Why the fight for minimum wage?

[NYcarbineer]

For those who want the minimum wage to be increased.......why?

1) You do realize that businesses will only respond by increasing the cost of goods and services, right?

2) You do realize that increasing the minimum wage will have a substantial negative effect on small businesses, right?

3) You do realize that such an inhibition upon small businesses will result in increased market share being gained by large corporations as small businesses close shop, right?

4) You do realize that corporations will not settle for a smaller share of profits to pay for such an increase, because the people in charge are greedy bastards whose own income is tied to their ability to minimize labor costs, right?

So what do you hope to accomplish by supporting an increase in the minimum wage?

It's the right thing to do.

 

[dblack]

For those who want the minimum wage to be increased.......why?...

It's kind of like the patriotism/flag-burning shit is for Republicans. Just a sideshow they use to stir up the base and distract everyone else. In other words, a circle jerk.

 

[blackhawk]

I have no objection to bumping the minimum wage up 50 maybe even 75 cents a hour it's this calling for doubling it to $15.00 dollars a hour that is beyond unrealistic.

 

[whitehall]

How could a federal law to increase the minimum wage possibly help the economy? Small businesses would be forced to fire even part time workers or hire people off the books and the feds would steal every dime they could in income and FICA taxes. It's nothing but a political ploy by a failed administration and a desperate attempt to rally the base.

 

[Old Rocks]

because the total failure of leftards politics for the last 5 years leaves them with the populist options only

Dang. Such a lot of failures. ACA is now in effect. President Obama was elected to two terms. Virginia just went Blue. As did Florida in 2012. Texas by 2020. Yessirree............. what a record of failure we liberals have had for the last five years. Market went from about 6550 in March of 2009, after 8 years of the GOP, to over 16,000 today. We were losing over 500,000 jobs a month in the Bush economy in January of 2009. Today we are gaining jobs. Not as fast as we would like, but going in the right direction.

Yep. Such a failed record. Really, the GOP needs to continue talking about legal rape and stupid latinos. That is the way to win elections

 

[Old Rocks]

http://finances.msn.com/saving-money-advice/6952105

1950
Often looked to as a model era, the 1950s may have been nearly as picture-perfect as "Leave it to Beaver" seemed to suggest -- minimum wage workers could pay rent for a month for less than a week and a half of full-time work -- or catch Disney's "Cinderella" for just over a half-hour of labor.

Minimum wage: $0.75 per hour
Gas: $0.27 or 22 minutes
Movie ticket: $0.48 or 38 minutes
Rent: $42 or 56 hours

Can you rent a place for 56 hours of work at the present minimum wage?

 

[Old Rocks]

40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage: News of the Day | Democrats -Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives

Forty percent of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, according to a recent study out from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Had the minimum wage kept pace with gains in the country's productivity since 1968, it would be $16.54 an hour today, as opposed to the current level of $7.25 per hour. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women. Study authors Dean Baker and Will Kimball elaborate:

The purchasing power of the minimum wage peaked in the late 1960s at $9.22 an hour in 2012 dollars. That is almost two dollars above the current level of $7.25 an hour. Most of the efforts to raise the minimum wage focus on restoring its purchasing power to its late 1960s level, setting a target of around $10 an hour for 2015 or 2016, when inflation will have brought this sum closer to its previous peak in 2012 dollars

....the minimum wage generally was increased in step with productivity over these years [1947-1969]...This link between productivity and the minimum wage ended with the 1970s. During that decade the minimum wage roughly kept pace with inflation, meaning that its purchasing power changed little over the course of the decade. The real value of the minimum then fell sharply in the 1980s as we went most of the decade without any increase in the nominal value of the wage, allowing it to be eroded by inflation. Since the early 1990s the real value of the minimum wage has roughly stayed constant, which means that it has further fallen behind productivity growth.

 

[asterism]

What minimum wage buys, then and now - Your Money - MSN Money

1950
Often looked to as a model era, the 1950s may have been nearly as picture-perfect as "Leave it to Beaver" seemed to suggest -- minimum wage workers could pay rent for a month for less than a week and a half of full-time work -- or catch Disney's "Cinderella" for just over a half-hour of labor.

Minimum wage: $0.75 per hour
Gas: $0.27 or 22 minutes
Movie ticket: $0.48 or 38 minutes
Rent: $42 or 56 hours

Can you rent a place for 56 hours of work at the present minimum wage?

Yes.

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[SwimExpert]

For those who want the minimum wage to be increased.......why?

1) You do realize that businesses will only respond by increasing the cost of goods and services, right?

2) You do realize that increasing the minimum wage will have a substantial negative effect on small businesses, right?

3) You do realize that such an inhibition upon small businesses will result in increased market share being gained by large corporations as small businesses close shop, right?

4) You do realize that corporations will not settle for a smaller share of profits to pay for such an increase, because the people in charge are greedy bastards whose own income is tied to their ability to minimize labor costs, right?

So what do you hope to accomplish by supporting an increase in the minimum wage?

It's the right thing to do.

That's not an answer, that's a propaganda piece. Why is it the "rigth" thing to do? What can be accomplished?

 

[SwimExpert]

Old Rocks, if you're going to talk so much, could you at least have the courtesy to say something somewhere in there?

 

[The Rabbi]

A big reason why people want an increase in the minimum wage:

The Center for Union Facts analyzed collective-bargaining agreements obtained from the Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards. The data indicate that a number of unions in the service, retail and hospitality industries peg their base-line wages to the minimum wage.

The Labor Department's collective-bargaining agreements file has a limited number of contracts available, so we were unable to determine how widespread the practice is. But the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union says that pegging its wages to the federal minimum is commonplace. On its website, the UFCW notes that "oftentimes, union contracts are triggered to implement wage hikes in the case of minimum wage increases." Such increases, the UFCW says, are "one of the many advantages of being a union member."

Richard Berman: Why Unions Want a Higher Minimum Wage - WSJ.com

Cool.

Anything of relevance to share?

You missed it.
Why are Dems so hot on raising the min wage? There arent that many min wage workers out there. Most people who start at min wage quickly, like 6 months, work up to higher wages as their skillsets improve. SO what is the attraction for Dems?
The truth is in that article. It isnt min wage workers they are pandering to. It is union workers, whose wages are pegged to the minimum. This is just a big salary increase for union workers. The rest of us are screwed.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Every time the minimum wage talk surfaces - we hear the same argument how it will end life as we know it. And then the increase happens...and we find that the earth is still round.
The problem this time is the ludicrous amounts being talked about - $15 (or more). That actually would cause all of the problems the companies alarm us about.
In my opinion, if you are going to have a minimum wage then their should be a mandatory cost of living raise every year. Say $.10 or $.15. The problem is that there is no such scheduled increase - so every 4 or 5 years the call comes out to raise it by $1.00's per hour which is too much.
There should be increases if we are to have a minimum wage. But not the vote pandering unrealistic rhetoric we get from the Democrats.

 

[SwimExpert]

A big reason why people want an increase in the minimum wage:



Richard Berman: Why Unions Want a Higher Minimum Wage - WSJ.com

Cool.

Anything of relevance to share?

You missed it.
Why are Dems so hot on raising the min wage? There arent that many min wage workers out there. Most people who start at min wage quickly, like 6 months, work up to higher wages as their skillsets improve. SO what is the attraction for Dems?
The truth is in that article. It isnt min wage workers they are pandering to. It is union workers, whose wages are pegged to the minimum. This is just a big salary increase for union workers. The rest of us are screwed.

That's not saying anything of relevance. The minimum wage affects many non-minimum wage jobs. I don't think there is anyone alive who does not know that. The point us what can possibly be accomplished? As soon as prices rise to adjust for the increased minimum wage, anyone who received a raise will be right back in the same boat as before.

 

[expat_panama]

Why the fight to abolish the minimum wage, unless you intend to pay your employees less?

Supply and Demand is the law, and the fact that people are different means some people's work is not worth much. Raising the minimum wage does not make anyone's wage higher, it just makes it illegal to hire low value workers. The only way employers can get the work done legally is to rent machines to replace the cheap labor. Minimum wage increases raise unemployment and lower incomes for the general population:

We need to fight to abolish the minimum wage --unless you intend to increase the horrific suffering that those laws have caused in joblessness and lowered incomes.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Why the fight to abolish the minimum wage, unless you intend to pay your employees less?

Supply and Demand is the law, and the fact that people are different means some people's work is not worth much. Raising the minimum wage does not make anyone's wage higher, it just makes it illegal to hire low value workers. The only way employers can get the work done legally is to rent machines to replace the cheap labor. Minimum wage increases raise unemployment and lower incomes for the general population:

We need to fight to abolish the minimum wage --unless you intend to increase the horrific suffering that those laws have caused in joblessness and lowered incomes.

Just as a side thought...I bet Ross Perot made a chart similar to this when talking about the evils of NAFTA and how it would lower labor wages by introducing extraordinary low labor cost into the markets.

 

[expat_panama]

...I bet Ross Perot made a chart similar to this when talking about the evils of NAFTA...

Wow, what a blast from the past!

His charts were impressive way back before the info age --these days of course the hard numbers are all out there and it's sooo much easier to see what's happening and who's making stuff up.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

...I bet Ross Perot made a chart similar to this when talking about the evils of NAFTA...

Wow, what a blast from the past!

His charts were impressive way back before the info age --these days of course the hard numbers are all out there and it's sooo much easier to see what's happening and who's making stuff up.

One of these days I want to watch some of those half hour "specials" he paid for on national television. I remember them, but was only 31 at the time and was not really paying attention back then. I have read a few articles touting how he was right about so many things - but have never looked it up for myself.

 

[editec]

For those who want the minimum wage to be increased.......why?

1) You do realize that businesses will only respond by increasing the cost of goods and services, right?

No evidence exists that raising minimum wage has ever caused inflation. Government over spending is the root cause of inflation.

2) You do realize that increasing the minimum wage will have a substantial negative effect on small businesses, right?

Got evidence of that happening in the past? I can already tell it it doesn't exist but you need to check that for yourself.

3) You do realize that such an inhibition upon small businesses will result in increased market share being gained by large corporations as small businesses close shop, right?

4) You do realize that corporations will not settle for a smaller share of profits to pay for such an increase, because the people in charge are greedy bastards whose own income is tied to their ability to minimize labor costs, right?

Oh the mega-corps will not suffer because of an increase, that IS true

So what do you hope to accomplish by supporting an increase in the minimum wage?

What they HOPE to accomplish is some small relief for those working poor.

And YES it will provide some relief for a while... until the masters inflate money supply again.

 

[SwimExpert]

No evidence exists that raising minimum wage has ever caused inflation. Government over spending is the root cause of inflation.

You really think that these evil, greedy businesses are simply going to sign over a larger share of the profits, instead of passing the costs along to the consumer?

Got evidence of that happening in the past? I can already tell it it doesn't exist but you need to check that for yourself.

Would you like to try some common sense on for size? Those most affected by a minimum wage increase are going to be those businesses that are smallest, and least able to absorb increased costs.

What they HOPE to accomplish is some small relief for those working poor.

And YES it will provide some relief for a while... until the masters inflate money supply again.

Then you're going about it all wrong. There will be no meaningful relief.

 

[The Rabbi]

Cool.

Anything of relevance to share?

You missed it.
Why are Dems so hot on raising the min wage? There arent that many min wage workers out there. Most people who start at min wage quickly, like 6 months, work up to higher wages as their skillsets improve. SO what is the attraction for Dems?
The truth is in that article. It isnt min wage workers they are pandering to. It is union workers, whose wages are pegged to the minimum. This is just a big salary increase for union workers. The rest of us are screwed.

That's not saying anything of relevance. The minimum wage affects many non-minimum wage jobs. I don't think there is anyone alive who does not know that. The point us what can possibly be accomplished? As soon as prices rise to adjust for the increased minimum wage, anyone who received a raise will be right back in the same boat as before.

I explained what can be accomplished. It isnt an economic accomplishment. Virtually every economist agrees raising the min wage is bad. It is a political accomplishment, rewarding allies and punishing enemies.