no healthy adult should be making minimum wage. so why is there such a debate about raising it?

Question

if you are not retarded or anything like that, it is shameful for you to be making the minimum wage. what is wrong with you? go out and harvest more skills for yourself! why are you so lazy?

coragryph, how is that shameful on the businessman's end? the only responsibility a company has is for its shareholders. and to make shareholders happy, you need to decrease expenses and increase revenue. DON'T YOU GET IT??? AN INCREASE IN MINIMUM WAGE WOULD CAUSE AN INCREASE IN PRICES ACROSS THE BOARD. I DO NOT WANT MY HAMBURGER COSTING 2 DOLLARS MORE, OR THE SHAMPOO I BUY AT WALMART TO BE MORE EXPENSIVE.

also, why should we pay these people MORE for doing something that requires no skill. WHY SHOULD WE REWARD PEOPLE FOR BEING STAGNANT.

goddammit.

Answer 1

I can't find anything here with which to disagree.

Answer 2

While I agree that no healthy adult should be making minimum wage, the truth is that a huge number of healthy adults are only making minimum wage.

The debate is because many businesses claim that raising the minimum wage will hurt them, because they (the businesses) can't afford to pay more. Obviously, if the businesses were already paying more than minimum wage, this argument wouldn't make sense.

So, not only are millions of adults earning minimum wage, thousands of businesses are saying that they cannot afford to pay more than minimum wage. And that is shameful, in both directions.

{EDIT} It's shameful that business conditions are such that companies cannot afford to pay people enough money to live on. It's shameful that the government has imposed so much regulation that businesses are struggling to survive.

Yes, corporations have an obligation to their stockholders, and businesses have an obligation to their bottom line. But they shouldn't be put in a position where they can't pay their employees a reasonable salary, and where their only other choice is to fold. Notice that I didn't say businesses were to blame for only paying minimum wage. I said it was a shame that they cannot afford to pay more than minimum wage.

{EDIT additional facts}
Minimum wage is based on what is required to make enough to meet the poverty threshold. The current federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. That's $206 dollars per week full time, or just over ten thousand dollars per year. And even at that rate, between 10% and 20% is being taken out for taxes.

So, how do you expect someone taking home $8000 per year, and holding down a full-time job doing it, to be able to improve themselves? Going to a community college to earn an associates degree will cost half of that in tuition and fees. And in most cities, cost of living is so high that just paying rent and food requires people to take a second job. Especially if they have a family to support. So, even if they could afford school, when would they have the time?

Anyone who hasn't already earned a college degree by the time they are forced to support themselves is fairly limited in terms of what they can achieve. And if they lack the education to make more than minimum wage, it's almost impossible for them to improve that situation. That's what I consider shameful. That no matter how hard they work, or how much they are willing to try, once they have fallen to minimum wage, it is almost impossible for them to better themselves.

And because of the limits placed on small businesses, most cannot afford to offer better. Which just perpetuates the cycle.

Answer 3

What if people are poor? poor people can not afford college, which these days are essential for any kind of high paying job. Yes, Yes, scholarships, but a scholarship is only good for the poor if it "full ride" which you'd be lucky to get if you were valedictorian of your high school class.

The second part of your question, why are people against raising minimum wage, it is because that it more money that the proprietor of the business could have.

Answer 4

You are right!! In addition I am as well tired of seeing countless able bodied people riding the back of the welfare system and my tax dollars, so they can sit around and not work at all.
The only wage increase issue I have problems with is that of congress approving huge wage increases for themselves every couple years now or so, and working less and less for it. That is what people should be casting stones at, not min. wage.

Answer 5

Finally the light of truth.

Answer 6

"You know, education -- if you make the most of it -- you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

What SHOULD of been said was,:

"You know, education -- if you make the most of it -- you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck making min.wage."

Answer 7

Rich people love slave labor