Looks like $15 minimum wage is happening.
- Thread starter Smurfboy
- Start date
Oh boy...
The higher minimum wage goes, the less incentive there will be for unskilled labor to actually become skilled, or learn a trade through schools.
$15 minimum wage=part-time jobs with no benefits at fastfood outlets. Oh, and you can kiss that dollar menu goodbye.
hell i think WalMart in North Dakota pays the greeter people almost 16 an hour to say "welcome to walmart"
let me say this is a poor person since most of the people on here are have good jobs were able to go and complete collage.
THIS IS THE STUPIDEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN.
THIS IS THE STUPIDEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN.
The inherent purpose of minimum wage is that it is the minimal amount of money required for someone to support themselves. It has been far too low for far too long.
In Ohio minimum wage is currently 7.95. No human being can reasonably support themselves at that. Even if they are financially responsible. Minimum wage has no risen proportionally to cost of living.
http://inequality.org/minimum-wage/
If Minimum wage was set where it should be it would be $20/hr
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-minimum-wage-2770.html
Modern Purpose
In modern times, minimum wage law serves the purpose of establishing a "living wage"--mostly for lower-class families that depend on the manual labor jobs which often pay the least. The federal minimum wage usually equates to a yearly salary that falls below the poverty line, according to Dollars and Sense. In 2008, for example, minimum wage brought a person $15,080 if he worked 40 hours a week--less than the $17,333 poverty line.
Jobs pay poorly because we let them get away with it.
In Ohio minimum wage is currently 7.95. No human being can reasonably support themselves at that. Even if they are financially responsible. Minimum wage has no risen proportionally to cost of living.
http://inequality.org/minimum-wage/
If Minimum wage was set where it should be it would be $20/hr
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/purpose-minimum-wage-2770.html
Modern Purpose
In modern times, minimum wage law serves the purpose of establishing a "living wage"--mostly for lower-class families that depend on the manual labor jobs which often pay the least. The federal minimum wage usually equates to a yearly salary that falls below the poverty line, according to Dollars and Sense. In 2008, for example, minimum wage brought a person $15,080 if he worked 40 hours a week--less than the $17,333 poverty line.
Jobs pay poorly because we let them get away with it.
Agreed, and I can't 100% verify it, but I have friends from that area saying it is one of the most sought after, unskilled jobs.
Meanwhile, here in central ILLINOIS... I worked at a SemiConductor plant as a growth operator quite a few years back... pay? 12.75
Cashiers will be replaced by a KIOSK and employee's will now either be trained at facilities outside the city until they are worth paying $15 .
You will probably now need a resume and a degree in culinary school to get a job working at a Seattle McDonalds.
The end result is going to be businesses leaving city of Seattle and property tax payers left to pay all the bills.
You will probably now need a resume and a degree in culinary school to get a job working at a Seattle McDonalds.
The end result is going to be businesses leaving city of Seattle and property tax payers left to pay all the bills.
It's already set to increase to $11.50/hr where I am at. Each October it goes to $8.40 in 2014, $9.55 in 2015, $10.75 in 2016 and $11.50 in 2017.
Years back when the minimum wage was $5.15/hr they raised it to $7.25/hr where I am at. The world didn't explode. I can see that it may make a difference in some areas, but the cost of living where I am at is a lot higher than most of the country.
Years back when the minimum wage was $5.15/hr they raised it to $7.25/hr where I am at. The world didn't explode. I can see that it may make a difference in some areas, but the cost of living where I am at is a lot higher than most of the country.
Wages in Texas are s***. Unless you have a skill, learn a trade, or good in tech. Or work in a plant, mill, construction, oil field, on pipeline.
I think this can potentially succeed, but would probably be almost completely a Big Box Store economy. No more small Mom and Pop business.
It will raise the prices on everything, they will have the highest cost of living in the country soon.
More people with more disposable income buying more s***. I dunno. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out
If $15/hr is law by 2021 for let's say all states, that's 7 years from now. Not sure when the last time min wage was raised in US states, but add that time to the 7 years and you have a total time where the wage goes from $xx.xx to $15/hr. Checking wiki, most states have a min wage of about $8. But most low level jobs pay a tad more that that.
Chances are min wage would naturally rise a few bucks anyway in the time period due to natural wage increases, so the net effect is an extra gain of a maybe 3-4 dollars/hr.
If this goes mainstream, I hope low level people realize is that companies won't simply accept these widespread wage increases and do nothing about it. They'll likely cut staff to compensate and have the remaining staff work a bit more or harder. If you're getting paid more, you should then do more. Or they will cut product quality to counter. Or perhaps change that 12 hour shift the business is open every day to 10 hours. Less hours to go around means less opportunity for staff to work.
What will happen 10 years from now (assuming widespread min wage levels increase higher than usual) is that you will now have a pool of people with low skills and zero job as opposed to a pool of people with low skills, but at least a job to work at.
One thing's for sure, higher level employees and execs will not be getting pay cuts to compensate.
Will be interesting to see the shake out.
Chances are min wage would naturally rise a few bucks anyway in the time period due to natural wage increases, so the net effect is an extra gain of a maybe 3-4 dollars/hr.
If this goes mainstream, I hope low level people realize is that companies won't simply accept these widespread wage increases and do nothing about it. They'll likely cut staff to compensate and have the remaining staff work a bit more or harder. If you're getting paid more, you should then do more. Or they will cut product quality to counter. Or perhaps change that 12 hour shift the business is open every day to 10 hours. Less hours to go around means less opportunity for staff to work.
What will happen 10 years from now (assuming widespread min wage levels increase higher than usual) is that you will now have a pool of people with low skills and zero job as opposed to a pool of people with low skills, but at least a job to work at.
One thing's for sure, higher level employees and execs will not be getting pay cuts to compensate.
Will be interesting to see the shake out.
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Should be fun for a while.
It's all about balance, and there will never be balance again. We've passed the golden age of our society in that regard probably started in the early 80's.
This is attempting to give the poor a chance to live better than impoverished lives, but it's just going to raise prices and kill small businesses and low income housing areas rents will go up and there will be more big box stores (because they CAN afford it even though they're probably the most reluctant, greedy bastards).
What's going to happen is people who aren't living in poverty and think they have it pretty good (people in the $45k to say $65K range) are going to start feeling like they're not so comfy afterall, and start to feel a little poor themselves.
It's actually pretty brilliant for capitalism, I think they'll see what happens and want to raise the wage floor even more eagerly when they can see that they can make everyone their slave, even the skilled and educated!
And all those people who work in a Wal-Mart type situation, who've been there for 20 years and were making what they thought were decent wages that they'd earned, they just got a raise too! Unfortunately the pimple faced 16 year old part timer that just started is making the same coin. What a slap in the face no?
It's all about balance, and there will never be balance again. We've passed the golden age of our society in that regard probably started in the early 80's.
This is attempting to give the poor a chance to live better than impoverished lives, but it's just going to raise prices and kill small businesses and low income housing areas rents will go up and there will be more big box stores (because they CAN afford it even though they're probably the most reluctant, greedy bastards).
What's going to happen is people who aren't living in poverty and think they have it pretty good (people in the $45k to say $65K range) are going to start feeling like they're not so comfy afterall, and start to feel a little poor themselves.
It's actually pretty brilliant for capitalism, I think they'll see what happens and want to raise the wage floor even more eagerly when they can see that they can make everyone their slave, even the skilled and educated!
And all those people who work in a Wal-Mart type situation, who've been there for 20 years and were making what they thought were decent wages that they'd earned, they just got a raise too! Unfortunately the pimple faced 16 year old part timer that just started is making the same coin. What a slap in the face no?
Well said.
No different than those economic times where the global economy sinks and every company's stock drops 50%, the weaker companies go broke, but the big guys can withstand it. They might lose money for a few years, get its stock priced slashed and even have to go through some mass firings to keep things in check. But at the end of the day, they come roaring back years later stronger than ever as some weak hands got turfed.
As for the massive blanket wage increase, it's hilarious really. Coming from an office job that is salaried + bonus where just about everyone at work is in the same boat aside from some summer interns and low level marketing coordinators, every one of us gets annual performance evaluations and everyone's annual merit increase can be different. And so is starting salary if you're new. If you're good and they want you, you get a good starting salary, good annual increases and a good bonus. If you're not that great (but worth hiring) you'll get a starting salary not as good as the guy next to you. And if you stink at the job, you're annual increase can be 0%, your bonus 0% (which is often tied to performance), and after a warning or two for shyt work you'll get that great cozy meeting with the boss and HR and 5 minutes later you're walked out the door.
I bet if I polled everyone at work, there are zero people who would want some kind of parity salary where everyone is in the same boat. Nobody wants their compensation to hinge on everyone else where everyone's wages go up and down together.
But hey, for those guys who are slackers I'm sure they'd love it. Do crap work, hope they don't fire you and then ride the wave of wage increases off the backs of the good performers.
IMO wages should be settled with Unions and collective bargaining if you have the guts to organize and risk being replaced by Scabs.
IMO, I think people should all negotiate their own wages/salaries. If someone is that valuable, companies will pay for that. But if someone is lousy or can be easily replaced by any of the 100 people lining up after them going after the same job, then too bad. You either don't get the job or get offered little pay because the value offered to the employer is low.
For myself and majority of my peers at work of similar level, we all make 6-digits and also get an annual bonus typically ranging from 10-20% depending on the year. Similar sized competing companies probably pay similar. If all these greedy companies want to save tons of money, just skip us and hire low experienced people at cheaper salaries. I'm sure they'd get tons of resumes with people looking for a job even it paid 50% off. Or take our jobs, cut the wages in half and hire two people for everyone of us. On paper, it sounds like two people at half price should do more than one person at full price right? But the company values experience and performance, so they'll pay lots of money to keep us around.
It's all about supply and demand in western countries where wages are market driven.
Guess what? Surgeons are paid a crap load because medical pros are hard to come by. But let's say for whatever reason there were 10x more docs and surgeons looking for jobs (way more than the jobs available), chances are pretty certain pay offers will drop as there's now a huge pool of medical experts banging on the door of every hospital.
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I would love to have someone explain to me how someone can live off $7.25/hour. That's $290/week... before taxes. Take out taxes, gas money to travel to/from job, rent, food... LOL. Good luck. I know we can't just raise it without impacting the economy, but damn. I think 25 years ago I made $6/hour. Today, $7.25 won't even get you a fast food combo meal.
and changing it to 14 an hour across the broad won't do s***. All that will happen is prices of everything goes up. People are always about the pay per hour but they need to think about it like what can an hour of work get me.
What is bread and and milk now in the US? Lets say 3 bucks each let min wage go to 14 and it'll change to 5 each. So you'll work just as much and have the same quietly of life. if you want to drive up wages but not the price of items you do it by making so many jobs company truly have to pay great to get any workers.
Min wage here in ON Canada min wage is 11 an our but stuff cost way f***ing more then the US too.
They can't. Unless they are pocketing the money by living at their parent's place rent free or somehow splitting a small cheap apartment with 5 other roommates.
However, nobody ever said or claimed low end jobs paying $10 or less is meant to support a family or is an awesome career choice. In school, all the career talk and chat about college/university is for decent jobs that pay well in a career path. Nobody ever says you can support yourself (never mind support a family of 4) flipping burgers or stocking shelves at Walmart. These types of jobs should be a stop gap for earning some pocket money while striving for something better. If someone can't find that better job for whatever reason, too bad. Nobody ever guaranteed a decent middle class living as a minimum benchmark for everyone in the world.
Also, the majority of very low paying jobs (let's say $10/hr or less) comes from retailers and restaurants. There aren't too many jobs paying low wages like that in fields of science, medical, technology, engineering, law, business, government etc.... These retailer/restaurant businesses are typically low profit to begin with so there isn't much money to go around. For every successful Walmart making billions (though their net profit margin is something like 3%), there's probably 10 other retailers struggling and losing money. WM could probably withstand it, but what about all the smaller stores, restaurants and mom and pop stores?
It's a slippery slope because people are judging the wage hike against the biggest company at the top of the pyramid. But they forget about the other ones below it.
To me wage increases are no different to when a supplier wants to proposed or force costs increases to the retailers. I've always worked for manufacturers so I see this every year when the marketing dept wants to get the sales guys to tell their retailers a price increase in coming.
Sometimes it goes through, sometimes the retailer resists and says F off.
Never the less, it's the same thing every time. The large guys like Walmart and Loblaws can accept the price increase (after lots of nagging and negotiations), but they can withstand it by selling the product at the same retail price as before. They just absorb the costs and are willing to make less on it. They may increase the retail price later, but sometimes they won't for a year. They do this because they know the smaller retailers are more inclined to jack up their retail prices quicker, so it just makes WM and other large stores look better by having it cheaper. They'll increase the price later, but by that time they may have converted those price conscious customers to their store for the long run.
As everyone knows, the bigger businesses have the flexibility to do what they want. They may not like doing it and maybe shareholders are screaming at them to do the other thing, but they still have the resources to do it. Smaller stores can have no choice. It's either increase revenue with price increases, cut back staff hours, or close up shop.
Sometimes it goes through, sometimes the retailer resists and says F off.
Never the less, it's the same thing every time. The large guys like Walmart and Loblaws can accept the price increase (after lots of nagging and negotiations), but they can withstand it by selling the product at the same retail price as before. They just absorb the costs and are willing to make less on it. They may increase the retail price later, but sometimes they won't for a year. They do this because they know the smaller retailers are more inclined to jack up their retail prices quicker, so it just makes WM and other large stores look better by having it cheaper. They'll increase the price later, but by that time they may have converted those price conscious customers to their store for the long run.
As everyone knows, the bigger businesses have the flexibility to do what they want. They may not like doing it and maybe shareholders are screaming at them to do the other thing, but they still have the resources to do it. Smaller stores can have no choice. It's either increase revenue with price increases, cut back staff hours, or close up shop.
Exactly.
And to cut back on costs, what are people going to do if a store wants to do this...
1. Cut back that guy from $10/hr, 8 hrs ($80) to $15, 5-6 hours ($75-90)?
or
2. How are employees going to react if the store says "Ok, you all are now going to get $15/hr, but in return management wants yo to do more tasks"
It's not a one way street.