Minimum Wage Issiue.?

Question

Do you agree that the Minimum wage needs to be set with a cost of living increase set forth with it?

Government Jobs have it?

And do you agree/disagree that it is necessary due to the fact that Most, not all, companies pay the lowest wages they can get away with, instead of paying a person for length of service and skills learned in the job.

Also, Thought on Mandatory employee health insurence being offered by companies with over 25 employees.

Answer 1

*sigh* in a perfect world... This of course would require large companies to have integrity, and maybe forgo the multi-million dollar bonuses for the CEO's in favor of giving it to the people who actually earned it and deserve it.

Answer 2

I would have to say I disagree.

If you understand basic Economics, you know that as the price of anything rises, two things happen.

One is that fewer people want the product or service at the higher price than the lower. Graphing that is called the Demand Curve.

The other is that more people want to sell that product or service at the higher price than the lower. Graphing that is called the Supply Curve.

Where these two intersect is called the Equilibrium Point.

Setting a Minimum Wage lower than Equilibrium results in a shortage of Labor at that price, and the market forces will bid it up to Equilibrium before anyone notices. Similarly, setting the Minimum Wage exactly at Equilibrium does nothing.

It is only when the Minimum Wage is above Equilibrium that it has any effect at all, and it is not what the proponents intend.

It results in the Demand for Labor being less than the actual Supply. More people will want jobs than there are jobs to be had at the lowest price allowed by law. This is a direct cause of Unemployment.

If you think about one specific Minimum Wage job, counter clerk at McDonald's, for example, and set that job and no other at $500.00 per hour, isn't it easy to predict how many such jobs will exist, and how many people will want those non-existent jobs?

Government needs to stay out of such matters. There is no possibility that they will do any good, and a real threat of harm.

Answer 3

Theoretically, if wages didn't have a minimum, they would be set by supply and demand at the level necessary. Business that pay minimum wage do so because they believe minimum wage is the governments way of saying that 5.15 an hour (or whatever it is now) is enough for you pay a person.

The problem with just raising minimum wage is that as you do that, businesses will immediately decrease fringe benefits (vacations, health coverage, dental coverage, all things not monetary). Long term, the raise in prices will increase investment in technology that decreases the need for workers. It will, of course lead to increases in inflation, which hurts everyone.

Ultimately businesses will continue to spend a similar amount on labor. If it doesn't just decrease fringe benefits, Raising minimum wage will lead to people being laid off and the ones that remain employed being paid more; fewer people get more money. This doesn't solve any problems.


As for health insurance, one of your best bets was proposed by Bush, but I don't think ever made it. Allow small businesses to join together and purchase insurance at the same discount rates that big businesses can get.

Answer 4

I don't believe the Minimum Wage is a valid law.

Reminder: The Government is us. You me and all other tax payers. So don't think that you can get the government to pay for healthcare. It just ends up back on our backs!

What a person is paid is the result of a contract between the employee and the company. If no one will work for the wage offered the company will increase the wage or drop the job offer.

Mandatory Health Insurance is a socialist concept and socialism has failed all over the world.

Government intervention in the market place always results in unpleasant consequences. (Example: Boston attempted to restrict apartment rental charges so builders refused to build apartments. Pretty soon there was nothing to rent and there was a massive shortage of apartments.) Healthcase is the same way. Hillary told the American vaccine makers that they were not allowed to price their product beyond a certain value. Their costs were greater than the price allowed so they went out of business. Now America has fewer vaccine makers then every before. (Thanks Hillary, you saved us from paying higher costs but you caused most American vaccine makers to go out of business!)

Answer 5

Yes, it should be indexed to the cost of living.

Some will ignorantly say no because it only causes inflation, but those that say that have no issues that their yearly raises causes inflation.











sarcasm

The minimum wage hasn't changed in 10 years and yet we have experienced a high rate of inflation in the last ten years. See what happens when you raise the minimum wage, it causes inflation for decades after you raise it.

Answer 6

Minimum wage needs to be raised drastically, and COL increases should be mandatory.

Health Insurance should be covered by the federal gov't.

Standard work weeks should be 25 hours long, with 4 days off per week.

Answer 7

If I was earning what I was earning in 1972. I would be in the street. I don't think companies are hurting I think people are

3 step increase is scheduled as follows:

$5.85 - Summer of 2007
$6.55 - Summer of 2008
$7.25 - Summer of 2009.

I can't live on $7.25 now can you?

Answer 8

Raising the minimum wage only increases inflation, prices, and cheapens the dollar.

Answer 9

No. The CPI (from which the cost of living is extrapolated) is highly subjective and can be manipulated.

Second, the contract to labor is between the seller (the laborer) and the buyer (the employer). You have no right to shove your nose in. Unless, of course, you're smarter than everybody else, and we agree to your dictatorship.

For the record, I don't agree.

Answer 10

when minimum wage goes up so does the cost of everything else. it just makes people think there making more money when infact your not getting an extra dime.....