What do you think about the Minimum Wage fight?

The issue isn't so much Burger-Flippers vs. the Military. It is basic economics. If you are a business owner, increasing payroll means that you either either have to raise your prices (which may price you out of competition with other similar businesses) or you have to cut hours, benefits, or even fire employees. Or the last option is to reduce your profit margin, which these days tends to be razor-thin to begin with.

What I have noticed is that a lot of the fast-food places (McDonalds especially) have gone to automated ordering and paying kiosks. Operating costs are a lot lower than paying an employee's wages, benefits, and kiosks never ask to take breaks, eat, don't report to work, have family issues, etc. So employers are seeing that automating their workforce is more cost-effective than giving a $15/hr wage + benefits.

So what these $15 minimum wage people are doing is actually legislating themselves out of a job entirely.

If you don't want to live off minimum wage, then don't have a minimum wage job...I haven't had a minimum wage job since high school...Gain some skills and get a better job or move up in your current company. Flipping burgers isn't a career, it's a job designed for high schoolers to give them experience for the real world.

If you're 30 years old and flipping burgers for minimum wage then you need to reevaluate your choices...

It's complicated. Back in the 60's when I could have been a burger flipper I opted for KFC. Perfect job for a teenager in high school. I made a whopping $1.25 per hour. Prior to that I worked at a gas station filling up cars, washing windshields and checking oil. I started at $0.50 an hour under the table. The owner decided to start detailing cars. Yup when I wasn't pumping gas I was detailing cars. The owner got $25.00 per car and I now made $1.00 per hour.

Why do say this? Awhile back when these jobs went from teenagers to grown family members the whole demographics has changed. Now we have single parents and families working these jobs to make a living. This is driven by the economy and the availability of decent paying jobs.

Bottom line is and I've heard it said many times "why should I pay somebody $15 dollars and hour to flip burgers"? This is easy to figure out. If I bring a new person in at $15 an hour where are they supposed to go from there? Everyone rolls their eyes about burger flippers making this kind of money. I've been there and done that and must say the model is all wrong.

In the new corporate world for some reason everyone has to be number one period. For them being number one only means how profitable their company is. The corporate (Human Resources Pondits) world decided to classify jobs. The model is if you are working at a fast food restaurant you are entitled to make this much money and maybe just maybe a little more after you have been there awhile learn a do a good job. Since this has been accomplished ACCROSS the country in every job title we have all become expendable and so has companies. Company mottos are now, if you want more money you must move up in the company even though there is knowhere to go. So the company brings you in as a partimer no benefits and you are just happy to have a job. The company is rolling in money, the shareholders want more money and workers are screwed.

Everyone and everything is expendable. The new model should be: Hire a Team! Keep that that team until they retire. WHAT!!! Yes, you hire them you train them and you continue perfect your product by sharing in the profits of the company. The more money the company makes the more the employee makes. WHY???
1. Worker productivity goes through the roof.
2. It's no longer just a job, it's a career and you are part of the family.
3. Pride in the product and service.
4. Better products and superior quality.

So, when we talk about flipping burgers for $15 an hour it's not a bad thought but you have to acheive that level of the by being the best burger flipper, best customer service, best at what you do. Currently entry level jobs are filled by 5 applicants that fill out the application and drop it off. The manager hires the one that can read and write and speak in a complete sentence. That's the person who is going to make your burger? Wouldn't it be great to order a burger and know that the staff Is professional, the product is good and actually get what you ordered?

We lost the pride in our companies and most of all the pride of our work force. No one cares about either anymore. Shameful.

If you look at large companies across the board you will see that the CEO's are worth billions. That's billions with a "B"!! Folks the average person can't even spend that much money. There is a retail family in this country who just posted the family worth at $152 billion. WTF.

BRING BACK PRIDE, OWNERSHIP AND EVEEYONE WINS.

As soon as "Sally McBurgerflipper" gets her way and minimum wage is $15/hr, the worm will turn and burgers will then become $15. Economics are pretty much always "trickle down" or "trickle up" with very few exceptions. Simply put, when cost doubles, prices double. Nothing is solved.

I have thought on this when if first circulated. First, an E-1 makes $8.84 an hour if he works a 40 hour week. We know that never happens. Training and such. Now that $8.84 an hour does not include BAS or BAH. Nor does it include Medical care. Both add to it. I am not saying it is super, but its liveable. Now working at McD's or any fast food restaurant. $15 an hour is a lot for flipping Burgers. But what they make now is crap. I do say raise minimum wage to $10 an hour and raise E-1 pay to its equivalent.

Now why raise the minimum wage. One these corporations can afford it first of all. They all ready find loop holes to get out of giving the majority of their employees Health Care. But $10.00 seems high? My thought is this. Some people do not have skills to make more money. Some people only have "minimum skills" This can be due to Birth defects, poor education, poor parents or no parents, loss of memory, just being slow, I can go on and on. While I hope these individuals can be inspired to get a better job, sometimes McD's is the only one that give them a shot. I am not saying all McD's workers are slow. Heck some like it there, which is amazing because I can just imagine what they see on a day to day.

I also call foul on the person who posted the original, Jennifer Harris, NOT 1SG Vetter. Her demeaning attack on people who are trying to get a better life by getting more money on a Job they are working is a sad attempt to make her point look bolder. Yes I believe the Military members are not paid enough, yes the government is cutting back on our benefits one by one. But bring up the issues. Make a solid statement supported by facts. Don't put down human beings who are Working, who are making a go at it and who are trying to make an honest living in this world. That just pisses me off and makes her argument seem like a childish ploy at a playground fight.

As a Career Counselor I see this all the time: 11B sitting in the IRR after completing his Active Duty contract, and "thinking" about what he wants to do with the rest of his life, and working at McDs or something similar. I offer him a USAR position as an engineer (either horizontal or vertical) and he turns up his nose saying that he wants to remain in the Combat Arms. Last time I looked there were not a lot of job openings for Infantrymen or Tank Crewmen. It makes no difference to him that with the housing market starting to rebound there are a lot of positions for trained carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and heavy equipment operators that are going to need to be filled. He is "planning" to go to college. When asked what he is going to major in his response is Art History, or something like that. When I ask him what he wants to DO with that degree he has no clue.

This is the same kind of idiocy that has infected our society at large. Kids get bachelor’s degrees in useless subjects with no thought of what job they want to do after graduation. My sister has a degree in Art. What does she do for a living? She's an assistance manager at a bank in a grocery store branch. She enjoys what she is doing, but if she had gotten her degree in finance instead of art maybe she'd be the manager or working at the regional HQ.

A college degree is not the end all be all, and there are thousands of such graduates that are only qualified to work at entry level (read minimum wage) type jobs. This does not mean that they are worth increasing the minimum wage to help them pay for those student loans for the useless degrees of theirs.

Let’s look at the repercussions of raising the minimum wage (MW):

1) Many places that pay MW work on very narrow profit margins so they would have to make up the difference in either reducing the number of employees, reducing benefits, cutting hours, increasing the cost of their product, or a combination of the above.

2) Within a few years the market would correct for the artificial increase in wages and we would be right back to where we are now.

3) Many of the people that are protesting for the higher MW would be out of a job because someone with a better resume would take their job. Think about it; your business hires entry level people for $8/hr and expects to take man-hours to train them to be better at what they do, and thus making them worth a pay raise. Now you are forced to pay those same people $15/hr. Many employers will forego the unskilled/unexperienced worker and hire someone with better skills and more experience for the higher wage since they will need fewer of them than the unexperienced workers.

4) An increase to the MW is an increase to all wages. I have a degree in Culinary Arts. I worked as a Pastry Chef at a local restaurant for over 10 years and my wages topped out at about $16.50/hr. If all of a sudden the busboys, dishwashers, and unskilled prep-cooks are making $15/hr it wouldn't be long before the wages for the skilled workers would have to increase or they would leave for somewhere that either paid better or where they didn't have to work as hard for their money.

Let the market set the wage levels. If what you are making is not enough to support yourself or your family, train for something better.

Decisions have consequences. If you want a degree in Liberal Arts, Archeology or Photography then expect to be working for minimum wage for many years thereafter assuming you have a job at all.

I dont think comparing burger flippers to military is a good comparison. As military people we get so much more then just an hourly wage, free housing alone not to mention medical etc... A good comparison would be a burger flipper to say a college educated IT guy who is making 15.00 an hour, vs the guy flipping burgers without a college education and no technical skills.

The min wage being 8.75/hr is modern slavery. Min wage was suppose to be a living wage, its turned into something degrading now. I think they should raise it to about 10/hr. The idea that companies will have to raise prices, fire people etc... just isn't true. People who already have alot of money just do not want to pass any of it on to their employees.

Oh, I just had an idea pop in my little ol' head.

If flipping burgers is your career choice, that is fine and your own personal decision. But instead of forcing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, how about this idea.

Go to work at McD's or some similar place to learn customer service and how an assembly line kitchen works, then move up to a place that actually cooks their food (i.e. What A Burger) and learn that. Then move to another place where they actually make their food that they actually cook, such as a burger place that is not a chain. A few great examples I can think of in the Dallas area are Maple & Motor, Stackhouse, etc. I know those guys make more than minimum wage, and they actually earn it.

Then if you are feeling good about yourself, try to move up to an actual restaurant with a Chef and Sous Chef, learn and grow. Then perhaps one day you too can make it to Sous Chef or Exec Chef and make some real good money.

Just a thought from someone who started out as a bus boy in high school and now makes a very good living in IT. Never stop growing and challenging yourself, that is the moral to this story boys and girls.

I personally think anyone who thinks they can make a career working at a minimum wage job is a fool. I realize not everyone can be a CEO, but anyone with the drive can at least make it to a Manager of a restaurant and no longer make minimum wage.

We as Americans have gotten lazy and needy. No longer are we the nation that took a transistor radio and figured out how to land on the Moon.

I think if you can justify a minimum wage, then you can justify a maximum one with the exact same logic.