Raising the Minimum Wage

[mrisha]

I do believe it's a good idea for those making less than minimum wage.  The problem is all those raises will increase the price on everything.

[vickysue]

It is going to raise the cost of everything in order to pay the raise, and or more people will be laid of and will go on welfare and it is already stretched so tight something is going to have to give. When it comes to more people on welfare then are working , well I hate to think about it.  I believe people should be given a raise for good work, but lets do it in small amounts not just double it. And lets face it flipping burgers is an easy job, but get an education and you will have a better job.
 

[Skyisbluetoday]

Raising the minimum wage, might raise other price's too.

[svetka05]

I personally believe that minimum wage should be $10/hour. I know so many struggling families where finding a good job is harder for them, not talking about how much they get paid per hour which is low with general labor jobs. Government should look into that issue and hope will give more opportunity for poor to middle class people.

[paints]

If minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be around 23 dollars an hour now.
Instead of raising wages, companies have paid their CEOs and owners billion dollar salaries.
If they don't want to pay the people who are making money for them, maybe the CEOs and owners should do the work themselves.

Here is the thing.  The CEO of McDonald's I am sure is a very rich man.  The owners of the individual restaurants are not hurting for money.  BUT, the people who fry french fries, flip burgers, and take orders are not worth $23 an hour.  Heck, doctors don't even make that.  If you want to make $23 an hour you need to go to college and get an education.  You cannot expect to get a job in a fast food restaurant and make $20 plus an hour.  That is just ridiculous. 

And I guarantee if YOU owned your own business, say a fast food restaurant, you would pay dead beat worthless employees the minimum wage.  You would not pay them $20 an hour and share you fortune.  You would keep it for yourself.

If MY fortune was made on the backs of workers who had to get food stamps to feed their families, you bet I would share the wealth.

If you don't value your employees enough to pay them a living wage, then you don't deserve your fortune.

As far as education, do you have any idea how many college graduates are flipping burgers? There are a heck of a lot of them.

[countrygirl12]

If minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be around 23 dollars an hour now.
Instead of raising wages, companies have paid their CEOs and owners billion dollar salaries.
If they don't want to pay the people who are making money for them, maybe the CEOs and owners should do the work themselves.

Here is the thing.  The CEO of McDonald's I am sure is a very rich man.  The owners of the individual restaurants are not hurting for money.  BUT, the people who fry french fries, flip burgers, and take orders are not worth $23 an hour.  Heck, doctors don't even make that.  If you want to make $23 an hour you need to go to college and get an education.  You cannot expect to get a job in a fast food restaurant and make $20 plus an hour.  That is just ridiculous. 

And I guarantee if YOU owned your own business, say a fast food restaurant, you would pay dead beat worthless employees the minimum wage.  You would not pay them $20 an hour and share you fortune.  You would keep it for yourself.

If MY fortune was made on the backs of workers who had to get food stamps to feed their families, you bet I would share the wealth.

If you don't value your employees enough to pay them a living wage, then you don't deserve your fortune.

As far as education, do you have any idea how many college graduates are flipping burgers? There are a heck of a lot of them.

You have to also go to school for something that you can get a job in that field.  I know people who have went to school for something totally stupid.  They have no intention of moving and in the small town I live in are not going to be able to get a job in their field of study.  I went to college, and I am working a part time job in retail.  I lost the job I had for almost 25 years.  I am well aware of how hard things are.  More aware than people in my daily life know about.

Here is the thing about a "liveable wage" - it goes back to what you can live without.  I personally know people who get food stamps, work part time, and cry about how hard their life is and how they don't have the money to pay their bills.  But yet, they have cable tv, internet, gym memberships, go out to eat, go to the movies, and the list goes on.  These are not things you NEED.  People need to learn to live within their means.  If you do not have the money for the extras then you do not have them.

I can see it both ways.  I have in the past worked for min wage and know it is tough to live on that.  But I cut out the extras and I managed.  Nobody owes me or you anything.  Too many people think the world owes them something.  Back when min wage was $5 an hour and that is what I was paid yes I thought it needed to be raised.  It was.  I see now that it did not get us any where.  As predicted the price of everything went up so therefore you pay more for what you purchase (food, gas) and you still don't have any extra money.

This is kind of one of them pointless discussions.  You can talk til you are blue in the face and people don't understand the concept. 

[moonangel]

yes raise mininum wage but prices need to be kept the same.  giving us more money and raising the prices of everything we buy in the end is fruitless. 

[lvstephanie]

I know how you feel about talking till you're blue in the face and people not understanding. I think that that is because so many people have a poor understanding about economics in general. When you learn about economics, you understand that it is describing a dynamic system. If you do one thing, it has effects on other things. If you raise the price, the demand goes down. If you give more currency to a person than the work for that pay is worth, you decrease the value of the currency (esp if the government does this throughout the entire country's economy).

[lvstephanie]

yes raise mininum wage but prices need to be kept the same.  giving us more money and raising the prices of everything we buy in the end is fruitless. 

So you're saying to raise the minimum wage so that people can purchase what they want (increase demand since more people can now afford an item) but hold the prices the same. This will end up with shortages of the product. Just witness what happened in the 1970s with gas... Gasoline prices were capped and as a result there were mass shortages across the country with people waiting in long lines just to get any gas that was available. In fact some economists determined that some people were actually paying more for their gas during this time period if you took into account not only the money paid for the gas, but also the opportunity costs of having to wait in line instead of spending that time working.

[paints]

yes raise mininum wage but prices need to be kept the same.  giving us more money and raising the prices of everything we buy in the end is fruitless. 

So you're saying to raise the minimum wage so that people can purchase what they want (increase demand since more people can now afford an item) but hold the prices the same. This will end up with shortages of the product. Just witness what happened in the 1970s with gas... Gasoline prices were capped and as a result there were mass shortages across the country with people waiting in long lines just to get any gas that was available. In fact some economists determined that some people were actually paying more for their gas during this time period if you took into account not only the money paid for the gas, but also the opportunity costs of having to wait in line instead of spending that time working.

The gas shortages in the 70s were caused by a deliberate oil embargo by OPEC.  It didn't have anything to do with demand, or wage increases.

[reiddb]

It is a HORRIBLE idea and will cause less jobs and business owners hate it!! Terrible idea!!!!

[countrygirl12]

It is a HORRIBLE idea and will cause less jobs and business owners hate it!! Terrible idea!!!!

What most people are not smart enough to see is yes they may raise your pay but they will cut your hours.  The average yahoo out here has no clue as to the over head that goes into each employee.  Most people think if you make $8.00 an hour then that is ALL that is being paid out of what the establishment makes for each person.  But that is no where close to all that is paid in. 

But it all boils down to what I said before.  YOU accept the job for the pay offered.  Jobs are hard to come by so people need to live within their means.  Cut out the extras.  And if you are not happy with your job then find another one.  If min wage is increased to $10 an hour we will have even fewer full time jobs, fewer part time jobs, and the part timers will have even less hours.

It's kind of like when the businesses were forced to provide healthcare.  Everyone said it won't hurt anything.  It won't make a difference.  But yet it did.  Businesses give employees 10-15 hours a week, call them part time, and get around offering benefits.  Yes, part timers have the option of health insurance but it is basically worthless, does not pay enough to make it worth having, and is too expensive for someone working 10 or so hours a week to be able to afford.

[lvstephanie]

yes raise mininum wage but prices need to be kept the same.  giving us more money and raising the prices of everything we buy in the end is fruitless. 

So you're saying to raise the minimum wage so that people can purchase what they want (increase demand since more people can now afford an item) but hold the prices the same. This will end up with shortages of the product. Just witness what happened in the 1970s with gas... Gasoline prices were capped and as a result there were mass shortages across the country with people waiting in long lines just to get any gas that was available. In fact some economists determined that some people were actually paying more for their gas during this time period if you took into account not only the money paid for the gas, but also the opportunity costs of having to wait in line instead of spending that time working.

The gas shortages in the 70s were caused by a deliberate oil embargo by OPEC.  It didn't have anything to do with demand, or wage increases.

True, OPEC created a decrease on gas supply which should have caused gas prices to also rise. And the higher prices would in turn decrease demand so that it would match the decrease in supply. With true free market forces working, although the prices would be higher, it would also cause people to conserve more, and other companies to try finding alternate forms of fuel and/or increase their own production to capture the profits by the elevated prices (all of which could be witnessed during the 2000s when gas prices were about double than what they are now).

However in the 70s, people were afraid of letting the market just naturally adjust to the OPEC embargo; afraid that gas stations would "gouge" their customers with their prices. So then Presidents Ford and Nixon enacted price controls on gas thereby fixing a lower price for gas. Thus we had low supply, an artificially lower fixed price, and demand that hadn't changed. As a result, we had shortages of gas and lines at gas stations.

Supply and demand are inversely related; you can't talk about one without talking about the other. Under a free market system, whether the supply decreases or the demand increases, the result would be that prices would rise. However if prices are capped while either the supply or the demand changes, it will lead to shortages. So while it's true that in my example, the shortages in oil were cause by a price control and a decrease in supply, moonangel's suggestion would also lead to shortages caused by a price control but an increase in demand.

[oldbuddy]

It all comes down to one thing, the money has to come from somewhere. If you pay the workers more, the prices go up, PERIOD.

[paints]

yes raise mininum wage but prices need to be kept the same.  giving us more money and raising the prices of everything we buy in the end is fruitless. 

So you're saying to raise the minimum wage so that people can purchase what they want (increase demand since more people can now afford an item) but hold the prices the same. This will end up with shortages of the product. Just witness what happened in the 1970s with gas... Gasoline prices were capped and as a result there were mass shortages across the country with people waiting in long lines just to get any gas that was available. In fact some economists determined that some people were actually paying more for their gas during this time period if you took into account not only the money paid for the gas, but also the opportunity costs of having to wait in line instead of spending that time working.

The gas shortages in the 70s were caused by a deliberate oil embargo by OPEC.  It didn't have anything to do with demand, or wage increases.

True, OPEC created a decrease on gas supply which should have caused gas prices to also rise. And the higher prices would in turn decrease demand so that it would match the decrease in supply. With true free market forces working, although the prices would be higher, it would also cause people to conserve more, and other companies to try finding alternate forms of fuel and/or increase their own production to capture the profits by the elevated prices (all of which could be witnessed during the 2000s when gas prices were about double than what they are now).

However in the 70s, people were afraid of letting the market just naturally adjust to the OPEC embargo; afraid that gas stations would "gouge" their customers with their prices. So then Presidents Ford and Nixon enacted price controls on gas thereby fixing a lower price for gas. Thus we had low supply, an artificially lower fixed price, and demand that hadn't changed. As a result, we had shortages of gas and lines at gas stations.

Supply and demand are inversely related; you can't talk about one without talking about the other. Under a free market system, whether the supply decreases or the demand increases, the result would be that prices would rise. However if prices are capped while either the supply or the demand changes, it will lead to shortages. So while it's true that in my example, the shortages in oil were cause by a price control and a decrease in supply, moonangel's suggestion would also lead to shortages caused by a price control but an increase in demand.

They fixed the price of gas in the 70s because there WAS price-gouging.

As for the free market, there is no such thing, as long we subsidize industries with taxpayer dollars.
The law of supply and demand only works if people have choices.