LOL $15 Min wage!!!

[pbailey212]

Fast food entry level jobs aren't meant to be careers. I have worked in the same grocery store for 9 years. Minimum wadge has gone up $3.00/hour scince then. My topped out wages have gone up $.85/hour since. The raising minimum wadge doesn't bring lower income people to living wage. It brings living wage down to lower wage class. You can talk down on coorperations all you want, but every job I had has always had opportunities to make more money. You just have to earn it. People don't realise how much cost of living goes up with minimum wage. Paying all fast food workers even $12/hour would transfer straight to the consumer, why get a $7.00 crappy burger when I could go to red robin and get a good burger for the same price? Fast food would be dead. McDonald's can even offer living wages and decent benefits if you actually apply your self. If you can't get above minimum wage, its your fault. Not the companies.

Sorry for the randomness, just thinking out loud

 

[unnamedny]

This seriously amuses me. As far as I know fast food industry employees are citizens of US or at least a legal aliens. They got skills and knowledge of it's country and good language skills. Living in New York I know people who make $1000 a week, cash, who have no rights to be in this country or work here at all. If fast food workers wanted to make money, they would go out and do it. You can get decent money without college degree. Become a blue collar, cab driver, construction worker etc.

I have a friend who went into fedex and became a truck driver. With all overtimes he had around 100k before taxes at the end of year.

So here is a thing, US is the easiest country to survive on this planet, there are many opportunities. They should stop crying like a little bitches and get their lazy asses back to serving burger. And if they don't like it, get a better job, because there are plenty out there.

Just raise the minimum wage by .50$ and lets get done with it.

 

[Chiral]

The cognitive dissonance of the people who argue for a $15min wage is astounding. (See: Seattle)


Yeah, the giant corporations probably could afford it. Unfortunately, those corps. don't pay the employees. The franchisees do, and they don't make $h**. Even worse, it would kill every small business (including the franchises) unless they raised prices 50% overnight to meet payroll. The only thing left would be wal-marts, targets, and corporately owned McDs and taco bells, who wouldn't raise prices and would wait out the 6 months until -ALL- of their competition was gone.

Where do I sign up?


Edit: and you can kiss every low-volume store goodbye. Want shoes, a video game, appliance parts, fast food that isnt made in China, clothes or GROCERIES? Better start liking wal-mart, because those stores would last about a week.

"Welcome to Costco, I love you."

 

[dibblebill]

And the Wal-Marts, as mentioned above, would then, after six months, raise prices and wouldn't even question it. You'd see sales and clearances vanish, too- see San Francisco and the Subway $5 footlong.

Its a horrible economic idea, and Romney would not have done any better than Obama, for those that implied he would've.

 

[ElasticNinja]

I think increasing benefits for lower earners would be a lot more effective.

Anyway, minimum wage where I live is €8.65, which is about $11. The US is a bit richer, so it could be somewhat higher.

Also, income inequality in the US is massive. Increasing the minimum wage is only one little part of the jigsaw.

 

[dibblebill]

Increasing the minimum wage isn't going to solve anything. Part of it is the social climate that comes with most wealth in America. What would solve a lot of it is removing all the padding you get for being that top 1-5% of Americans (a lot of whom are, interestingly, involved in government as a) politicians, b) Consultants, or c) lobbyists) in courts and such. And enough of the corporate welfare, that isn't helping either. What it will do long term is guarantee that there are less low-paying jobs (by getting rid of them) and less cheap items to buy. Especially since a lot of your fast food pays minimum wage, and a lot of smaller retail chains.

 

[Thatdad]

I think increasing benefits for lower earners would be a lot more effective.

Anyway, minimum wage where I live is

 

[chrlswltrs]

In WA it is $9 something.

So if minimum wage goes up, how is that fair to the people that earn more? They won't get raises also, so that just means they will be making the same amount as those that do nothing to earn a pay raise. Just another angle to think about...

 

[out of ideas]

I have never seen such weak economic discussion since I stopped going to bars.


federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the following states have set their own minimum wages, where the higher rater prevails.

Alabama: $7.25
Alaska: $7.75
Arizona: $7.80
Arkansas: $7.25
California: $8.00
Colorado: $7.78
Connecticut: $8.25
Delaware: $7.25
Florida: $7.79
Georgia: $7.25
Hawaii: $7.25
Idaho: $7.25
Illinois: $8.25
Indiana: $7.25
Iowa: $7.25
Kansas: $7.25
Kentucky: $7.25
Louisiana: $7.25
Maine: $7.50
Maryland: $7.25
Massachusetts: $8.00
Michigan: $7.40
Minnesota: $6.15
Missouri: $7.35
Mississippi: $7.25
Montana: $7.80
North Carolina: $7.25
North Dakota: $7.25
Nebraska: $7.25
New Hampshire: $7.25
New Jersey: $7.25
New Mexico: $7.50
Nevada: $7.25 for employees who receive qualifying health benefits, $8.25 for employees who do not receive qualifying health benefits.
New York: $7.25, $8.00 effective 12/31/13
North Carolina: $7.25
Ohio: $7.85
Oklahoma: $7.25
Oregon: $8.95
Pennsylvania: $7.25
Puerto Rico: $7.25
Rhode Island: $7.75
South Carolina: $7.25
South Dakota: $7.25
Tennessee: $7.25
Texas: $7.25
Utah: $7.25
Virginia: $7.25
Vermont: $8.60
Washington: $9.19
West Virginia: $7.25
Wisconsin: $7.25
Wyoming: $7.25

tipped employees (waitresses, bartenders, pizza guy etc.) are only gauranteed $2.13 an hour.

if you think people can survive on this pittance you are out of your mind.

 

[out of ideas]

here some more readin for you who hate "lazy bums working minumum wage" and also hate "those bums on welfare". the poor are not the problem in this country, the rich and greedy are.

(for full disclosure i despise the cato institute but they ran this particular study)

On Labor Day 2013, Welfare Pays More Than Minimum-Wage Work In 35 States - Forbes

On Labor Day 2013, Welfare Pays More Than Minimum-Wage Work In 35 States

Since 2009, the Fair Labor Standards Act has dictated that the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Some people think that’s too low; others think it’s too high. But it turns out that, in 35 states, it’s a better deal not to work—and instead, to take advantage of federal welfare programs—than to take a minimum-wage job. That’s the takeaway from a new study published by Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes of the Cato Institute.
“The current welfare system provides such a high level of benefits that it acts as a disincentive for work,” Tanner and Hughes write in their new paper. “Welfare currently pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states, even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit,” which offers extra subsidies to low-income workers who take work. “In 13 states [welfare] pays more than $15 per hour.”

you can read the rest, but you probably wont, and will just throw up some dumb quote you heard on some tv news program that you think is telling you the truth, but hey, i put it up anyway.

 

[ElasticNinja]

In WA it is $9 something.

So if minimum wage goes up, how is that fair to the people that earn more? They won't get raises also, so that just means they will be making the same amount as those that do nothing to earn a pay raise. Just another angle to think about...

The problem is for the bottom 50% who have seen little wage increases. If you're above that you've gotten plenty of wage increases already.

 

[Thatdad]

here some more readin for you who hate "lazy bums working minumum wage" and also hate "those bums on welfare". the poor are not the problem in this country, the rich and greedy are.

(for full disclosure i despise the cato institute but they ran this particular study)

On Labor Day 2013, Welfare Pays More Than Minimum-Wage Work In 35 States - Forbes



you can read the rest, but you probably wont, and will just throw up some dumb quote you heard on some tv news program that you think is telling you the truth, but hey, i put it up anyway.

For what it's worth, I read it. I agree with most of what they were saying.

 

[dibblebill]

No, those on welfare are not all lazy bums. I know of at least 3 people personally that their welfare case worker told them NOT to work or take a wage increase, because they'd lose $400 in benefits for makign $100 more (per YEAR)...

Our whole system is screwy, but increasing the minimum wage will not benefit it.

I've not been makign strong economic arguments because I'm kinda burned out on using reputable sources, then being told a personal blog is acceptable counter arguments, and that my sources are invalid because they are 'too hard to read'

 

[Thatdad]

No, those on welfare are not all lazy bums. I know of at least 3 people personally that their welfare case worker told them NOT to work or take a wage increase, because they'd lose $400 in benefits for makign $100 more (per YEAR)...

Our whole system is screwy, but increasing the minimum wage will not benefit it.

I've not been makign strong economic arguments because I'm kinda burned out on using reputable sources, then being told a personal blog is acceptable counter arguments, and that my sources are invalid because they are 'too hard to read'

You're a right, not all of them are lazy.

And as for the case worker.. If I was him/her supervisor I would fire him/her.

When will these people realize $100-100 doesn't = $500?

Do they not realize it's the lower and middle class ($20,000-100,000 a year) who's the majority of the tax payers for these irresponsible programs? And most of it is the ones making less than $40,000 a year.

If you're getting $40,000+ from benefits alone.. That's just ridiculous.

When FDR was president, people who didn't have money survived by getting small benefits and !WORKING! on large government contracts.

If you are not solving the problem you're part of the problem!
I'm about to start working at Taco Bell from 9pm to 5 am. So a chunk of pay check is probably going to go to some lazy person who makes $45,000 a year for not working??

Let them starve. If they're to damn lazy to contribute kick them onto the streets and give their children to actual responsible parents so we don't condition an already lazy young people to being even more lazy and dependent.

 

[Thatdad]

Or better yet, send them to prison for fraud and milking the system.

Want free housing and a free food?
Federal and State penitentiaries have all of this at your disposal.

 

[pbailey212]

I have worked grocery for way too long, seeing people buy lobsster, fancy steaks, energy drinks etc. On their food stamps and then loading them in their brand new SUVs is a bit disheartning. I make over 16/hour and I can't afford any of that. It's not just a rare occasion either. It happens a lot. I have started from the bottom. I made minimum wage, paid all of my bills. It wasn't easy, but it kept me motivated to work hard to have a higher quality of life. I see people come to work on government assisstance and work hard to hard to become self sufficient. And I see people asking for less hours so they don't lose state assistance. Life is not a level playing field, , its not meant to be, but everyone has a chance, I don't putty the ones that don't make something of it.

 

[dibblebill]

My moral premises aside, welfare suffers from a similar issue to Craigslist and other services- you never hear about when its used right, only used wrong. You only hear about the abuses of the system. The welfare system is bloated, overly expensive, and underfunded. It, at the very least, needs serious trimming and streamlining and cutting of unneccessary expenses.

 

[pbailey212]

My moral premises aside, welfare suffers from a similar issue to Craigslist and other services- you never hear about when its used right, only used wrong. You only hear about the abuses of the system. The welfare system is bloated, overly expensive, and underfunded. It, at the very least, needs serious trimming and streamlining and cutting of unneccessary expenses.

I think the welfare system is great for getting people by as they try to advance them selves. Unfortunately the way its set up, its more of an entitlement that becomes a way of life. I have no problem with my tax dollars helping struggling families who are working on making a life of their own. I do have a problem with my tax dollars going to families who chose to become permanent dependents of the welfare system because its easier.

 

[dibblebill]

Its also set up to KEEP you on it.

 

[Chiral]

The argument for welfare is that without it, babies would starve. Think of the children.

Before the welfare state, people would go to their families for support. If they had no family (the vast minority) they would appeal to the church. "Regular" people didn't become "beggars". There were no upper middle classers who met unexpected expenses and got buried by them.

The problem with discussion about modern social ills is that they do not exist in a vacuum. This is ALL part and partial a symptom of the destruction of the family unit and the appeal to governance to fill the void left by the absence. History is replete with examples of why the government is and always has been terrible at doing this, and it's the stuff dystopian novels are written about.

 

[dibblebill]

I disagree that the destruction of the family unit is at fault, but these are all symptoms, I do agree, of greater societal concerns and problems. I disagree morally with government programs, but playing from the side of "WE MUST KEEP THESE PROGRAMS", I don't think anyone would disagree they do need a SERIOUS reorganization before becoming workable and sustainable.

 

[Chiral]

Agreed entirely Bill.

At this point the mechanisms that government has replaced have atrophied so terribly that cutting government support entirely would be akin to draining an abscess directly into the bloodstream.

At this point there really only are a few ways this can go, in my mind:

1. The parasite outgrows its host and sends the whole shebang into systemic shutdown
2. The host recognizes the threat and responds appropriately, going through a period of intense discomfort and struggle as it recovers
3. Outside agent and/or disproportionate immune response tosses a wild card and you better pray it works out in our favor. (Military coup, populist uprising, foreign invasion, coordinated cell activation, aliens, etc)

If I were a betting man, I'd give odds to #1.

 

[SiempreTuna]

"Regular" people didn't become "beggars"

.. you clearly never heard of the 1930s:

In 1931, The Southern Pacific Railroad threw 683,000 vagrants off its trains and Free public flophouses and missions in Los Angeles provided beds for 200,000.

The same year, there were 20 documented cases of people starving to death in New York - probably the richest city on earth - and there were food riots in many states. A couple of years later in 1934, 110 children died of starvation in New York - in fact, there were so many stories of starvation CAMEROON sent relief funds

Before believing anything Fox reporters say, it's generally worth taking but a few seconds to check the odd fact

 

[dibblebill]

.. you clearly never heard of the 1930s:

In 1931, The Southern Pacific Railroad threw 683,000 vagrants off its trains and Free public flophouses and missions in Los Angeles provided beds for 200,000.

The same year, there were 20 documented cases of people starving to death in New York - probably the richest city on earth - and there were food riots in many states. A couple of years later in 1934, 110 children died of starvation in New York - in fact, there were so many stories of starvation CAMEROON sent relief funds

Before believing anything Fox reporters say, it's generally worth taking but a few seconds to check the odd fact

Yeah, I can't disagree here. However, those were also the periods of the Great Depression. I recommend Murray Rothbard's history of the Great Depression.
America's Great Depression: Murray N. Rothbard: 9781467934817: Amazon.com: Books

 

[ElasticNinja]

If you are not solving the problem you're part of the problem!
I'm about to start working at Taco Bell from 9pm to 5 am. So a chunk of pay check is probably going to go to some lazy person who makes $45,000 a year for not working??

Let them starve. If they're to damn lazy to contribute kick them onto the streets and give their children to actual responsible parents so we don't condition an already lazy young people to being even more lazy and dependent.

You're not just going to get $45,000 a year. In the US you'd probably need to be a paraplegic veteran with 12 kids.

It's great you've gotten a job, however a full time job wouldn't mesh well with studies... at all. It's a bit sad that people are pushed into working like that. It's a vicious circle that sucks the less monetary endowed in.