Why The Minimum Wage Should Actually Be $21.72

[Skull Pilot]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

 

[Katzndogz]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

 

[eflatminor]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

Bingo

 

[eflatminor]

Hiking the minimum wage can happen right now & fix things now.

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

Oh - US small business owners are paying, & paying for the big business also.

Only if those big businesses have crony partners in government. You know, the meddlers you vote for. Remind us, Wall Street is in whose congressional district?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple - Keep dreaming while your pockets are picked clean

While you and the central planners limit jobs and keep our most vulnerable citizens on the dole? Pass.

 

[Care4all]

Hiking the minimum wage can happen right now & fix things now.

If by 'fix things' you mean higher prices, fewer jobs, more vulnerable citizens on the dole, no hope for young/inexperienced workers, no interaction for elderly workers and massive investments in job-replacing technology and outsourcing, then yes, hiking the minimum wage will "work".

Personally, I consider such measures cruel beyond comprehension. But hey, who cares about those unskilled workers anyway, right?

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

it's a 'theory' that's NEVER been proven....by the right wing who say it...

increased minimum wage does NOT raise prices overall and it does not reduce employment overall.... there may be small pockets where this occurs but overall, in the end, when the 'fat lady sings' employment is not reduced nor are prices of products higher overall.

It has been proven to INCREASE the economy, as was posted in a previous link of Kiss my...

also, increased productivity means increased profits for the employer and means employees are working harder and producing more for the employer...the employer has been taking these increased profits from the increased production of their employees and has been pocketing it ALL for themselves INSTEAD of sharing it with the employee, the person who has actually done the extra work per hour for them.

 

[eflatminor]

Hiking the minimum wage can happen right now & fix things now.

If by 'fix things' you mean higher prices, fewer jobs, more vulnerable citizens on the dole, no hope for young/inexperienced workers, no interaction for elderly workers and massive investments in job-replacing technology and outsourcing, then yes, hiking the minimum wage will "work".

Personally, I consider such measures cruel beyond comprehension. But hey, who cares about those unskilled workers anyway, right?

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

it's a 'theory' that's NEVER been proven....by the right wing who say it....

Oh well, if you say so. Just ignore the unemployment rate among young people, the ever increasing numbers of unskilled workers on the dole, or the technology and outsourcing replacing entry level workers. None of that has anything to do with imposing minimum wages.

You go with that...

increased minimum wage does NOT raise prices overall and it does not reduce employment overall.... there may be small pockets where this occurs but overall, in the end, when the 'fat lady sings' employment is not reduced nor are prices of products higher overall.

Despite all logic, reason or historical observation. Just cuz you say so, eh?

Pass.

It has been proven to INCREASE the economy, as was posted in a previous link of Kiss my...

Care to explain just how that would work in your own words?

also, increased productivity means increased profits for the employer and means employees are working harder and producing more for the employer..

My goodness, you're delusional. Exactly what does this have to do with imposing centrally planned price controls on the price of labor?

the employer has been taking these increased profits from the increased production of their employees and has been pocketing it ALL for themselves

You mean the guy that risked everything to start and compete with his business might take profits from that undertaking? Shocking.

INSTEAD of sharing it with the employee, the person who has actually done the extra work per hour for them

What Marxist nonsense are you spewing here? If the employee feels his labor is worth more than he's being paid, he's free to seek employment elsewhere, or start his own concern.

Of course, none of this collectivist crap you've written overrides the fact that a minimum wage alienates and removes from the workforce those citizens whose capabilities do not warrant that minimum wage.

Cruel. Sick. Immoral.

Shame on you.

 

[driveby]

Hiking the minimum wage can happen right now & fix things now.

If by 'fix things' you mean higher prices, fewer jobs, more vulnerable citizens on the dole, no hope for young/inexperienced workers, no interaction for elderly workers and massive investments in job-replacing technology and outsourcing, then yes, hiking the minimum wage will "work".

Personally, I consider such measures cruel beyond comprehension. But hey, who cares about those unskilled workers anyway, right?

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

also, increased productivity means increased profits for the employer and means employees are working harder and producing more for the employer...the employer has been taking these increased profits from the increased production of their employees and has been pocketing it ALL for themselves INSTEAD of sharing it with the employee, the person who has actually done the extra work per hour for them.

Right, because no company offers profit sharing, gives rewards and/or bonuses to their hardest working employees, etc.... They pocket ALL the profit for themselves, right? As much as you'd like it to be, last i checked this isn't China, if an employee is not rewarded for their hard work, they can quit and go to another company that will reward them.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

of course thats very very stupid and liberal. $21.00 would double many firms' payroll and force them out of business resulting in far fewer jobs.

We've seen what unions do by demanding higher and higher wages. They drove 30 million jobs offshore.

A liberal will simply lack the IQ to learn.

 

[Noomi]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

Fucking ridiculous. We have self serve checkouts and more than enough employees to clean up a spill, and a loaf of bread is still cheap, and the workers at the supermarket still earn at least $15 an hour.

So what the hell is the problem with America that its incapable of doing the most basic things?

 

[neomalthusian]

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

Fucking ridiculous. We have self serve checkouts and more than enough employees to clean up a spill, and a loaf of bread is still cheap, and the workers at the supermarket still earn at least $15 an hour.

So what the hell is the problem with America that its incapable of doing the most basic things?

Having to pay FTE employees a minimum of $45,000 per year would somehow have no effect on prices or employment? That's an argument you're really going to stand by? You and many others don't seem to understand a thing about a business's finances. If the minimum wage were raised to $21 tomorrow, I can tell you without any doubt that a quarter of my company's employees would be without work the next day. There is simply no way for at least that many of our employees to create that value of work in what they do. It is an incontrovertible mathematical certainty.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity

I'd guess most of the big increases in productivity have come in jobs that are not minimum wage. Someone holding a spatula to flip a burgers when they are done, or emptying trashcans as they fill up is probably doing it at about the same rate as people did 50 years ago.

 

[JimmieD]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity,

What is "productivity" and how is it measured?

 

[Skull Pilot]

Hiking the minimum wage can happen right now & fix things now.

If by 'fix things' you mean higher prices, fewer jobs, more vulnerable citizens on the dole, no hope for young/inexperienced workers, no interaction for elderly workers and massive investments in job-replacing technology and outsourcing, then yes, hiking the minimum wage will "work".

Personally, I consider such measures cruel beyond comprehension. But hey, who cares about those unskilled workers anyway, right?

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

it's a 'theory' that's NEVER been proven....by the right wing who say it...

increased minimum wage does NOT raise prices overall and it does not reduce employment overall.... there may be small pockets where this occurs but overall, in the end, when the 'fat lady sings' employment is not reduced nor are prices of products higher overall.

It has been proven to INCREASE the economy, as was posted in a previous link of Kiss my...

also, increased productivity means increased profits for the employer and means employees are working harder and producing more for the employer...the employer has been taking these increased profits from the increased production of their employees and has been pocketing it ALL for themselves INSTEAD of sharing it with the employee, the person who has actually done the extra work per hour for them.

If you have 100 people working for you and they all make 10 bucks an hour then your payroll minus taxes is 40,000 a week.

What happens if minimum wage rises to the 21 dollars an hour suggested?

Your payroll more than doubled. Not only that everyone of your suppliers had a similar increase in payroll and will now charge you more for everything.

So tell me how will you stay in business if you don't raise prices?

 

[Skull Pilot]

So if a guy bagging groceries is getting paid 20 something an hour how much do you think a loaf of bread will cost?

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

Fucking ridiculous. We have self serve checkouts and more than enough employees to clean up a spill, and a loaf of bread is still cheap, and the workers at the supermarket still earn at least $15 an hour.

So what the hell is the problem with America that its incapable of doing the most basic things?

I have yet to meet a bag boy who makes 15 bucks an hour.

 

[boedicca]

The cost of bread will be kept down by not having anyone bag groceries. We used to have kids put gas in your car and clean your windshield. Those jobs went away a long time ago when the minimum wage was raised. You bring your own bags and bag your own stuff. Maybe some derelict will be hanging around outside the store offering to come in and bag your food for $2.00, the way they swarm cars at intersections cleaning windshields.

You won't have anyone mopping the floors or sweeping those stores either. Clean up on aisle 3 will mean that a register will be shut down while the checker goes and cleans up.

Fucking ridiculous. We have self serve checkouts and more than enough employees to clean up a spill, and a loaf of bread is still cheap, and the workers at the supermarket still earn at least $15 an hour.

So what the hell is the problem with America that its incapable of doing the most basic things?

Having to pay FTE employees a minimum of $45,000 per year would somehow have no effect on prices or employment? That's an argument you're really going to stand by? You and many others don't seem to understand a thing about a business's finances. If the minimum wage were raised to $21 tomorrow, I can tell you without any doubt that a quarter of my company's employees would be without work the next day. There is simply no way for at least that many of our employees to create that value of work in what they do. It is an incontrovertible mathematical certainty.

Today's liberals Fear The Math.

 

[JimmieD]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

I don't think this study is very useful. For one, you aren't measuring the same samples. Those earning minimum wage are a significantly smaller sample that the total productivity of every wage earner in the economy. The comparrison should be made between the real wages minimum wage earners and the real productivity of minimum wage earners. Which brings me to the second problem; he has used "productivity" to be "total output per hour of all persons." So while his wages are adjusted to be in real terms, his output seems to have been left as a nominal term. I think he should be using the productivity of minimum wage earners where "productivity" is the "real output per hour of all persons" (where 1968=100; the BLS "productivity" is indexed to 2005).

So this "study" doesn't seem very useful.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

You should retitle this post to "Why idiots should be shot."

Productivity might have gone up in general, but it is impossible for a guy to mop a floor any faster now than they did in 1942.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

President Obama's call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour was one of the more significant proposals he laid out in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. But $9 an hour is still a far cry from what workers really deserve, a 2012 study finds.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1960s, productivity and wages grew steadily. Since the minimum wage peaked in 1968, increases in productivity have outpaced the minimum wage growth.

Minimum Wage Would Be $21.72 If It Kept Pace With Increases In Productivity: Study

You should retitle this post to "Why idiots should be shot."

Productivity might have gone up in general, but it is impossible for a guy to mop a floor any faster now than they did in 1942.

and thats not to mention that today our workers compete directly with
lower paid workers all over the world, and illegals within this country, so there is downward pressure on wages today that was not there in the 1960's

 

[KissMy]

If by 'fix things' you mean higher prices, fewer jobs, more vulnerable citizens on the dole, no hope for young/inexperienced workers, no interaction for elderly workers and massive investments in job-replacing technology and outsourcing, then yes, hiking the minimum wage will "work".

Personally, I consider such measures cruel beyond comprehension. But hey, who cares about those unskilled workers anyway, right?

And too bad government doesn't dictate what a business owner pays for everything and not just labor, eh? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Sheeple, mindless sheeple.

it's a 'theory' that's NEVER been proven....by the right wing who say it...

increased minimum wage does NOT raise prices overall and it does not reduce employment overall.... there may be small pockets where this occurs but overall, in the end, when the 'fat lady sings' employment is not reduced nor are prices of products higher overall.

It has been proven to INCREASE the economy, as was posted in a previous link of Kiss my...

also, increased productivity means increased profits for the employer and means employees are working harder and producing more for the employer...the employer has been taking these increased profits from the increased production of their employees and has been pocketing it ALL for themselves INSTEAD of sharing it with the employee, the person who has actually done the extra work per hour for them.

If you have 100 people working for you and they all make 10 bucks an hour then your payroll minus taxes is 40,000 a week.

What happens if minimum wage rises to the 21 dollars an hour suggested?

Your payroll more than doubled. Not only that everyone of your suppliers had a similar increase in payroll and will now charge you more for everything.

So tell me how will you stay in business if you don't raise prices?

Prices have already risen dumb-ass but the owner did not raise the worker pay, they just pocketed the extra money. Paying employees more due to higher minimum wage does not put any business at a competitive disadvantage because all competition has to pay low wage employees more. Unlike Republicans special tax breaks for the rich dividends that put all small business at a competitive disadvantage. This is why business men can't run an economy or a country. Republicans are clueless about macro economics. My taxes are not for nanny government to support your workers so you can get out of paying your workers.

Republicans have run this country into the ground & trained all our productive workers to depend on government. Once you force people on the government dole their productivity permanently deteriorates. Republicans have put more people on the government dole than democrats. Republicans have exploded nanny state spending & destroyed workers productivity. We have to pay workers enough to get off the government tit & be productive. The average household is 2.5 people & it takes $9.48/hr plus insurance to get some of them off the government tit. Obama's proposal only gets them to $9/hr 2 years from now. It needs to be at least $9.50 today or $11.24/ to get most all off the government tit. Then their workers can actually pay taxes instead of eating mine.

The idiot Republicans want to keep workers sucking the government tit in order to subsidize big importer business. If we are going to subsidize then cut tax on export sector business who pay their lowest income employees more or hire more. When people at the bottom have no money to spend, small business loses customers, lays off workers & everyones living standards drop. Stupid Republicans think this somehow makes people want to work harder. Nobody works harder for less money when prices went up or when they have no job at all. They may steal from others harder is all.

The Federal Reserve studies show income mobility is the USA is one of the worlds lowest. This is no longer the land of opportunity. People have better chances of gaining wealth under dictators, kings & communist countries than they have in the USA. Upward mobility is what drew the best minds & workers from around the world into the USA. Now they are leaving & we no longer have any net positive immigration. The incentive to strive for success has faded in the USA. Republicans turned US into a welfare state. The rich are not job creators. Being born into or marrying into entitlement wealth money does not make you a job creator who deserves to pay 13% tax on wealth dividends while the middle class innovators, job & wealth creators pay 27% tax for hard work.

Inflation, price hikes, employee invention, productivity gain, etc is all being pocketed by the boss. All the workers wealth it funneled to the unproductive top & pushing everyone else into poverty. Living standards & economies only flourish when the wealth goes to those who made it, not the ones who steal it away. When more people have money to spend the economy roars, small business grows, hires & creates more wealth for everyone.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Paying employees more due to higher minimum wage does not put any business at a competitive disadvantage because all competition has to pay more.

Too stupid and liberal for words!!!

most minimum wage work is in small businesses which are marginally profitably. Millions go bankrupt each year. Higher wage costs will bankrupt many and cost jobs!!

THe higher prices that result from the higher wages will reduce business thus causing bankruptcy and lost jobs.

Higher wages are just a higher price for labor which means business can afford fewer workers.

A liberal will have no where near the IQ to discuss this issue