What do you think about the Minimum Wage fight?

By stark definition, minimum wage is a beginning point. To my knowledge there has never been any intention of this initial earnings scale supporting a family - or even a single adult for that matter. It is designed as an entry wage, a starting point. Few, if any, learned skills and a minimal or absent work track record.

A "living wage" is a figment of the imagination. Who is permitted to define 'living'? I believe you will find that question will obtain a myriad of different answers depending upon who is asked the question. An employee has one person to look out for ... that employee. The business owner has the entire business to look out for - lock, stock, and barrel. Depending on the position that I am looking to hire for, to have a government agency TELL me I have to pay all my employee's a MINIMUM of $xx.xx is very clearly way off the mark. The only person concerned about my companies well being & survival is me. The county, state, and feds just want their slice of the pie they did nothing to earn.

I understand that employee's desire to be paid more and believe they are worth more. If I am not able to meet an employee's pay expectation while preserving my companies livelihood and structure, that employee is free to explore the market and find another company willing to meet that pay expectation. I am not forcing that employee to grind and toil for me at an agreed upon wage. To pay an employee a gross wage of $400, it costs me (my company) about $585.00 after which the government turns on the hoover and that employee ends up with about $320 give-or-take. SO this employee EARNED $400 that ultimately costs $585.00 to give him/her and he/she ends up with $320 to spend.

Jacking the minimum wage to any imaginary desired level costs me and I'm scratching my head at exactly what I get in return for this additional outlay? I'm not seeing anything I can wrap my arms around. If the employee wants a better wage, do what is necessary ... education, skills, training, the list goes ever on ... to put themselves in a better position - obtain a promotion or a better position with another employer and deserve (EARN) a higher wage.

I do not mean to upset or offend anyone, but the last time I checked the IRS does not define my business category as a baby-sitting service. Grow up a little, take a deep breath, and figure out how to do what you need to in order to get a higher wage, then follow through and DO IT.

All one needs to do is study the history of the minimum raise to see that a raise in minimum raise brings raises in prices that negate the raise.

It is not a solution that will have anything but a very short effect.

People after post prices from the good old days and wish they were back. The fact is people worked the same number of hours to buy and item then as now.

I think it's going to be sad for the minimum wage strikers when the corporations go to automated systems. Many countries in Europe already have automated ordering stands instead of employees. When it comes down to it, passing low skilled workers increased wages versus upgrading the company to situation, I think companies are going to be going automated. I understand everyone wants now money, but you don't always get what you want. In this economy I would think people would be more thankful for they jobs they do have rather than trying to force their corporate bosses to replace them with cheap software. I think the military pays us enough, but I don't see any justification to raising fast food workers pay to $15 an hour.

Without choosing one side or another, I think her argument is flawed. If she is trying to persuade someone it may a good idea to avoid the "baconator" and other condescending name calling. In addition, the comparison is inadequate. Joe military gets base pay, as she points out, but also does not pay rent, utilities or health insurance plus medical bills, but Joe civilian does. If the service member has dependents, they do get BHA (non taxable). They also get 30 annual leave plus DONSAs and are frequently allowed time off ti take care of family matters without using leave or affecting their pay. Joe civilian likely does not have health insurance, does not get even close to 30 days annual leave, and if he does is probably more like 7 days annual leave. If he needs to take little johnny to the dictor he'll either lose the little leave he has or do leave without pay. Anf if little johnny gets sick too iften Joe civilian might get fired (I've seen it). I am not saying that Joe military does not desrve the pay and benefits, all I say is the comparison is nonsense. Must have a solid argument if she wishes to oersuade anyone

This debate and the way our politicians (can't call them leaders, they don't lead) are taking it is seriously pissing me off.

First off, minimum wage is for jobs that require minimal skills. Now I get there are some jobs out there that pay minimum wage but require a higher skill set. For example, a security guard that has to go through a bunch of training, weapon proficiency in some cases, and puts themselves at a higher level of risk vs a cashier is getting paid the same as the cashier. That's BS and needs to be addressed/fixed. Or a cashier that can't get a job in Florida unless she is bilingual, and then gets paid minimum wage. More BS.

So now that I have addressed the argument for higher minimum wage in SOME cases:

The vast majority of these people don't deserve the $7-$8 they are making now!!!! In San Antonio, I subscribe to the Facebook feed for the local paper. Every week or so they post the negative results of health inspections on the city restaurants. HOLY CRAP! Not just mom and pop diners mind you, but franchised restaurants and big name/big price places too. It's disgusting. Beyond the roaches and rodent droppings, you get reports of week old recycled food, mold, spoilage, dishes not being completely washed.

And the people responsible for this mess want to be paid double what they make now?!?!

The 17 yr old high school drop out that stocks tampons and toilet paper at Walmart feels he deserves MORE MONEY???

Give me a break. And ultimately, consumers and taxpayers pay for this, so less hard earned money for us.

Minimum wage jobs - starting out in the work force, pocket money, supplemental income. It is not and never was meant to be living wage, career, or support a family.

Instead of wasting resources to make unskilled/underskilled people more wealthy - put those resources to make the unskilled/underskilled MORE SKILLED!

The way I see it, whenever minimum wage is increased, the people lose and government profits. Wage go up, prices go up, your incomtax bracket moves up and you pay more taxes and inflation rises at a higher rate than does the cost of living increases.
Thus we get more pay with less buying power. Just what the economy needs... I've seen it happen over n over, one more time for the working class retired to tighten their belts as well as the idiots who get the raise n wonder why the dollar doesn't stretch as far any more.

Does anyone else think by the tone of this post that this girl hasn't ever had to sacrifice anything to make ends meet? The way in which she speaks of these people is hateful and condescending and probably had a bit more in the way of opportunity than others. It's more than just "get out there and work for it!"

The point is to raise the bare minimum a little higher. Again, most people on minimum wage are receiving public assistance, I'd rather pay a quarter to $2 more for a burger knowing that these employees won't end up on welfare and that they can care for their families, and I think most reasonable people would also do that.

Also, there's the issue of wage disparity between high level executives, etc. Today, there's an astronomical difference between what a CEO makes vs. an employee than there was in decades past, and it's getting worse (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/15/executive-pay-compensationceoworkerratio.html).

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with making a good living being the CEO of a company, but when you're one of the Waltons, what's a small fraction of the profits? I probably sound like a hippie or something, but you're saying a CEO can't sacrifice pennies on the dollar to keep employees off of welfare? I think most people I know, myself included, would take pride in keeping employees off of foodstamps, etc.

Also, let's not lie to ourselves about the military. An E-1 gets that base pay on top of (usually) living in the barracks, eating free food at a dining facillity, access to free education benefits, correspondence courses, free trips to the dentist, eye doctor, regular doctor, basically any kind of doctor, medication, etc. You're telling me a Burger King employee working full time can afford even a quarter of this?

How many NCOs out there had to rip one of your privates for showing up in a brand new Challenger or Escalade or opening a ridiculous line of credit for a gigantically overpriced engagement ring from Harris Jewelers for that Hooters waitress they've been dating for three and a half days?

Soldiers have access to tons of useful financial responsibility training in the military when I was in, training that they don't really teach you out in the civilian world (at least not for free). They make it extremely easy to live within your means, even when a soldier makes a catastrophic mistake financially, like getting a new vehicle with a ridiculous interest rate. Let's admit that not hard to live comfortably in the military, because it really isn't.

Her comments ignore the reality that the job market is weak and that many college graduates are overqualified for their current jobs. A graduate degree is the new bachelor's degree, and it is becoming essential for obtaining a legitimate career for a high percentage of college graduates. This old but relevant (2013) article that I found indicated that 41% of college graduates from the classes of 2011 and 2012 were in jobs that did not require a degree-they were overqualified for their position.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/30/pf/college/college-grads-jobs/

We cannot fool ourselves to think that EVERY person will get a proportional wage hike. In fact some who worked to reach beyond minimum wage will be over taken by the new minimum wage and thrust back to the lowest rung through no fault of their own. This, combined with participation trophies and unearned advancement in education will serve to rip apart the spirit of competition.

I've got problems with this. First off any amount of money is not enough to do what we do/did and if you can find a dollar amount that you're willing to kill and be killed for than I'd say you're a mercenary.
The comparison made isn't fair at all. That number is just that PFC's take home pay. That doesn't include room and board, medical, dental, subsidized on post facilities like the gym, movie theater, pools, tracks, mwr, etc. That doesn't include the continual training he receives, either locally at the unit level, like PT(something civilians pay for), at the garrison level, like combat life saver (or something similar), brought to him from somewhere else (MTTs), or him sent to TDY (pldc or whatever it's called this decade).
These are all things that in the civilian world the employee would have to pick up at a much higher cost.

I run a small business, my wife is a teacher, medical insurance runs 450 dollars a month for my family, and additional twenty and ten for supplemental dental and vision.
Continuing education to maintain my wife's certifications and my skills current about three thousand a year. Room and board for four in a middle class neighborhood with decent schools? 30k ( coincidentally only slightly higher than the BAH + BAS rates in my area).
Just those numbers hit almost 40k. That's just a three bedroom house, food, medical and just enough education to not fall behind in central Florida.
I pay my employees $15 dollars an hour. I go a step further and promise them a minimum amount of money per day. If only three hours of work exist I still pay a minimum of five.
Why? Because, no one can live around here on less. I don't provide medical or any benefits at all. I don't even make a profit (sadly).
So my youngest employee, the son of a retired major, is riding tricare until he's kicked off in the next two years, my newest employee, a divorced single mom of three with a deadbeat father, is on Medicaid, and my star employee, who was hit by a car a year ago, is still paying her $52,000 medical bill because she has no insurance.

Yes, fifteen dollars might be too much in rural Alabama and not enough in Manhattan. I agree but something has to be done to correct the inequity of this situation. It's not just "unskilled labor" hurting, last year when I posted a vacancy, I had 1537 people apply for what was a part time position. Two years ago, I had applicants with masters degrees for a full time slot. It might just be the recession, but the people working in these jobs are still trying to feed and care for their families.
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