and a 30 hour work week, and 30 days of paid vacation year and yes these greety corporate pigs can afford it thats why the CEO's make almost as 200 times as an hourly employee.
2006-07-05 07:19:30 · 21 answers · asked by Republican Hater 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
The current minimum wage insyures that the hardest working Americqans get to take home around $200 a week, barely enough to support one person, nowhere near enough to support an entire family. The system is designed so that the lower classes always remain at the bottom. The "American dream" simply does not exist for these people.
There are many things an American can be proud of, but the way we treat our poorest citizens is something we should be ashamed of.
2006-07-05 07:31:30 · answer #1 · answered by ratboy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Why not make the minimum wage $1000 an hour?
If you see the problem with paying that, then you see the problem that the minimum wage creates. If you do not see the basic problem then I will give you some free education, which I'm sure you would enjoy.
A minimum wage of $1k an hour would raise unemployment through the roof. Say you own a bakery and bring in $1000 in sales but pay $500 for ingredients, $100 for rent and advertising and you have 3 workers who make $100 per day ($10 for 10hrs). The bakery's profit is $100 that day.
You are providing food for customers and three jobs while being rewarded yourself for having come up with a good business plan and taking the risk and having it work out.
Now imagine that same bakery where the workers are making $1000 an hour. You spend one day making $1000 as usual, spend your $600 for ingredients and rent, then comes the $30,000 bill for your workers. You can either start charging several hundred dollars for bread or start firing your employees, or bring in machines that can replace your workers or just close up your bakery and go look for one of these mythical jobs that pay $1000 an hour just like all other business owners are now doing.
You are no longer providing food to people, 3 people are out of a job and you are also not making money.
In real world terms, unemployment goes up as the minimum wage goes up, inflation goes up and there are less 'things' (restaurants,car choices,services, etc) available.
2006-07-05 11:45:00 · answer #2 · answered by e1war 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because they couldn't afford it long. Economics lesson (liberals can tune out): corporations have responsibilities to share holders, these are the people who invest money in the company for research and development, etc. The difference between cost and revenue is profit. Profit margin is the amount of money represented in a percentage that a company makes. If the profit margin is an average of 10% (and for some companies that's high, for some it's low) then a company that makes $1000 in revenue only makes $100 in profits. 1) If costs increase (employee benefits as you described) prices will either go up, or 2) profits will go down. When profits go down, investors don't invest any more money, CEO's get fired, and companies go bankrupt. Do CEO's make too much money and could that be used to help employees and lower prices? In some cases yes. But if the CEO keeps the investors happy and money rolling in (and out) then only an idiot would change it.
2006-07-05 08:00:48 · answer #3 · answered by johngjordan 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Major corporations account for less than 50% of the nation's employers. What you're asking is that a mom and pop business should pay the cleaning lady $15 an hour, thus putting that small business out of business and totally savaging our American economy which is based very much on small to mid-sized businesses.
A far better question is why do we not demand that our public schools teach the most basic economics so that persons such as yourself would not be so ignorant of how their own country runs. No offense, it's not your fault, but while ignorance is forgivable, it's not very impressive.
If you want $15 an hour and a shorter work week and a long vacation, go BECOME something that you can be a professional at, do it in excellence and then learn to do it on your own schedule freelance.
Daniel
iPowerGRFX Tampa Website Designers
http://www.ipowergrfx.com
http://www.publicadjuster.com
2006-07-05 07:32:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I manage a small business that most certainly CANNOT afford to pay my employees $15 an hour. I have 2 employees that could not make it on 30 hours a week. And if I had to pay them $15 an hour, I would have to scale back to one employee. Not all businesses are "greedy corporate pigs". Do your homework before you run your mouth.
It's not just corporations that have to pay the minimum wage, it's Mom and Pop places too. You'd be killing them.
Thank you Daniel, for putting what I was trying to say much more eloquently and with more research. I really do like your answer.
To everyone else that agrees with the asker, let me say this. Quit your fast food job, go get yourself some marketable skills so that you can make more than minimum wage. You wouldn't complain about it if you didn't make it. Everyone has a chance to make more. There are grants and scholarships for all that have the ambition to go out and get them. Who funds this? The government. Get off your high horse, get some skills, and stop whining.
2006-07-05 07:25:02 · answer #5 · answered by Lisa H 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because you can't always get what you want. If you look back about 100 years ago there was no minimum wage. Work days would be twelve or more hours at six or seven days a week. No mandatory safety features in the work place. Paid vacation? Hah! What you can do is be happy with the current situation and have patience because it will get better. Or, you can lobby for changes. Posing your question as you did was a good start.
2006-07-05 07:41:46 · answer #6 · answered by dudezoid 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If the minimum wage here in the United States Incorporated, was $15.oo per hr. then the average citizen could afford to support their families on a one income household. We would abolish the welfare system, increase productivity"HAPPY WORKERS ARE MORE PRODUCTIVE", see a decline in teen crimes, ( MOMS or DADS would be HOME with the kids) see a decline in gang affiliations in our youth, and we would not be seeing a bunch of crap on the news about illegal immigrants coming to the United States Incorporated to "STEAL" minimum wage jobs from the American people. Our government would have to find something else to ***** about besides, the negative topics I mentioned above. C'mon old habits are hard to break. But just for the record, there is a county in New Mexico where the minimum wage is about $10.00. Hmm, Time to relocate?
2006-07-05 07:34:55 · answer #7 · answered by onceuponachildsdream 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because raising the minimum wage only increases inflation drastically and forces everyone else to get a pay raise (in some form or another) which makes the minimum wage increase useless. Perhaps if we had a income tax-rate of over 50% (like some of the countries I believe you are inferring to) then we could all get paid more, all get more taken out of our paychecks, and get 30 days of vacation.
2006-07-05 07:25:05 · answer #8 · answered by cirestan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the spiraling inflation that would follow would be horrific. Then people will be saying why not 30 dollars an hour, then 50 dollars an hour. Goods are based on wages and how to recoup and make a profit, raising wages raises cost of living and as such lowers standard of living.
2006-07-05 07:29:34 · answer #9 · answered by JFra472449 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We have a market economy. In a market economy, people don't earn more than they produce. If your labor produces $10 in value for your employer, there's no way (over the long term) for you to be paid more than that.
To put it more pithily, the minimum wage isn't $15 an hour for the same reason that you aren't paying me $5 to answer this question - because nobody will pay that much for the service being provided.
Best wishes and God bless.
2006-07-05 07:25:43 · answer #10 · answered by bobhayes 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋