Living on minimum wage, 50s to present

[kwc57]

Dude, we are talking about people who are incapable of bettering themselves. Do you deny that those folks exist? Of course they do, and of course anyone who i making anywhere within a dollar of MW within say 2 years of being hired is probably one of them, but being incapable of bettering oneself is NOT a reason to deny people human dignity.

Please reread my highlighted comment above for content. For the people who fit in this category, safety nets already exist. Forcing every employer in the nation to pay a higher wage because of a small minority of people isn't the solution now is it? Know why? Because just like welfare, there are people out there who will take advantage of it. It's easier to work a starter job for 20 years and make enough to live off of than to apply yourself and better yourself to have more. Do you deny that those folks exist?

Not everyone who is not suited for a better job is handicapped man.

Yes, yes they are. Setting a lack of ambition aside, if they lack the intelligence to move beyond a simple minimum wage job, then they have a mental or emotional handicap.

 

[ConHog]

Please reread my highlighted comment above for content. For the people who fit in this category, safety nets already exist. Forcing every employer in the nation to pay a higher wage because of a small minority of people isn't the solution now is it? Know why? Because just like welfare, there are people out there who will take advantage of it. It's easier to work a starter job for 20 years and make enough to live off of than to apply yourself and better yourself to have more. Do you deny that those folks exist?

Not everyone who is not suited for a better job is handicapped man.

Yes, yes they are. Setting a lack of ambition aside, if they lack the intelligence to move beyond a simple minimum wage job, then they have a mental or emotional handicap.

Many people have NO ambition and are a okay with that. That being said do you really want every person who is not capable of getting a better job to qualify for SSI? I don't , I'd rather they got paid a decent wage by their employer.

I just don't see how yall can't see that letting employers make huge bank while paying their employees so little that they qualify for welfare is in fact CORPORATE welfare. You people aren't conservatives at all.

 

[editec]

The myth that a rise in minimum wage is going to cause a rise in unemployment is common sensically supported by everything EXCEPT the data.

Doubt me?

Check the data.

There is NEVER a dramatic decline in employment following an increase in minimum wages.

NEVER!

 

[Uncensored2008]

What the.............? I honestly don't even know how to respond to that since it essentially has no bearing on my post that you quoted.

Shouldn't the government determine the position held be people, and the wage paid?

 

[Uncensored2008]

But the 'mom and pops' competing with Walmart might have more of a problem. Raising overhead always favors the bigger companies.

Considering that "Mom and Pops" virtually always pay minimum wage, and Walmart never does. (Per policy.)

One of the great lies of the left is that people are paid better by family owned enterprises than by large corporations. The opposite is the truth.

In California, where the Minimum wage is $8.25 - Walmart has $9.00 as the lowest starting wage.

 

[Underhill]

If a person takes a minimum wage job and they're still working at it 5 years later for 50 cents more an hour, they would be someone who lacks any intelligence or ambition. As a Boy Scout leader, I deal with a lot of teenagers. When they get a job making minimum wage, they typically get a raise from anywhere between their first 3 months and first year. Most of them eventually take their work experience and find a better job paying more. It's how real life works. These kids are in school and living at home. They have minimum wage jobs because they have no work experience and they need pocket money. If you are a married person with children, a mortgage, car payments, etc. and all you can find is a minimum wage job, then you need to start expanding your range and be willing to uproot and move to where there is a good job. I don't blame an employer who has a minimum wage job for continuing to pay minimum wage. I blame the worker who thinks a minimum wage job is supposed to morph into a living wage job. That can happen if the employer has additional higher paying jobs and you do a good enough job to be moved into them as you gain more knowledge and experience. But if you work for a nursery digging holes to plant trees.....you may be the best hole digger in the world, but your pay is going to remain pretty much the same.

Certainly that makes more sense than accepting the fact that some people are just not capable of more, and oh yeah SOMEONE has to do those jobs anyway, may as well ensure that those who are don't have to go on welfare to help make ends meet.

Here is what makes sense. Just about anyone who isn't physically or mentally handicapped can bag groceries, dig holes or take movie tickets. Doing brain surgery requires a bit more effort and ability. Different jobs have different worths and different pay. A guy who owns a gorcery store knows that he will have a constant influx of new employees made up of teenagers getting their first job or housewives bringing in a little extra income. That is who he hires and he knows that he won't be handing any of them a gold watch after 30 years of loyal service. Minimum wage jobs fill a vital role in our economy, but they are a springboard. They are the kindergarten of jobs. It takes a lot to get from there to a PHD. You take a low paying starter job doing menial labor that any other person on t he face of the earth can do. If you do a good job, you'll most likely get a bump in pay. If you're really good and there are better high paying jobs in the company, you can probably move up and make more pay as they come available. Or you hear from your friend that the warehouse he works at is hiring and they pay $10 an hour and you go apply. The manager interviews you and looks at the work experience you've built up and decides to hire you. You graduate high school and because you and/or your family don't have a lot of money, you choose the vo-tech or community college. You study plumbing, HVAC, etc. or you take EMT training or get an associates in accounting. You find a job making more than your $10 per hour warehouse job you did as a kid. Then you lather, rinse and repeat.

Now tell me how it's the grocery store owner's fault that you don't take some personal initiative to better yourself over time.

It's not about fault.

Plenty of people end up working these jobs for many years. I don't care if it's inability to get something better or laziness. The fact is that paying them more means less people on the dole.

The last statistics I saw for Wal Mart showed that around a third of Wal Mart employees are on some form of assistance. And as someone pointed out, it's even worse for the mom and pops.

So either way we are going to pay for these people. You can either pay them something close to a living wage or expect them to be looking for a handout. Why should taxpayers be paying for that? Why not the stores who need their labor?

The choice is really that simple.

 

[Underhill]

That's all you got out of my post? Really? BTW, I worked less than 20 hours a week. It was to pay for the used car my twin brother and I bought together and buy gas. Minimum wage jobs are starter jobs or extra income jobs. They are not jobs that you can support yourself with. Never have been, never will be.

Once again you ignore the real issue. How many people are hired at minimum wage and 5 years later are at the same job making maybe 50 cents more an hour than when hired? Or a dollar even.

Here's a newsflash, some companies aren't exactly reasonable with their pay.

If a person takes a minimum wage job and they're still working at it 5 years later for 50 cents more an hour, they would be someone who lacks any intelligence or ambition. As a Boy Scout leader, I deal with a lot of teenagers. When they get a job making minimum wage, they typically get a raise from anywhere between their first 3 months and first year. Most of them eventually take their work experience and find a better job paying more. It's how real life works. These kids are in school and living at home. They have minimum wage jobs because they have no work experience and they need pocket money. If you are a married person with children, a mortgage, car payments, etc. and all you can find is a minimum wage job, then you need to start expanding your range and be willing to uproot and move to where there is a good job. I don't blame an employer who has a minimum wage job for continuing to pay minimum wage. I blame the worker who thinks a minimum wage job is supposed to morph into a living wage job. That can happen if the employer has additional higher paying jobs and you do a good enough job to be moved into them as you gain more knowledge and experience. But if you work for a nursery digging holes to plant trees.....you may be the best hole digger in the world, but your pay is going to remain pretty much the same.

I am a scout leader too. And you are partially right.

But these days I see more and more adults in these roles long term. When I was a teenager, roughly 25 years ago, the staff at the average local burger joint was 80% young people with a couple shift managers and a store manager. Now when I go there the split is more like 50/50. And it's even worse in slightly less menial jobs.

My daughter is 18 and looking for a job while she goes to school. It used to be I could walk into a couple burger joints and end up with a job a week later. Now the pickings are much much slimmer.

And it isn't just the recession. This change has been going on for decades. It's the changing face of America. When you have few manufacturing jobs as the backbone of the society, people are forced to take what they can get.

 

[PaulS1950]

You get dignity and self worth when you do a job and do it to the best of your abilities. You don't get self worth or dignity from a hand-out or a mandated minimum pay scale.

 

[dblack]

This whole thing about mandating minimum wages reminds me of when my 9 year old asked me why the government didn't just "make" more money and pay everyone a million dollars a year. Except that after it was explained to him, he got it.

 

[ReallyMeow]

I worked for a minimum wage of $1.60 back in the early 70's

That must have been terrible, why $1.60 in 1970's dollars only has the buying power of $9.50 today.
Inflation Calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics

False.
$1.60 in 1975 (dead center of the 70's) calculates to $6.85

la tee dah, he said early, not mid. in 72 that $1.60 still has pretty much the same buying power as obamas $9 an hour proposal ($8.80)

40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage | The Contributor

It's easier to work a starter job for 20 years and make enough to live off of than to apply yourself and better yourself to have more. Do you deny that those folks exist?

they still spent their life performing services that YOU need, you will furnish them a salary appropriate so that society doesnt have to clean up after your neglect when they are too old to work.

If taxes and all that government support are so good for the economy, then why doesn't the government actually raise taxes that high? Because doing so would crush the economy faster than anything else.

tax rate was 94% coming out of ww2, myth busted

The 90%+ income tax rates were a product of war financing. While the very high rates were only for millionaires (and a million a year of income was quite a bit in 1942!) the rates were comparatively high for everyone. The economics were simple: with consumer goods production cut to the bone to divert resources to war production, some way had to be found to limit consumption and avoid inflationary pressures of large holdings of cash by the public. The answer was rationing, price controls, selling War bonds to the public, and high taxes.

After the war marginal income tax rates came down, especially on the working class. The Kennedy tax cuts made the top rate 50% on personal service earned income, and 70% on everything else. These rates prevailed during the period of highest economic growth in modern American history.

Gee, wars, can you recall any in recent memory?...

I dont see any downside to hiking the tax on income over a million to 94%, with similar hikes to corporate and capitals gains tax.

You get dignity and self worth when you do a job and do it to the best of your abilities. You don't get self worth or dignity from a hand-out or a mandated minimum pay scale.

then take the pepsi challenge and work a minimum wage job, bask in the "dignity" of being rejected when you apply for an apartment because you dont make enough money, or are rejected healthcare because you didnt buy good enough insurance for lack of money and its not life threatening "yet", dignity of providing for a child without having to go beg for a govt hand out... do I really need to go on? are you so detached from reality that you have forgotten that money has value? or are you so sheltered that you never even knew the value of a dollar?


http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/