Why we should raise the minimum wage.
in Politics

YeshuaRedeemed · October 2018

I believe quality work deserves quality pay. Less people use welfare when they receive quality pay for an honest day's work.

TTKDB · October 2018

In regards to raising the minimum wage:

'What will happen if minimum wage is increased?
On average, they find that a 10 percent increase in restaurant prices causes fast-food sales to drop 9.5 percent. This price sensitivity means that restaurants must raise prices by more than the amount by which minimum-wage increases raise costs. When they raise prices, they lose business.Jan 19, 2017"

From my understanding, when some employer's raise the minimum wage, they sometimes have to let some of their employee's go because an employer can only keep but so many of their employee's because of the increasing of the minimum wage for their employees?

Or it may keep an employer from hiring additional employee's because the raising of the minimum wage in a sense can financially bind a companies growth to a point?

I think that raising the minimum wage comes with both positive and negative outcomes depending upon how a company views it's financial situation.

YeshuaRedeemed · October 2018

@TTKDB When I work, I have the right to be paid a living wage.

TTKDB · October 2018

@YeshuaBought:

Companies have changed hiring practices because of increasing the minimum wage and I believe because of health care costs.

An employee is going to earn their wages, but a company changed it's financial dynamic to meet those wage changes.

Customer service at a business is different as well, in some instances the customer service might not be what it was before.

When wage changes are changed from what it was say a few years ago to now, changing wages creates a trickle down affect, the business operates differently, the customer service can be affected differently, and when customers go into a business and there are fewer employee's in a store, and the checkout lines are longer, and the line at the customer service counter is long, and the manager is managing their business with all of the above going on because of increased wage changes, it creates a troubling impression.

I've seen people walk out of a store after seeing 4 out of 22 checkout lines being used, the store lost business because they saw how the store was managing the customer's that got there before them.

The cleanliness of a business is a reflection of that same management.

I've seen 5 cashier's hanging out at one checkout register before and talking to each other, (what kind of customer service is that?)
So instead of being at their assigned checkout register's to help the customer with their purchases, they confuse the customers wanting to pay for their purchases because they see 5 cashier's hanging out at one register while the other cashier's should be at their assigned checkout register's to help the customers pay for their purchases.

The actions of those cashier's is a reflection of how they viewed the customer service for the store that they worked for.

It's also a reflection on the management of the store as well.

A business can pay a wage to an employee, but if a customer has an unsatisfactory experience at a store or business because of the above examples.

The store or business is going to lose profits because of how it managed it's customer service and because of how the customer felt treated by the customer service at the store or business.

Zombieguy1987 · October 2018

If a set minimum wage was abolished, companies would need to make a minimum wage that's actually liveable to convince people to work for them. That's one of the advantages of capitalism

CYDdharta · October 2018

YeshuaBought said:

@TTKDB When I work, I have the right to be paid a living wage.

What is a "living wage"?

Joeseph · October 2018

@CYDdharta

Thats a good question , maybe one that can provide the necessities of life?

TTKDB · October 2018

Definition of "living wage"

"Families and individuals working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to meet minimum standards given the local cost of living."

CYDdharta · October 2018

TTKDB said:
Definition of "living wage"

"Families and individuals working in low-wage jobs make insufficient income to meet minimum standards given the local cost of living."

What are "minimum standards"? Who gets to determine them?

MayCaesar · October 2018

Economy is a very complex system, with countless more and less obvious effects. It is not something that can be described as "higher minimum wage -> people get paid more -> they become less dependent on welfare".

Higher minimum wages lead to increase of unemployment, as it becomes more expensive for businesses to hire workers. Those unemployed have to survive somehow, hence they gain welfare - more than they would if they had a lower wage than the new minimum wage, but still more than zero wage.

As in case of any major policy decision, some people benefit and others lose. Black-and-white interpretation of various policies is one of the biggest problems in modern democracies: people tend to ignore inconvenient consequences of the policies they advocate for, and when those consequences actually come to fruition, they blame other sides for obstructing their work, rather than accepting their responsibilities for pushing through the policies leading to this state of affairs.

WordsMatter · October 2018

Reposting from the other thread. Although this argument hold no weight if you believe they're should be no minimum wage or that the current one is too high already, so you may as well skip this in that case.

We should raise the minimum wage to at least $8.50
The American Institute for economic research (https://www.aier.org/mission-history) calculates that the buying power of $100 in 2009, when the last minimum wage increase was, is equivalent to the buying power of $116.70 today. That raise was the last of three prescribed by the minimum wage act of 2007.

That means if I perform my job just as well as I did ten years ago my work has gone down in value even though I provide the same output for my employer. Mathmatically an increase of $1.25 would maintain the same buying power as the last minimum wage increase.

Let's look at that last increase. Who passed it? How did the details work out?

1. Who introduced the bill? was it partisan or bipartisan? What stipulations were there?

"The act was a component of the new Democratic majority's 100-Hour Plan in the United States House of Representatives. It was introduced into the House on January 5, 2007, by George Miller (D-CA) and it was passed by the House on January 10. All 233 House Democrats voted "Aye," and 82 Republicans joined them. 116 Republican representatives voted "No," and 4 representatives did not vote. President Bush advised that the bill should include tax cuts for small businesses that could be harmed by the wage increase, and on January 24, 2007, a cloture motion in the Senate failed as 43 Republican Senators (all but 5) rejected the bill without the tax cuts, opposing all 47 Democrats who were present for the vote. Once tax cuts were added to the bill, the Senate passed the amended bill 94-3 (3 Republicans opposed and 1 did not vote; 2 Democrats did not vote) on February 1, 2007."

I think it's fair to say this was a bipartisan effort introduced by a Democratic house, passed by a republican Senate, and signed into law by a republican president. Interestingly enough it was only passed if it could be paired with tax cuts, which we just reacieved a lot of. Also important to note, the GDP growth rate the day the Senate passed the bill was around 1% while we are currently experiencing a growth rate of just a little over 4%.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth

2. How did the details work out?

"The act raises the federal minimum wage in 3 increments: to $5.85 per hour 60 days after enactment (2007-07-24), to $6.55 per hour 12 months after that (2008-07-24), and finally to $7.25 per hour 12 months after that (2009-07-24)"

So no one is coming to you the minute before you hire someone and tells you that you suddenly have to pay a significant amount more than you expected. In fact most States were not affected by the federal minimum wage increase as they already paid above it, and the ones that did it were given plenty of time to prepare with the year long periods before the wage increase with the most impact. https://money.cnn.com/2008/07/24/smallbusiness/state_minimum_wages.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008072411

If we want to stay consistent to what had bipartisan agreement on what was fair compensation for the same work, mathmatically an increase in wages to $8.50 should be implemented over a two year period, with an increase to $7.75 or $8.00 an hour in a year. These are significantly smaller jumps than those businesses faced by the minimum wage act of 2007. If desired throw in some tax cuts for small businesses over that time, giving even more protection to the man who was just about to hire his first employee.

The standards for work output of the jobs that pay minimum wage have not decreased over the years so why shouldn't we raise pay in a careful manner so that the value of the work stays consistent with the standards. Minimum wage can be raised in a smart, responsible, and fair way.

YeshuaRedeemed · October 2018

@WordsMatter I have the right to be paid a living wage when I work.

YeshuaRedeemed · October 2018

@MayCaesar Employers don't have the right to cheap or free labor. Workers have the right to be paid a living wage.

CYDdharta · October 2018

YeshuaBought said:

@WordsMatter I have the right to be paid a living wage when I work.

Again, what is a "living wage"?

MayCaesar · October 2018

@YeshuaBought

Employees, actually, do not have right to any wages unless consented to by the employer. What the employee gets is part of the employer's private property specified by the contract. If the employer does not want to make the contract the employee wants, then the job contract will not be signed.

You use the common socialist argument based on the (wrong) assumption that employers somehow by the very design of the employer-employee relationship are unfairly exploiting the employers. The reality, however, is that any such financial relationship is a result of a contract consented to by both sides. If there is no mutual consent, then there is no contract, and there is no wage.

Just like sex without consent is rape, taking someone else's money as "wage" without consent is robbery.

---

Regardless of all these arguments, one fact holds: what wage you actually can get, if any, depends on your employer's preferences. You can talk all you want about your made-up rights, but I doubt it will help you on your next job interview.

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Why we should raise the minimum wage.
in Politics