Minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $9.00 per hour

[opebo]

What do you all think about this survival issue?

[opebo]

Please, include a post about 'why' you support or oppose the proposed increase.  I see at this moment we have one 'don't support' vote, so I'd love to hear what is your intention:  is it that you believe various capitalist pipe-dreams or that you wish to see the poor eliminated by starvation?

[opebo]

you wish see the poor eliminated by starvation?

Well, if they're all going to be replaced by robots pretty soon...

Don't you have a Hajime Robot Restaurant in Bangkok or something?

Never heard of any robots in Bangkok.

And after all American workers are most definitely not being replaced by robots, but rather by even-more-powerless humans in China and other slave-countries.  The whole robot thing is a myth.

[opebo]

Yes, but $9 is not enough.

Great link!  I have personally always advocated $15/hour, but $21 sounds that much better. 

[opebo]

I'm very disappointed that the $9 isn't enough option has dropped below 50%.

[opebo]

I'm very disappointed that the $9 isn't enough option has dropped below 50%.

I highly doubt that most uselectionatlas.org members have ever had significant contact with adults who earn anything near the current minimum wage, so I'm not surprised.

Well, they have whenever they eat in restaurants.  So yeah, not 'significant' contact, but frequent.  The poor are everywhere - like the servile apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

[opebo]

Bump and goodnight.

[opebo]

raise it to around $15 like it is over in australia and index it to inflation.

That's absolutely correct!  I've been advocating a $15 minimum wage for years.

[opebo]

Economic stats>An anectdote

That's a pretty rude thing to say.

Worse yet it is inaccurate.  In fact most people stay stuck at low-wage jobs their entire lives, and a 'raise' is almost unheard of in the new economy.  The only exciting 'change' one can look forward to is being laid off entirely.

[opebo]

Economic stats>An anectdote

That's a pretty rude thing to say.

Worse yet it is inaccurate.  In fact most people stay stuck at low-wage jobs their entire lives, and a 'raise' is almost unheard of in the new economy.  The only exciting 'change' one can look forward to is being laid off entirely.

Cite?

Come on, DC, surely you jest?  What I mentioned was common knowledge.  And after all, why would anyone give a worker a raise unless they had too?  All the major employers - WalMart, McDonalds, etc, top out at about $8/hour.

[opebo]

...after all, why would anyone give a worker a raise unless they had too?  All the major employers - WalMart, McDonalds, etc, top out at about $8/hour.

I actually work part-time at McDonald's and we top out at $9, but that's still not much. I've been working there for four years and have seen some sketchy things as far as wages go. I remember, for instance, a time where a manager actually deleted hours that the closing shift worked after midnight so that it looked like they were done "on time." And then there's the girl who didn't get a raise specifically (I was told) because she didn't smile enough. And there's another friend of mine who didn't get a raise (and this is legit, as strange as it sounds, because I saw it written on his performance review) because "he plays too many video games."

It's mind-numbingly bad in the fast food sector.

Yes.  The physical pain of working in such a place (standing for eight hours) coupled with the dire psychological humiliation of the role (far worse than befalls any prostitute) would be enough to militate for a $15-$20 minimum wage, without even mentioning the obvious fact that employing people at $8-$9/hour actually doesn't solve any problems but rather causes social problems and acts as a drain on society subsidizing the McDonald's corporation.

[opebo]

Raising the floor for eligible legal survival only continues the Obama/Clinton progressive crippling of the USA - its ability to create the next/new auto, phone, energy, Gov. and food industries that are not legacy indebted. The older goods and services consumed today are heavily weighted with non-producing cost, hence, why I voted to eliminate the minimum wage, once realized, the 40hr work rule will be oblivious to be not good for the cost living also.

Perfect - falling wages is the prime plank of the Republican Party!

[opebo]

Why in God's name would you pay someone $15 or $20/hour to flip burgers?

To avoid creating the inevitable and much more expensive social problems which below$15/hour pay causes.  Allowing a 'private company' to pay less than a socially sustainable wage is a subsidy of that company by the State and all workers.

[opebo]

I oppose any and all minimum wage laws, that are not adjusted state by state for the cost of living. I don't like them theoretically (do it the income tax credit way, and avoid economic distortions)

This is perfect nonsense.  A negative income tax acts as a massive subsidy for low wage exploiters - tremendously distorting 'the market' (a misnomer for State policy) in their favor.  As if it wasn't distorted enough already by private property.

Under no cicumstances should we be paying people welfare who work - either the exploiter should pay a living wage which requires no other assistance to keep their serf alive, or that serf should be allowed to sit idle on a generous dole.  (not as generous as yours, Torie, but you get the idea).

[opebo]

In response to the OP, I do not think the minimum wage should exist. Ensuring individuals have enough resources to meet their most basic needs is in my opinion a responsibility of state when a person does not achieve it on their own. It does not make sense to burden firms with this kind of regulation. I reckon it is better to have a guaranteed minimum income and strong welfare regime.

My fear is that businesses would take advantage of that system by paying their employees an extremely low wage, knowing that it doesn't matter because the government will just write them a check anyway. Which could ultimately be even more expensive than our current system.

Raising the floor for eligible legal survival only continues the Obama/Clinton progressive crippling of the USA - its ability to create the next/new auto, phone, energy, Gov. and food industries that are not legacy indebted. The older goods and services consumed today are heavily weighted with non-producing cost, hence, why I voted to eliminate the minimum wage, once realized, the 40hr work rule will be oblivious to be not good for the cost living also.

Perfect - falling wages is the prime plank of the Republican Party!

Great headline, on the back page, “progressive tax participation revenue falls”; Obamacare has no more money - special needs & preexisting conditions now suspended…
...which is real?

What

This is actually one of his more easily-decipherable posts:
"That would make a great headline. And on the back page: 'Tax Participation, Revenue Fall; Obamacare Special Needs and Pre-existing Conditions Provisions Suspended.'
Which one seems more realistic?"
I'm not sure what that has to do with what you posted, though.

I took t_host1's post to mean strong, almost sycophantic support for what I had just posted.

[opebo]

For the millionth time, non minimum wage plus guaranteed minimum income is the way to go.

That's a lot more socialist sounding than having a $9.00/h minimum wage.

My objection to the minimum wage is based on the economic distortions it creates.

So why do you propose an alternative (guaranteed minimum income) that is enormously more distorting economically?

[opebo]

Why in God's name would you pay someone $15 or $20/hour to flip burgers?

I earned $18/hr to do that (US equ. $18.10/hr).

If you don't think that it's worth paying someone a sustainable, living wage to work for your business, why in 'God's' name would you have employees?  Get real, big fella.

But aren't prices in Australia equally as high?

If you can show me any people flipping burgers with similarity of location and lifestyle in the US, I'd be happy to move back

In all seriousness, no.  While the cost of living is higher here (especially in my particular instance, with my preference towards alcohol and tobacco, which are taxed according to their public health effects), $18 is above the legal minimum wage and less than what you will get as an adult working for McDonald's.

This is an important point that many here don't understand - the standard of living, regardless of legal minimum wages is much, much higher in Australia and many European countries than in the United States. The pro-rich anti-worker policies of the Bad Place have had an incredibly pervasive and indisputable destructive effect.

[opebo]

Graph of the relative income distribution in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, United States and Thailand.

[opebo]

Eighty votes is pretty good...