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Should the minimum wage be raised even more then 5.85?
WASHINGTON - Fast-food waitress Fawn Townsend of Raleigh, N.C., knows exactly what she is going to do if her salary goes up with Tuesday's increase in the federal minimum wage: start saving for a car so she can find a second job to make ends meet.
No. It' shouldn't be raised even more. Minimum wage was never designed as a number that people are supposed to live off. The only people that should be working for that are students and the elderly looking to supplement their income. If say a middle age man is working for that and stays working for that then it's his own fault. You use a minimum wage job as a stepping stone, not a comfortable career. If you HAVE to start there you do and you move around, move up, prove yourself worthy of raises, etc. No, minimum wage should be lowered if anything! Some people just have no ambition in life to do better and they should not get raises handed to them when they haven't earned them.
The people who are against the minimum wage do alot of lying when they argue their cause. Here are some of their false arguments:
Few people make minimum wage anyway.-------True but many people who are working full time supporting their families are making just a few cents more than minimum wage and could be helped if the minimum wage goes up.
Employers will cut employees and not hire new ones when the wages go up due to a minimum wage increase. False. Few employers ever hires more people than they need anyway. If they cut employees the business will fail because their will not be enough workers to get the job done.
This is a tough issue. I think it is false to assume people are just lazy with no ambition if they are working low end jobs. Hard to get a good job without education, hard to get education without money, hard to get money working a low end job.
I am sympathetic to the small business owners that say this would severely impact them also.
Another thing to think about is if you raise the minimum wage a lot of people now getting some government assistance (food stamps, welfare) to supplement their wages will then make just over the limit for this assistance, and could actually end up worse off than before.
Should the minimum wage be raised even more then 5.85?
Only $5.85? It should be $9.00.
Quote:
Minimum wage was never designed as a number that people are supposed to live off.
Really? Why are they people working for minimum wage then? So they can have money to go to Vegas? Seniors need the minimum wage to supplement their retirement income. That's not living? Students have to pay for tuition, books and rent. That's not living? You and decent human beings must be living on different planets.
When you fight for the illegals, I assume you really care about them and poor people in general. But this "keep wages super low so poor workers can collect welfare and drain sources from the government" statement makes me question who you really are and makes me think of you in words I can't say here. This is exactly how Walmart treats the majority of its workers -- give them no benefits and pay them so little that they have to rely on governments assistance which tax payers pay for.
It's time to stop the cancer of corporate greed, and a higher minimum wage is a step in the right direction.
Last edited by Marka; 12-19-2007 at 03:45 AM..
Reason: edited quote
$9.00 an hour minimum wage is absurd. There is no number that will work across the nation. The federal minimum wage should be based by the lowest acceptable number in the nation. Then states and even cities and counties should be allowed to make their own.
Does anyone really think that $9.00 in San Francisco is the same thing as $9.00 an hour 100 miles east of Omaha? There is NO way that one number for minimum wage will make sense from coast to coast.
Also, there are an awful lot of employers that start people well above minimum wage. Most of the fast food places around here in TN start at $6-$7 per hour.
And no, I don't think minimum wage is supposed to provide for a whole family. I don't know a time that it ever did provide for entire families.
Also, illegal immigrants are flooding our nation to make minimum wage, which is A LOT better than they could earn in Mexico or whatever country they came from. But now that isn't good enough either and the US owes them a better living?
Class warfare will never end. People will always whine and moan that they deserve more, no matter how much they already have. Politicians feed the fire of class warfare to pander to voters and get elected, then do little to nothing to change the situations they promised to change.
I favor a higher minimum wage, at least $7.00 per hour. We generally agree that we don't support folks who don't work getting benefits, this is pretty much a agreed to point even on this forum. But we also need to appropriately reward diligence, and that minimum wage seems appropriate to me.
Getting folks off of support for lack of work also involves providing appropriate work incentives.
or you can look at as an incentive to succeed.. Trying harder so you don't have to settle for minimum wage sounds like a great idea to me.
Good example would be my daughter. She works at Sea World and has increased her hourly pay by about 40% in the last 18 months. She'll probably go pretty far there, but will get there because of her efforts and work ethic. Quite a few of the people that now work for her have been there for years and never progressed beyond entry level work. They complain, but can anyone really say they have a foot to stand on??
Also, I'm going to school @ age 40 so I can finally get that piece of paper and make more money. I'm very comfortable where I am now and we are in the top 10% as far as income, but I personally want more and am doing something to get it..
Employers will cut employees and not hire new ones when the wages go up due to a minimum wage increase. False. Few employers ever hires more people than they need anyway. If they cut employees the business will fail because their will not be enough workers to get the job done.
It's true an employer won't just cut employees that are needed to keep the business going. But raising the minimum wage increases employment costs and in order to remain in business, the company must either raise prices or cut costs somewhere. One option is to fire the lower-performing employees and expect the remaining employees to work harder or faster to cover it. Another option is to invest in some new technology that makes the operation more efficient, which allows the business to remain viable with fewer employees. Either way, some people lose their jobs as a direct result of imposing higher costs on the business.
A third option is for the business to defy the law and hire people who are willing to get paid lower wages under the table, i.e. "undocumented workers." Raising the minimum wage will only increase the number of businesses and workers who choose this option.
Also, illegal immigrants are flooding our nation to make minimum wage, which is A LOT better than they could earn in Mexico or whatever country they came from. But now that isn't good enough either and the US owes them a better living?
I am talking about legal American workers. Illegal immigrants should not even enter the wage discussion because it is illegal for companies to hire them. The US does not owe them anything. They are here illegally.
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