Anyone against the minimum wage raise that's included with the new Iraq Bill?

Question

Why are you against it?

Answer 1

It's inflationary and just a soup bone being tossed out to the "poor" voters to secure their votes.

Answer 2

The minimum wage should have been increased 10 years ago, its a disgrace , its so low that most states require that there workers be paid more then Federal Min. Wage, if people are willing to work 40 + a week and not go on welfare, then they deserve to make enough money to support there families. and though **** , if it lowers the standard of living for everybody else, after all the higher standard of living was obtain by suppressing the working class poor. in my opinion that's just one step above slavery.

Answer 3

Absolutely, Raising the Minimum wage is a way of insuring lower educated people will not get or keep jobs. It reduces the learning curve in small business... They need to perform immediately to allow the business owner to justify the cost.
Minimum wage is a socialist ideal we should let free market work, most places already offer more than min. wage so the market is working. but to force people to pay more wage is also a tax increase, because the Businesses also have to pay more payroll Taxes...LET THE FREE MARKET WORK!

Answer 4

Yes, I am against it.

First and foremost, there is no Constitutional authority for the government to be dictating terms of employment in a private contract between 2 private entities.

Then there's the historical fact that these raises don't tend to do what the people who legislate them say or think they'll do. Wages are based on supply and demand, like any other good. Artificially inflating the cost of labor beyond its productivity capacity serves the country and the economy and the people involved no good.

Answer 5

Yes. Less than 10% of the US Citizens working for minimum wage are primary breadwinners, or it is their primary job,
i.e. Teenagers aren't primary income.
i.e. Single mom works as a secretary during the day and cleans offices in the evening.
i.e. Dad works 50 hrs at the office and delivers pizza 2 days a week.
All the hike will do is put small business out of business.

Answer 6

I am against a minimum wage increase. Here's a snippet from an Op-Ed I wrote on the subject explaining why.

Now, forgive me for missing the logic in this latest Liberal idiom [a minimum wage increase] but I don’t equate as rational the very notion that while transitioning a dog from kennel to an all day free reign of the house, you give him a Milk Bone before leaving for a ten hour work day in hopes Fido won’t use your new carpet as his own personal toilet. Similarly, we ought not institute a Federal mandate on a business owner to pay a low-skilled worker an additional $2.10 an hour in hopes the business owner is going to receive a $2.10 increase in productivity. You need not be an economist to know that increased productivity begets an increase in earnings not the other way around.

Proponents of a wage increase, like Massachusetts’ own Senatorial lifer Ted Kennedy, cite that “Americans are working harder than ever, but millions of hardworking men and women across the country aren’t getting their fair share”. But, considering that the current Federal Minimum Wage is nearly $2.00 more, when adjusted for inflation, than what the $.25 an hour 1938 rate would warrant, the argument could be made that hardworking men and women are getting their fair share. And, contrary to Kennedy’s claim, the 2005 Minimum Wage Characteristics according to the U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) cites that hardworking men and women at or below the minimum wage are not in the millions. Kennedy further goes on to state, “We’re not rewarding work fairly anymore, and working families are falling behind.”

Perhaps Kennedy can allude to which working families he’s referring to. Might he be referring to the small business owner, with a wife and two kids, who’s hired a handful of young high school students (low-skilled workers who had no qualms about fulfilling an employer’s needs at $5.15 an hour) who is now forced to choose between cutting his productivity or cutting his profit margin to meet a government mandate? Or, is Senator Kennedy referring to that paltry percentage of married individuals working at or below the minimum wage; the percentage of which the 2005 statistics do not account for being childless?

Folks, the truth is that the bulk of workers at or below the minimum wage in earnings are young individuals. Consider that half of those workers are under the age of 25. A quarter of those workers are between 16-19. Going against this conventional wisdom, Liberals continually note that a person working for the minimum wage 40 hours a week would earn about $10,700 a year, an amount that falls below the federal poverty level for a family of three. And so therein, my friends, lies the problem.

The minimum wage job is a stepping stone on life’s path to self betterment. It’s not some sort of a grotto meant to support a family of three. The perpetual insistence of it as such, then using such an insistence as the backdrop by which to force an increase, would only condone and reward a failed social practice lending credence to the generational welfare cycle. A minimum wage job is meant to be a precursor of things to come. It teaches an individual vital skills such as responsibility, maturity, time management, professionalism, and organization; skills that they’re expected to take with them as they become productive successful members of society on the path to social betterment. A path that comes not via Liberal Democrat’s Robin Hood or Marxist theory (the redistribution of wealth), but rather a path which comes through hard work while reaping what you sow; in turn enjoying the very fruits of your labor.

Answer 7

Yes, for the simple reason that omnibus bills have damaged and are damaging our country. The Iraq Bill should have been strictly concerned with Iraq. If members of Congress want to change the mimimum wage they should have a distinct bill.

Answer 8

Yes, because it encourages inflation. We have to eliminate the Fed not backing our money with Gold.

If minimum wage goes up, so do all the prices of EVERYTHING.

Anybody making above the new minimum wage will then have a lower standard of living.

To eliminate the FEDERAL RESERVE - we need to get Ron Paul for president.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com

Answer 9

Yes. All businesses are going to raise their prices because they have to pay their minimum wage employees more. But, everyone who does not make minimum wage is not going to get a raise. So, prices are going up, minimum wage employees have it just as bad as before, and everyone else has to suffer because we did not get pay raises.

Answer 10

I am not against it. Minimum wage has not been increased in a long time. Inflation has been increasing this entire time. I know many businesses do not pay the minimum to their employees. They start them off at a higher amount. They do this because they know that the current minimum is too low. The other businesses that have been sticking to the minimum and want it to stay where it is are not the best places to work for. There is not much respect for the employee at places like that.

Answer 11

First it has no place being in that bill. Second, the rate they are going to climb it will cause about 10% of small businesses to either lay people off or they will have to close their doors.