isn't raising the minimum raise just rewarding people for being stagnant and having easy jobs?

Question

ok, how does this make sense? anyone making minimum wage clearly has an easy job - hmm, making french fries? yeah, real tough. checking people out at walmart? THAT'S DIFFICULT. wait, sweeping the floors at the high school - OH MY GOD MY BRAIN IS GOING TO EXPLODE.

don't people realize that raising the minimum wage is counter-intuitive in a rewards-based (mainly capitalistic) society? let's give MORE money to the people who are unwilling to go out and create real skills for themselves!!!

Answer 1

I agree and disagree. I don't think that the people who are content to stay where they are in life, like in front of the whopper grill, deserve to get paid anymore than they already do. However, you must take into account the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment). The general cost of life has increased because of inflation, and this is reflected in a raise of salaries, even at the minimal level. (ie Coke used to cost a nickel, now people pay .75-1.00 for one coke)

Answer 2

did you even take into consideration that not only to people making minimum wage go up, but so does anyone not making much more than it?

i was only about 20 cents above minimum wage when california upped minimum wage by 25 cents. i didn't just get a 5 cent raise, i got a 25 cent raise.

as for not having the intelligence or doing an easy job, here's my job description at the time: customer service, cashier, stocking, ordering parts, finding parts, having answers for customer's questions off the top of my head, cleaning, counting down registers, counting the safe, doing parts runs, setting up promotional displays, rearranging merchandise displays (plan-o's), bank runs, supply runs, ordering supplies, making sure customer's orders got to the store - also receiving and pick up of parts, & return to vendors. that was all in a normal week. when i had some extra time i also helped out in the service department organizing their paperwork or in the parts department with cleaning the store (as i regularly found customers parts). all this while people who were being paid more than me chit-chatted with eachother or made personal phone calls. so you tell me, did they deserve to make more than me? did i not deserve that raise because minimum wage went up?

think before you make accuasations - not everyone is coasting at work, some of us have a good work ethic - even those who make fries & are janitors at schools.

Answer 3

You're ignoring a multitude of factors that are at play in any given situation. Here are a few:
1. All people are not created equal.
2. Inflation raises the cost of living, and if the minimum wage did not raise with it, employee saturated economies would have employees working farther then necessary below the poverty line. (Poverty stricken societies statistically have more crime, health issues, poor education, etc.)
3. Those who are "unwilling" to go out and create real skills for themselves are necessary to the success of an overall economy, and are typically the most under paid, and under recognized for their contributions.

Answer 4

Most people working a t Wal Mart make more then minimum wage. I don't have a problem giving the working poor a higher minimum wage if they are supporting a family, but most minimum wage earners are under the age of 21. Raising minimum wage just hurts small businesses and takes jobs away.

Answer 5

Minimum wage has nothing to do with how easy a person's job is, or what they lack in skills. If you think of it like this, it's mainly teenagers and college students are working at the low paying jobs while completing school. Yes, I acknowledge there are some others working at these jobs, not trying to do better for themselves, but they have bills (like rent and car payments) so they need the money.

Answer 6

How about people that do something for you: the city employees that haul away your trash, keep your water running, clear the snow in winter. Do you think showing up at boring jobs is easy? Just being dependable is tough. Why don't we just let all the college graduates show us how to, oh I don't know,get oil out of the ground,dig ditches,do industrial jobs, mow lawns, string power lines and anything else too heavy or stupid for them to physically do. That way we can study and they can show us how strong, how tough, and how good they are at living on social security they can be.

Answer 7

I worked in fast food when I was in college. It was twice as hard as the job I am doing now that I am making a lot more money at. Although fast food is not mentally difficult, it can be physically demanding and stressfull. I appreciate the ones out there serving my food!!

Answer 8

So we should punish people for being unskilled? Everyone deserves a living wage; but in lieu of that, at least a minimum wage that reflects the rise in the cost of living in this country.

The majority of minimum wage jobs are in the service industry, which includes food service; nursing aides, orderlies and attendants; building service occupations (supervisors, maids, janitorial; and personal service (including jobs like teachers' assistants, child care workers, recreation workers).

So it's not just teenaged burger flippers.

Answer 9

Try living on minimum wage ! There are tons of jobs that pay very poorly. Not just the ones you mentioned. Your post makes no sense at all.

Answer 10

Well...if you are headed in that direction, maybe it gives 'em enought for a tank of gas, so they can go back to the Country that they escaped illegally.

Really. The best way to understand it is to look at your dinner plate full of food, and imagine how it got there. Unless you are the lucky, Republicand welfare coroporate farmer, the food came from the hands of somebody desperate to make a living.