines a communist society? They live as one COMMUNE, hence the name. It's not as if I feel being poor makes you any less of a person, but being rich shouldn't make you more of a money target either. Why should the government put a cap on how much money you can make? Should the gov't also tell companies what they can and can't charge for their services?

The issue isn't that the person is making more money. It's the simple fact that EVERYTHING will now be more costly FOR EVERYONE. It won't really effect the wealthy in any adverse way, but it WILL effect the people are making minimum wage. That one dollar will simply be eaten up in taxes, increased food prices, increased commodities prices, increased cost of living. Why would this happen, you ask? Simple. Every company exists for a simple reason: To make money/survive. If you increase their cost of production, guess what? The sale price goes up. You can raise wages, but you're not really doing anything but fueling inflation. The rest of the nation won't necessarily see the same 12% raise, but all goods will certainly go up. Thus, the rest of the nation's salary is effectively diluted.

By Jake Johnson

Jul 24, 2008 1:09 PM | Link to this

Before the battle over minimum wages was won, similar battles were fought over child labor laws and maximum work weeks. Business owners and heads of corporations made the same arguments: laws preventing the use of 12 year old children in factories and 60 hour work weeks would hurt businesses, and thus hurt everyone. Fortunately, these transparently deceptive arguments were seen through.

Raising the minimum wage is just common sense. It clearly needs to be raised higher. The problem with the argument that increasing the minimum wage makes it hard to do business is that this argument assumes that business owners have a right to make a profit, regardless of how that profit is made, and that it is the elected government's job to protect that profit by letting them do whatever they want, instead of protecting the larger body of citizens who elect that government.

Moreover, on a more day-to-day level, I can't accept the notion that the people who are paid minimum wage are those that have the least worth to the company. Take away the people who work at fast food restaurants and at shops and see how long these establishments survive: far from being the least important to the company, they are the most essential. They do the work that generates the income. Paying them a low wage is the very thing that allows the owners to thrive. Pretending to be beneficent, the givers of jobs, while in fact using these people's willingness to work hard for little money is a transparent ploy.

If a business, small or large, is unwilling or unable to pay people enough that they can eat and live in decent circumstances, and it must close down, then so be it. What is best for corporations is not what is best for the country. A few fewer millionaires, or just people making five or six figures while paying their employees as little as possible, would be fine.

By DanTheLowSkilledWorker

Jul 24, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this

We all own the right to sell our labor in the USA. If I want to sell my labor for $5/hour, that is illegal now. How can anyone call this law just?

If I am a low skilled worker, without much job training, and I approach an employer who is only willing to hire me at $5/hour, because that is the wage at which he thinks I will be useful to him, how does making such a transaction ILLEGAL help me?

Instead of being hired, the law sets a "wage floor" (hurdle) of $6.55 so that the employer will hire someone else, who has more training, instead of me. This law has not helped me, but has instead restricted and reduced my FREEDOM TO SELL MY LABOR at any price I agree upon with a prospective employer.

I am literally priced out of the labor market. I could be forced to enroll in a welfare program instead of selling my labor at $5/hour and learning on the job. On the job training can only happen when I actually have a job.