Are you happy the minimum wage increase passed?

Question

The federal $5.15 per hour minimum wage will be increased to $7.25 by 2009. The last increase was 1997. In the last 10 years Congress has increased there own wage now at $165,200 per year. Most members of Congress were already million airs before they went into politics. I am happy. The 29 States that have a higher minimum have not reported the problems that Republicans have used as reasons for not giving the increase.
The vote was 315-116. 80 Republicans joined Democrats in passing the wage increase. Bush will veto this bill, if it does not have tax breaks for the wealthy corporations included.

There are many who do not understand the simple concept of compitition. Do we really need 3 Burger Kings, 3 McDs and 3 Wendys in one town of 40,000 people?. Compitition may very well change this.

Some people do not understand even simple economics. I support a competitive market. If you can't compete your out of business. Now you know why the Republicans want more illegals not less, they need them to exploit.

Anthony, in economic 101 you must have been sleeping. There is no such simple law. Read Henry Fords books, he had it right long ago. Also the 29 States that have a higher minimum wage have reported no such thing as lost jobs in totals. You have no prof of that wild claim.

Answer 1

Yes I'm glad. The people working for minimum wage need all of the help they can get. A buck just doesn't go very far, and this will help them a little. I hate it when people say people working for minimum wage are losers. That is not true, and they are working. When I was younger I had to work for minimum wage to put myself through college. A boost in the minimum wage would have helped tremendously.

Answer 2

Why stop at $7.25?? Why not raise it to $10? It would be much easier to calculate your pay each week !!

The concept our system is based upon dictates that the amount of pay earned for doing whatever a particular job, is calculated by the amount of skill/talent/training the job requires & what the going rate is in a given geographic area based upon availability of labor & their willingness to do the job in question.

Explained more simply, if you don't feel it's worth it to do a job for the pay being offered.....don't take the job!!

Why not have the government stipulate how much things should cost? Maybe they would reduce the ridiculous tuition charged by most of the colleges & universities in this country (which have increased dramatically for no apparent reason the last few years), & folks wouldn't have to work so much to afford school.

Then they could decide how much the maximum pay should be for each job, & people would no longer spend years training to be doctors, scientists, etc, because it wouldn't be worth the time & effort.

That system has been tried it's called communism, or socialsim depending on exactly how the government interferes...

Our capitalist system WORKS.....& it works great. If I don't want to do a job for the pay offered I find a different job. If a hamburger costs too much at a certain restaurant, I'll eat somewhere else!!!

It's not really an issue of Democrats or Republicans (by the way I am a lifelong Dem!) Our system operates best with the least interference. That is why it;s called the Free Market.

I'm happy you are earning more though.....cuz now you'll be paying more taxes as well, & maybe mine will stop going up so fast!! ( Yeah right!)

Answer 3

Well it's not going to help like some people think it will. small shops that only make enough to pay their bills and have a small amount left in the profit margin will not be able to maintain the same number of employees, they will have to cut back numbers or go up on product which in turn will lead to smaller sales.Either way the mom and pop shop owners will lose . 5.15 per hr is better than zero or to you and I another person in the unemployment line and at that point it has an affect on all the tax payers. Most large company's are already paying more per hr than 7.25 so who will it hurt and who will it help, the kids working after school at McD's . I think our elected officials could find more pressing items to put on their agenda,

Answer 4

For those who work for minimum wage this is good, however beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing. There is a simple law in economics that proves when minimum wage is increased jobs are decreased.

Example: You are a small business owner and pay 5 part time employees minimum wage for 10 hours work/week. That's $52.50/person or $262.50 a week paid for worker wages. If the minumum wage goes up and your budget for worker wages stays the same you have to either let people go or reduce your personal wage margin to increase the wage budget for others. People lose jobs.

Answer 5

None of this matters because the White House has already said that they will veto the bill and there will not be enough votes to override the veto in the Senate.

Many states have already begun to raise their minimum wages above what Congress is proposing now anyways.

Answer 6

To: aka annie

It is easy to think with compassion rather than reason. If you examine the raising of minimum wage on its surface, it seems quite a noble and humanitarian proposition. I can agree with the measure on only one point, which is that no one can possibly live off of the current minimum wage. Besides, while you were going to college and I'm sure it was rough affording what you needed on a minimum wage, did this not also serve as an excellent life lesson for you, as in, you KNEW you had to finish college so you didn't get stuck at the bottom of the pay scale?

The problem I have with raising minimum wage is that though you give a minimum wage earner more “buying power”, that buying power will be quickly reduced because prices WILL go up. Further, the people most hurt by a new minimum wage are those workers who already make slightly more than the minimum wage. Though their minimum wage counterparts will see additional income, these individuals will see no increase but will also have to deal with prices increasing.

A truly free market based economic system is the very best solution, as workers will not work for a wage that they cannot afford to live off of and where their work experience can command a higher pay rate.

Though I can understand your frustration over debaters labeling those who work for a minimum wage as “losers”, do you personally actually know anyone who works for minimum wage or has worked for a minimum wage throughout their lifetime? Generally if you have good work ethics and you apply yourself and attempt to better yourself, you WILL see advances and a greater pay as a result of your work. Though I won’t label a minimum wage earner a “loser”, I will stand up and say you have to at least question to a significant degree why someone without a disability of some sort has ended up working their life for minimum wage. Hmmm… gets you thinking a bit I hope.

Additionally, though I have not actually looked at the report myself, a study was done on the individuals in the country who DO work at minimum wage which was determined to be around 8% of wage earners. What was found in the study was that a vast majority of those working at the minimum wage rate were older retired individuals who wanted to supplement their income and high school or college students entering the work force for the first time.

We don’t need a raise in minimum wage. What we do need is more concentration on education and real job skills for decent paying positions. America is rapidly falling far behind other countries in terms of educating and preparing its citizens for work careers.

Aside from the negative impact you also have to examine the political objective in passing this measure. This was something promised by the Democrats. If you think for one second they are doing it for humanitarian reasons, think again. We’ve got a Presidential election coming up where there is no incumbent and this is something they can use to say, “see, we promised we would, and kept our word, VOTE for us!!” If they truly wanted to be humanitarian they would be looking at ways to get people at the bottom of the pay scale trained for more skilled positions (i.e. taking responsibility for themselves rather than letting “Nanny Government” do it for them). Raising the minimum wage is not what we need. Access to job training and better education IS what we need.

Answer 7

Just another example of the Government pissing down your back and telling you it is raining out.
LOOK what they have done for their selves

Congress has now voted itself a total of $16,700 in raises over the last six years. Since 1990, congressional pay has increased from $98,400 to $154,700 in 2003.
A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it.

Congress: Benefits
Members of Congress receive retirement and health benefits under the same plans available to other federal employees. They become VESTED AFTER FIVE YEARS of full participation

how many years do you have to work for life time benefits??

Answer 8

If the damn government would stay out of our lives, asnd watch our coast, and borders, we would be able to become one income families again, as in grandma's day. Crime and social ills would all but disappear, as more time with our family, would provide the guidance, and love needed to build the character of our youth. Money alone, can not solve a problem, it takes the common sense direction of our elders, that would accumulate respect, by being there when needed, and to lean on, lest we fall.

Answer 9

sooner Bush leaves office the better. I can not believe those pulling down huge incomes really want to pay a minimum wage of what is actually in buying power lower than any previous minimum wages. This is as close to feudalism as I think we can stand.

What we need to do is pass a maximum income law according to a formulae like no one can have an income more than 1000 times the wage of the least paid worker. As it is people make more money than they can spend on their own comfort and then the only thing left to purchase is power over others.

Answer 10

I am very happy that it changed, in Ohio the new minimum wage is $6.85, i am a server and the tips are not always good, so i need my check for alot of things, i mean a $25 check sucks