How many of you believe the minimum wage hike is a good idea?

Question

If you know the basics of economics, you will realize that it will do little more than raise the price of COGS, which will in turn do nothing but devalue the dollar.

Mr natural....minimum wage is a starting point......not a wage that can support a family. When it is raised for no reason(and I was a struggling college student for 4 years) it hurts the economy. If you don't understand the concept of making a profit then you should exclude yourself from this conversation.

Answer 1

I'd like to see a constitutional amendment banning any government-mandated minimum wage (it's absurd we actually seem to need an amendment to clarify that).

Aside from the direct costs, you are NOT SUPPOSED to be making a career living on minimum wage. If you make minimum wage, you need to be upgrading your skill set to do something more productive. The meagerness of a min wage lifestyle is the economy's incentive and signal for you to be more productive. No one else owes you anything in this life just because you exist.

And yes, every American kid is told constantly throughout their many, many years of free schooling what they need to do to not be a total loser. If they ignore that advice I really don't have any sympathy for them, they deserve the struggles that they will find.

Answer 2

That's exactly right. No one realizes that we're gonna end up with inflation and that everyone elses' wage is going to end up worth less.

My husband and I own a business and pay our one employee $7-$8 an hour (I don't remember) after giving him several raises and it means that after the minimum wage gets raised he'll just be making minimum wage after several years of good & loyal service.

I'm not sure if that makes sense the way I said it, but, yes, I understand the wage hike is not necessarily a good thing.

Answer 3

I doubt that increasing minimum wage has much positive effect on poverty levels.

The vast majority of minimum wage earners contribute second and third incomes to a household. On average, a family with a minimum-wage worker has a total income of $43,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2005, only about 2.5 percent of all hourly-paid workers earned $5.15 or less. More than a quarter of these workers are between the ages of 16 and 19. About 60 percent are part-time workers. Only 1.5 percent of hourly-paid workers over the age of 25 made minimum wage.

One negative impact is that most economists agree that minimum wage increases unemployment:

A 2000 survey by Dan Fuller and Doris Geide-Stevenson reports that of a sample of 308 American Economic Association economists, 45.6% fully agreed with the statement, "a minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers", 27.9% agreed with provisos, and 26.5% disagreed.

Other negative factors is that businesses have to either cut hours and/or jobs or raise prices or decrease profit margin.

One positive impact it may have is that higher wages means demand for higher productivity and skill. This could possibly deter companies from hiring unskilled illegal immigrants since this closes the gap between unskilled worker wages and skilled worker wages. This in turn could motivate an employer to maximize efficiency by hiring the skilled worker since there is not as much of a wage gap.

Answer 4

In general, the only benefit from raising the minimum wage is the politican who supports it becomes more popular with the minimum wage earners, and the rest of society ends up footing the bill through increased trade imbalance.

Answer 5

Considering there's a thousand other factors (insurances, rents, oil, gas, utilities, etc., etc.,) in COGS rising on a regular basis BEFORE the minimum wage hike even goes into effect .... it's just another excuse retailers can use. We'll just keep paying people nothing while charging them prices they already can't afford ........... sure, makes sense. Hope your next Big Mac tastes good which some kid earning minimum wage just spit in after reading your thread.

Answer 6

We were just talking about that today, while waiting for pizza at "Hungry Howies." One of the people mentioned that since the minimum wage went up, so have all the prices in stores and food places.

Also, my youngest child works in food--and the managers have had to cut everyone's hours--not cool!

Answer 7

5.15 = 206 week = 10,712 a year

It's not above the current poverty threshold. 14,700 for singles.

I'm hoping that most employers use the minimum wage to allow employees to prove themselves and go on to increase wages with time of successful employment.

Go into a class room full of children, understanding that they each have different skills and abilities. Come to care about them and tell them...ok some of you will be better off, but some of you...this is all society is willing to offer you for full-time work. Picture their future..will they be happy? will they be tempted by crime more than you're comfortable with?

A careful home economist could scrape by quite well with this, but that would take skills that many of the people who are destined to a life of minimum wage may not have, plus they have to navigate a wold full of predatory lenders who can take living with 10K from possible to impossible very quickly.

I know it affects the economy, but I think we should offer everything we possibly can.

Answer 8

yeah but the people making minimum raise will actually think they have more money to spend. all it does is put more money in the governments tax collection plate.

Answer 9

bad thing because then prices will inflate agian and then it will rise again the dollar will turn useless