At the same time, the idea of a living minimum wage is a slippery slope.
I live in the Bay Area in California. The median house price just went over $550k. The minimum wage is already $10 or higher, yet that won't be enough to let someone live on their own, unless they're renting a room with 3 other people in a house somewhere. And it's definitely no where near enough to support a family of 4. Even with both parents working, minimum wage just isn't enough.
So, why don't we increase minimum wage some more? Well, what would that accomplish? If suddenly everyone got a 15-30% raise, don't you think stores and landlords will raise their prices as well? Then we'll be right back where we were before, right?
So what's the solution? Have the government step in? Regulate how much companies must pay their employees, and regulate how much stores can charge for items? I don't think you'd want to live in such a country. Russia tried that for 50 years, and look where it got them.
And then there's another problem. Most of the jobs that pay minimum wage (or just above it) are ones that don't require much education, any special skills or training. We're talking about fast food worker, dishwasher in a restaurant, and so on. Just how much would you pay someone to make french fries all day? $10/hr? $20/hr?
Obama wanted to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr. That's about $30k/year before taxes. But...you know who makes $30k/year right now? Secretaries, receptionists, entry level clerks, sales people at the store... heck, even the average starting salary for a teacher starts at $35k/year. Are you telling me that a 4 year college education merits only $5k/year more than some nearly-illiterate, high school dropout making french fries?!?
People complain that they want things to be "fair". Unfortunately, life isn't fair. Someone is going to come in first, and that means someone else has to come in last. If we were simply pay everyone the same amount no matter what they do, would that be "fair"? Would it be fair for a doctor to make no more than the guy making french fries at McDonalds?
Granted, you can argue that today's system is broken as well. I certainly don't think it's fair that a teacher makes $30-40k while someone else makes $10-20 million for throwing a ball around. While I can understand why the CEO should make more than the guys on the factory floor, I don't think it's fair the CEO makes 1000x as his lowest paid employee, and then gets millions more in bonuses when the CEO lays that guy off, or makes a financial decision that ruins the company and puts 1000s of people out of work due to no fault of their own.
The minimum wage should be tied to inflation.
Corporate America should not have been slashing wages like they have over the past couple of decades, and they need to knock it off. US workers deserve to go back to decent pay for the work they do.
The minimum wage was never meant to be enough to support a family on, but since business has been intent on this downward spiral, going overseas to use near-slave labor in other countries, more & more Americans are stuck with minimum wage positions with no benefits.
The whole slide downward is unAmerican. We're all in this together, we all deserve fair products, fair profits, fair wages, and fair work performance.
I say it should be raised mostly because I am a college student who lives on my own and I have to pay rent and bills and I already have enough debt over my head with college tuition so the increase in minimum wage would help me as I am sure it could help other college students even if it is just a little bit every bit counts.
Its a ever going cycle,,, more money printed for the government means more debt created also higher the interest which comes out of your pockets and into the bankers therefore decreasing the value of the dollar every day, it wont be long now untill it collapses
back in '78 the fed minimum was $1.45 /hr . since then the cost of everything like food , gas , rent , has gone up ten times . so with NO raise , just adjusted for inflation , the minimum should be $ 14.50 /hr .
in '78 a pack of cigarettes was 75 cents , today it is $ 7.50
in '78 a gallon of gas was 35 cents , today it is $ 3.50
in '78 a used car with 100k miles was $500 , today it is $ 5,000
the zionist agenda of greed of wall street , corporations , and the bankers are robbing the qworking class man blind . we are being turned into economic slaves . the republicans in congress really are not helping to dispell the stereotype that jewish are cheap / greedy .
I feel that wages should be based on experience and length of service.
Human, Money must circulate all over the world or you will be on trouble.
This has been a hotly debated topic for a while now and I want to know what y'all think. For the purposes of debate, I won't say what I think...
Do you believe that minimum wage should be raised and why do you think what you do?
