I am am always amazed about the sheer amount of effort put into increasing the minimum wage or implementing a living (subsistance wage) … shouldn’t we demanding the maximum wage possible, I mean if your going to put all that effort into it, why not shoot for something a WHOLE lot better? LOL
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Once again, we are learning concepts …
For instance, when I can work while on benefits, I like to make less than $1,200 a month, so I can keep my benefits.
The reason for a minimum wage is to create a minimum standard of living for workers. The minimum wage is just that, a bare minimum. Raising the minimum wage too much too fast can actually cost jobs because employers may not be able to afford them if they are too high and may just eliminate jobs. The exact minimum wage is a debate that you can have but expecting a car wash employee to make as much as a highly skilled worker is just not realistic.
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Speaking of minimum wage, my daughter told me that it’s still like 7 or 8 dollars in North Carolina. It hasn’t changed in a very long time. Here in New York it’s $12.50 and will be $15 by the end of next year, I think. My pay goes up to $15 in January.
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why would anyone want to fight for a minimum standard wage? Why should not those who do the the work own the company and as a group determine what is done with the profits generated from their work?
Minimum wage in the the UK is under £10 a hour. I make more money in benefits then my care staff make in wages a month, in-fact I make £800 a month more.
What is work anyways?
Here’s another aspect. If people working make more money with a raise, would it not follow that those seeking only to make a profit, would in turn raise prices? What outcome would that have for those on a fix income (the disabled or otherwise retired from what is deemed “work”?)
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Yes, I was thinking about bringing that up as well @mister_lister . If you raise too much too fast it can also cause inflation.
We are told that inflation occurs because there is too much money in the system. That seems not to be true, in of itself, because it does not factor in speculation, or am I wrong?
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I think the main reason for inflation is lack of products or raw materials for said products and wages. But yes, I suppose printing too much money and thereby devaluing it could also cause inflation.
I tend to think that human beings, when they fear that their income is threatened, even if it is surplus, would raise prices anyway, not entirely out of greed, but definitely from fear.
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If you take economics in school, you will learn that minimum wage hurts workers and distorts the market. And they will give you a mathematical model as to why.
Making $20.00/hour at McDonald’s may be a psychologically satisfying number, but that just means McDonald’s has to raise their prices to pay for it, as does every other business, or they have to lay off workers to afford to pay it… Even though you make $20.00/hour a lot of stuff you buy is going to be more expensive. So be it paying more for stuff or getting laid off workers are not that much better off, even though it may “feel” good to make $20.00/hour.
If they didn’t have a minimum wage, lets say McDonald’s only payed $1.00/hour, well all businesses would be paying around $1.00/hour so all business would have to lower their prices so people could afford things otherwise the businesses wouldn’t make make any sales, then they would go out of business which obviously they want to avoid.
From a purely academic point of view, minimum wage is distorting the free market preventing it from working as intended.
yeah a mcdonalds meal runs over 12 bucks these days lol. the min wage brings it all up.
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The cost of living is much higher in New York. My brother told me that a single pack of cigarettes costs $11.00 there. Seventeen dollars and hour in Tennessee will buy a lot more than it will in Chicago, LA, or New York City.
I get the basic minimum I can get on benefits, because my work history is so sparse. I do pretty well on what I get, though I’m afraid I might have to do some belt tightening soon. Right now were getting extra SNAP benefits, so I have been eating like crazy. As soon as the extra food benefits are taken away I will be eating a lot sparser. I buy all my clothes on special at the thrift store. Most of the other people where I live are willing to pay retail for their clothes. A few months ago there was this bag sitting around our clubhouse. It had sat there for a while, but then one day I picked it up. There were three pairs of Wrangler jeans just my size in it. Talk about a score. My needs for pants are taken care of for a long time. You can get a good pair of chinos on sale at the Manna Center, but chinos are not nearly as sturdy as Wrangler blue jeans. Not too long ago they were leaving bags and bags and bags of clothes sitting out around our assisted living center. People took to hoarding clothes. We’d get ready to help somebody move, and three of us would be hauling bags of clothes out of their room for over an hour. They suddenly quit leaving all the clothes around, though. I think it is to keep up the price of clothes in thrift stores. I guess that’s fair, but it makes me uncomfortable any time someone keeps the price of goods artificially high.
You’re forgetting the basic tenet of capitalism - pander to the rich.
Well, part of the idea of a minimum wage is so unskilled, poor people can make enough at a full time job to support a family. That’s who it’s for and why they want to keep raising it, so families can afford a decent standard of living.
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I’ve once worked for minimum wage (in Belgium) for 4 months. It was an interim sales job fulltime. I was payed (before tax) 1750€/ month, which is very low. But I did it and it led to better high-paying jobs. No regrets.