Should minimum wage be raised to $10? $12? $15?

Do people realize what a PRICE FLOOR is?

It doesn%26#039;t give people a raise. It just sets a price floor. You can%26#039;t repeal J-B Say. If the legislature had that magic they could just repeal Sir Isaac Newton and we could all fly!

Minimum wage is an entry-level wage. 70% of people making it will get at least a 30% raise within a year, and most of the rest won%26#039;t be working at the same place. So if you raise it by 15% effective 6-8 months from now it will affect almost no one. Also only 1/2 percent of the workforce makes the minimum, and that is less than half of what it was just 20 years ago. It%26#039;s just not at a material level - McD%26#039;s pays $2-3 more than the minimum to start! These are the reasons why the nominal increases we%26#039;ve seen haven%26#039;t affected unemployment - they haven%26#039;t been material.

They have higher minimums in France and Germany - and consistently about 2X to 2.5X our rate of unemployment.

Price floors do cause surpluses.

Should minimum wage be raised to $10? $12? $15?

Absolutely not. All that will do is cause inflation and increase unemployment among our poorest workers. on top of that the resulting inflation would make those making minimum wage any better off than they are right now.

Should minimum wage be raised to $10? $12? $15? loan

yes|||Then set the %26quot;price floor%26quot; nationally at $12 an hour, why not?

Since most jobs are service industry revolving door multinational corporations who like lots of slaves,

they can very well afford it.

Make them do it,

why not?

Edit; most of the minimum wage jobs are, so why not?

... some nurses are being paid a crap $15 an hour,

...not all in the service sector are as financially rewarded as you are making out,

the white collar jobs are being squeezed as well.|||Minimum wage should be based upon the cost of living of a given area. Carte blanche minimum wage is unfair and unwise.

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tib: I know the intent of minimum wage and the ramifications, which is why I allow prudent flexibility in my response.

But, minimu has a purpose IF (a big if) if we allow folks to be able to support themselves and pay taxes. Otherwise, these folks will be on the public dole.

Now, minimum wage and market forces would be much better served if employers did NOT have to deal with health insurance. This is yet another strong reason for Universal Helath Insurance, which many corporations favor. Right now, US companies have to compete in a global market, where other countres%26#039; workers%26#039; insurance is not being paid by employers...

Thus, with Universal Insurqance, minimum wage could actually be reduced|||It would be better if there was a fair tax, let the rich start paying their way to lower prices for everyone, get rid of the IRS office, the pay roll is in the billions that cause the mess..|||and things cost more in France and Germany|||Thus, by neo-logic, if we lower the min wage to lets say, ten cents an hour, prices should also follow suit.

What a joke... neo-cons have no issue with the US labor force being farmed out of work while the corporate %26quot;farmers%26quot; buy bigger yachts.

edit: Unemployment rate is simply based on how many people applied for benefits during the previous month. It has NO bearing on income levels as an old GM Plant worker may now be gainfully employed as a new, Wal-mart Greeter.|||Minimum wage needs to be abolished, it only causes everything else to increase,|||I say yes. It%26#039;s shameful that the richest nation in the world has people begging for food on the side of freeways. That children go to bed at night with tummies rumbling.

All the while jobs are being outsourced to countries on the other side of the world and companies are experiencing record profits.

Edit: And while $15 and hour may be %26quot;crap%26quot; in some parts of the country, where I live people could live pretty comfortably. And no, I don%26#039;t live in backwoods Arkansas.|||So why not make it a penny then? because in a capitalist environment someone would charge it and someone would work for it. The minimum wage SHOULD be a price floor for what it takes to survive. Our opinion was that it had fallen behind.

And you base your assumptions on that people do the right thing ... in a capitalist society you CAN NOT TELL ME that people would not pay people LESS than what they are worth, that is insane. MONEY is their goal.. not treating a person for what they are worth.|||Yes and no. I think the minimum wage is a piece of mind thing. You know they say when the minimum wage goes up so does inflation. Is that really the answer or should jobs pay more for employees. It seems jobs are paying less these days. Only the specialty occupations reap the benfits of high salaries. If you are the only one working with 2 kids on minimum wage, that is considered poverty. Of course jobs could not take into consideration your family factor, but extra benefits would help.|||I say $100 per hour. Since the world is static and not dynamic, everyone could wipe their azzes with $100 bills and everyone would be rich!! See how great socialism is?|||$12 because you can not really live and survive comfortably of anything less without getting state help when you have a family|||You%26#039;re on the money... raise the minimum wage and then you have to raise everyone else (the guy making $5 an hour suddenly gets $10/hr., then the guy making $10 should get 15 or 20. The prices of goods soon follow.

minim wage is stupid. Let the market sort out what a particular job should pay. If someone is willing to sweep the gymnasium for $2/hour, let him.|||it also should be comparable with the cost of living. such as NY is expensive to live, so pay should be more. and states like tn, SC, NC, is less expensive, so pay less.

i would say yes raise it , but for those who need it. like not people who were hs drop outs and did not get their ged (no offense, but school is free to go to)|||I%26#039;ve always thought there should be 2 minimum wages, one for part-time teenage workers and a higher one for adults. If the minimum wage goes too high there won%26#039;t be many student workers hired, but adults need a wage that they can half way live off of and one that makes working more attractive than collecting welfare and food stamps.|||NO! raising the minimum wage that high would be catastrophic to the economy.

.|||MINIMUM wage is another mis-leading failure. Intentions are that minimum wage is the %26quot;starting%26quot; point for the beginner. Imagine climbing from minimum wage to the ridiculous %26quot;$10 million and up%26quot; yearly that some receive in our work place...JOKE to say the least.|||Yes.

CEOs can take home less than FIVE HUNDRED TIMES the wages of the entry employee.

They%26#039;ll survive somehow.|||Eliminate the minimum wage and enact a maximum wage of $500,000 per year.

Nobody is worth more than that.

Nobody.|||Wage earner would benefit How?

Result is usually a reduction in the number of employed persons.|||Consider the following; Instead of raises give them a bonus.

Most US companies do NOT want to share a bonus and this is management%26#039;s sheer greed.

Why? Sometimes business is good and sometimes it is bad.

A lot of business people would rather keep most of the money and this is the true colour of capitalism.

I am not a fan of socialism either.

It really depends on the owner.

Some have said that 1/3 of US citizens live similar to a third world country and barely have enough to have a place to live.|||Raising the minimum wage will put a strain on small businesses that need to count every penny to get by. I live in a tourist area where summer businesses employ high school and college students. These businesses only have a few months to make a profit. A drastic raise in minimum wage as you are suggesting could just put these businesses under.|||If you want every job to go oversees and screw our trade deficit!|||NO-- their will be no class people trying to suceed. Government cannot have that type of moral raising experience...|||You are a liar. Plain and simple.

Minimum wage or very near minimum wage is what most people in laborer type jobs will make in this country. Or in service type jobs like fast-food workers, janitors and such. They get very small raises. I happen to know this for a fact, since I%26#039;m from a small town where people MAKE the minimum wage all the time. People moving from job to job go from making a few cents above minimum wage to making it again when they change jobs.

Just how much of a liar do you have to be to actually believe this garbage!

Take it nice and slow now. When the minimum wage was raised previously, what did it do to the unemployment rate? NOTHING. It fluctuated just as it always did. The reason the Republicans lie about minimum wage hikes is that they are shills for corporate heads whose bottom lines for their golf vacation with their favorite hooker will only be 10 days instead of 11 with this wage raise in their company.

Boo fecking hoo. You%26#039;re a liar and your pants are on fire. I smell burnt ****.|||$30 and then I quit my job and flip some burgers.|||It%26#039;s been a while since I took economics, but as I remember, minimum wages don%26#039;t really accomplish what they are supposed to. In a true capitalist market, wages will work themselves out between employers, employees and customers. When minimum wages are set, market adjusts by charging more for services and products to compensate for the increased costs.

Sounds like you%26#039;ve done your homework. Good Job|||There should no minimum wage at all. Your talent should be marketable enough. It was not designed to lived on but is now only a liberal tool.|||Oh BS! You want serf labor and you want to pay them so little that they can%26#039;t live!

If you can%26#039;t pay enough for someone to live, while you earn BILLIONS, you don%26#039;t belong in business! There is absolutely no excuse why almost 1/2 of the homeless hold full-time jobs!

I think oil has more to do with setting the %26quot;floor%26quot; than minimum wage!

God, why are you people so damn cheap! You get $94 MILLION dollar government no bid contracts from the government paid by us, and what do you do? You don%26#039;t hire an American at a decent wage! No, you hire illegals at slave labor wages!

And what does business do? By Jim Wolf

Fri Aug 17, 11:30 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department said on Thursday that a flawed system designed to rush supplies to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan let a small-parts supplier improperly collect $998,798.38 to ship two 19-cent washers.%26quot;

You are a greedy bunch of people made up of criminals that just are not prosecuted as Bush is your daddy who 80% of the time goes after Democrats!

One-half of American families make $25,000 a year or less! And you live off their backs! You have always lived off their backs! If it were up to Republicans you would still be working 10 year-olds 12 hours a day!

I think the 4 TRILLION that Bush has added to debt is catastropic to our economy, which is built on a house of cards with no foundation! You get nothing paying interest on debt! I guess that isn%26#039;t true! You pull money from the economy that should be used for borrowing by business. Because of the debt they pay a much higher percentage for their loans! So essentially, you are your own worse nightmare, and to mentally challenged to know it!!|||Or maybe down to $1.85 an hour, what it was when I got my first job. Let%26#039;s see how they%26#039;d like that. Kids these days just don%26#039;t know how good they have it. Damn, I%26#039;m beginning to sound like my father.