How can you possibly be againt raising the minimum wage?

Question

Are Republicans agaist this only because Democrats are for it?
I really don't understand how anyone would want to hold people down so low.. And don't give me your b.s. about how we'll lose jobs if it's raised. Studies show just the opposite of that. I also don't want to hear about how inflation will skyrocket cause thats bull as well.. What the hell is wrong with these "moral" people??

Amy H- I think most people can afford to pay $1.10 for a double cheeseburger instead of 99 cents. Is it really that big a deal??

anonymosity- don't be ignorant.. I'm just saying give people a liveable wage. According to the goverment, a person would have to make $12.50/hr to afford a single life with no kids. And they get $5.15? Thats crap and you all know it. Man the greed is overpowering.. $2 an hour is not that much..

nicolasraage- no asshole!! I think people are worth more than what they're getting.. Damn yer a dick!!

Here's one..
http://www.uvm.edu/~vlrs/doc/min_wage.htm

Answer 1

When I was in high school I worked at a fast food joint. I remember reading the poster in the break room about minimum wage. There was some debate at the time that it might be raised. I was all for that. After all, I would make more money and that has to be good.

Looking at the issue now, there are a lot more good reasons to raise the minimum wage.
Raising minimum wages is not a solution to poverty. Raising the minimum wage can bring thousands out of poverty. They would be able to support a family without having to double up on jobs. Employers don't increase their wages to reflect inflation over time. It's up to the government to ensure they do.

I think that Republicans (of which I am one) oppose raising the minimum wage because of a misguided work ethic. They may believe that if the people need to make more money then they need to earn it. They don't think it's fair to just raise someone's income because they don't feel they make enough. This would be perfect logic if we lived in a perfect world. But as I said, employers don't raise their employees' incomes unless they have to. They do it either to lure in more employees, or because the goverment makes them do it.

PS - In reply to the other posts: Workers are *not* paid according to their worth. They are paid according to what the employer chooses. And that is rarely determined by their worth. Example: I live in a college town. There is cheap labor everywhere. If any student took a job an hour north of here, they'd be paid dollars more on the hour. Are students worth less? Do they work less than others? No. So why don't the students take jobs an hour north of here? Why don't the poor move to somewhere they would be paid more? Two reasons: They can't. And income isn't the most important goal.

Answer 2

The increase from $5.15 to $7.25 is a big jump but will be phased in over time. As this happens the tax schedules may go up a little bit (surprise). SO-------

As you get your raise you will be bumped into another tax bracket. The brackets will be increased over time and there will also be a certain amount of inflation. Business will make what adjustments are necessary and the cost will be passed along.
You will be paying the increased cost out of your new wage increase!!!!

This whole thing is great for votes and government in general.
The GOP "fights" it and gets points from their supporters. The Democrat Party supports it and gets a vote from what is left of the working class. AND THE GOVERNMENT GETS A TAX INCREASE!!!! which they can call an increase in the minimum wage. It is a win-win situation. In the same bed again; that's why it is called the two-party system.

Did it ever occur to anyone that the way they play this game requires you to believe that Democrats don't really own a business, a corporation, or anything that even smells like big business?

If you don't think it is a tax increase, look around. A lot of chains have been paying $6.50 to $7.00 per hour for almost two years for those big 20 hours per week on call positions leading into management. Take whatever you can get, but don't get all fuzzy when you go to vote for the man of another man's choice.

They really are not against raising the minimum wage. They and the Democrats are for something. What they are for is keeping people in a moral quandry with questions like yours, while they pick pockets and the big stuff goes by unnoticed.

Answer 3

It didn't take long before Amy h a nutcase conservative tried to blame this one on liberals.

The fact of the matter is you can raise the minimum wage and give tax cuts to businesses to keep them afloat. Or politicians who aren't bribed by oil company's can lower fuel by a dollar a gallon that will help businesses. Everytime they talk about raising the minimum wage the old "inflation excuse comes in or the businesses will have to close down" routine makes a come back. And guess what? when the minimum wage gets increased none of that happens. Of course most of the people against this don't make minimum wage so what the hell do they care.

If we had this don't raise the minimum wage moron idea 40 years ago then how much do you think minimum wage people would be making right now? About a dollar an hour.

So if the anti-minimum wage people have their way people will get paid $5.50 an hour 100 years from now, because whenever it's brought up these people have a problem with it.

Answer 4

An economics class would be a good source of help for you.

When the minimum wage is increased, teenagers make more money at McDonalds. This causes the price of Big Macs to increase thereby making the rest of us pay more for food. Ultimately, this will cause a larger divide between the rich and the middle class since the rich own McDonalds and also reap the rewards. The more often we have increases in minimum wage, the closer and closer we get back to 2 class society (the Rich and the Poor).

Oh yeah, once these companies have to start paying current wages for jobs of the illegals, it will just make it that much more difficult to the companies who are so used to only paying $1 or $2 per hour.

$12.50 per hour is needed for single person??? Now that is bull information if it is from the government. I know people earning $9 -10 per hour and doing fine. You don't have to have 2 cars, a boat, rv, and a beach house to be living good in america. The real problem is people not wanting to live within their means.

Answer 5

Ok, here's the thing, in a free-market economy, everything has an intrinsic value. If someone tries to pay $2 per hour for a job no one wants, then that job won't be filled. The market determines the rate of pay. Some jobs are very low in pay because they don't need a lot of skills and the company can't afford to pay very much etc. If people are willing to take that type of job for that amount of money, then the Government should leave it alone. I would like to know where you are getting your information about inflation skyrocketing being bull. Nothing I have read agrees with that assessment.

Here is some information from Wikipedia about the consequences of minimum wage: The costs and benefits arising from minimum wages are subject to considerable disagreement among economists, though the consensus among economics textbooks is that minimum wage laws should be avoided whenever possible as the costs exceed the benefits. A 2003 survey by Dan Fuller and Doris Geide-Stevenson reports that 46% of academic economists in the US agreed with the statement, "a minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers", 28% partly agreed, and 27% disagreed. The authors of this study also reweighted data from a 1990 sample to show that at that time 62% of academic economists agreed with the statement above, while 19.5% partly agreed and 17.5% disagreed.[6]

According to a claim by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy[7], a conservative think-tank, the passage of the first Federal mandated minimum wage in the United States in 1933 led to an estimated 500,000 blacks losing their jobs via replacement by higher skilled and more educated white laborers.

Here is the entire article if you would like to read it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage

Answer 6

I can see how it is confusing but actually it is really simple, lets say you are employed by a company that manufactures a good or product and you are at an entry level, low skill requirement job,
you make minimum wage because it is the lowest skill level. So say we raise minimum wage right, well the company You work for and all others will raise the price of the good they make to cover the new wage you get. So by actually increasing minimum wage you only change the numbers but not the condition. In fact by definition Minimum means lowest, and that it will always be a low wage. I own a business an if I had to raise minimum wage, I will be raising the cost of my goods along with other businesses,
that will be the only way I can still be an employer all be it a small one.

Answer 7

Here's the issue, Jamie. I'm from Washington State, which has one of the highest minimum wages in the country. I think they're in like the top ten. When I left there almost two years ago, minimum wage was at $7.25 an hour. Now I believe it's gone up forty cents. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment in a fairly nice neighborhood in Tacoma runs between 500 and 700 dollars. This would mean that working forty hours a week on minimum wage would barely pay the rent.
In states where the minimum wage is lower, such as Oklahoma (where I lived for a year from 2000 to 2001), cost of living is much lower. When I lived there, minimum wage was at $5.65 an hour. My now ex-boyfriend and I rented an apartment in a quad-plex for 225 a month.
Minimum wage influences cost of living. Raising the national minimum wage would raise the national cost of living.
This is why I'm against raising it, if it's not to support the rising cost of inflation. If the cost of living is rising, then yes, minimum wage should be raised to match it.
It has nothing to do with wanting to hold people down, and everything to do with not wanting to push them down lower.
As a sidenote, I was working at McD's during one of the minimum wage increases in WA. I went from making a dime over minimum wage (and working my @$$ off just for that), to making a nickel over minimum wage. That would be why I quit.

Answer 8

Raising the minimum wage is great for buying votes but all it does is eliminate the little part-time-type jobs that kids used to work at after school, or the marginal positions in offices and elsewhere. And who pays for it? Everyone, because the companies will have to raise their prices for their goods and services in order to cover their increased costs.

So, by the laws of economies and the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch, raising the minimum wages destroys jobs, raises prices for everyone and increases inflation rates as well.

Labor is paid ONLY what labor is worth and never one penny more no matter what laws are passed regarding wage rates.

Net gain for those covered by minimum wage? Zero in the long run.

Answer 9

Well, I'm not a republican I'm a libertarian, but my main argument against minimum wage rising is that it causes inflation. See, if a grocery store has to pay everyone 7.50 per hour instead of 5.00 then all they're going to do is raise prices a little bit across the board.

This would happen everywhere that minimum wage workers are employed. So prices would go up, effectivly destroying the purpose of raising minimum wage.

Answer 10

I question why you attach the label "moral" to the subjects of your question. What does being on one side or another of the minimum wage issue have to do with morality? This seems like a swipe at republicans and reveals your bias and your inability to discuss the actual issue without resorting to accusations of hypocrisy based on your definition of morality regarding an issue which has absolutely nothing to do with morals. Republicans are generally against raising minimum wage for the reasons you already stated and invalidated by eloquently claiming is "bull". If you reject their reasons then why ask the question in the first place? Of course you must realize that the cost of hiring employers is always passed on to the consumer. And in cases where it cannot be passed on to the consumer the employer simply packs up and heads overseas where they can pay dirt-wages.