This is why we need a living wage

[Againsheila]

Whats wrong with going to college instead of being a perpetual bagger? Once they automate the bagging then they will be obsolete.

What's wrong with doing what they enjoy? I HATED school and would only go back to a tech school of some kind without all the goofy pointless classes. I know others who are completely different and enjoyed school and want to go to college. Wages should be tied to inflation after we bump the minimum wage up to at least 10$ an hour.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who enjoyed their min wage job or would want it as a career.

I have. Many times.

So what you're saying is school was unpleasant for you so you are stuck flipping burgers and you think you are owed more money to do it?
Sorry, Charlie. Sitting right next to you in high school was another guy who hated school as well, but instead of dropping out, he sucked it up and graduated and got into a decent college. Guess what? He's making 10 times what you're making because he made himself more valuable to an employer.

Do you have any idea how many college educated people are out there working minimum wage jobs with loans up to the hilt? Our well paying jobs have left the country. Most of those working minimum wage are now adults.

 

[Uncensored2008]

The Shocking Truth About What It Would Cost Us All If Walmart Paid A Living Wage

Watch the video.

$300,000,000 a year in food stamps just for walmart employees. Give them a living wage and we pay an extra 1.4% on their goods. One penny for every dollar spent at Walmart and those employees would not need to live on food stamps.

How much went to food stamps to Walmart employees before Obama became god?

Oh and, I don't believe your $300 million claim, not by a long shot.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Has anyone decided just how much the "living wage" should be? Who decided it and based on what?

One more thing, all this talk about college is BS, not everyone needs to go to college. There are plenty of jobs out there that doesn't require a college degree and these jobs have the potential of earning someone 80 to 120 grand a year.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Where are you getting your figures. Today's minimum wage won't even support one person at the poverty level.

40 hrs x $7.25 x 52 weeks=$15,080.

FPL 1 person=$11,670
2 person HH=$15,730
3 person HH=$19,790

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/14poverty.cfm

Ah, yes, except for the fact that minimum wage jobs only employ you for 30 hours a week, on average. That's to avoid paying any more benefits than they have to.

Thats perfect!! You can now go and get another thirty hour job and work sixty.
Or if you were a real go getter you'd go and find a forty to go with your thirty.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

The bottom line question is:

Should there be any job anywhere that pays less than enough to fully support the lives of a given number of people? I contend that there should be, because there is a need for starter jobs, jobs that those new to the job market can get that pay little, but provide vital work experience and skills. Make every job pay enough for an adult to totally support him or herself, and you eliminate the job market for the young and unskilled. Then what happens when you have high unemployment among that demographic? Ask France.

Yep. And you lose the ego boost and confidence that goes with earning something instead of having it handed to you.
Liberals dont understand the damage it does to the psyche of people who are on the dole.

 

[Mathbud1]

no, i think they DO enjoy their minimum wage jobs.

they just what to be paid MORE for the very little that they do.

Tell me, what walmart greeter doesn't want $15 an hour?

Every worker should be paid more than what they could get sitting on the couch collecting from tax payers. They should not have to stay latched onto the government tit while they are working. Tax payers should not be paying wages for another persons employee.

Government exploded causing inflation to take care of all those underpaid employees. Government shrinks & prices go down every time minimum wage was raised above government dole poverty levels.

People working more than 40/hrs should have money for college savings to better their life. They should not be just surviving or living on government backed student loans.

Do you have any evidence of that? I wouldn't even know where to look to see if that were true. I doubt it based on my own admittedly limited knowledge.

Again, we come to the should. No one seems to want to answer me when I ask what they mean by should. Where do you place the responsibility? Is it society's responsibility to make sure this happens? Is it an employers responsibility? Or is it an individual's responsibility to take care of themselves and their family?

 

[Uncensored2008]

So 3 who hate the poor and want to force them to go to college or school of some kind to rack up more debt instead of letting them earn a decent wage at a job they enjoy.

Whats wrong with going to college instead of being a perpetual bagger? Once they automate the bagging then they will be obsolete.

They will still need to stock shelves and pick up the crap that slobs throw on the floor.

Foodstamps exploded under Obama as he created the "dependance society."

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Look here Sheila...I dont care who you are, I dont care if it's McDonalds or the Piggly Wiggly. If you work hard and apply yourself,I promise you you could be a manager or assistant manger in five years max barring any physical or mental disabilities.
Is that to much to ask? Five years? You cant help but learn a job like that in five years...all you have to do is show up and ask questions for Christ sake!

 

[Ernie S.]

I think people are taxed enough its just not spent wisely. Get rid of all illegal immigrants,stop with the war adventurism,foreign aid,etc.

Some people are taxed more than enough already. We are the land of milk and honey. The question is what is the worth of the worker bees.

If the worker bee says hello and gives you a shopping cart when you walk through the door, not much.

Now, if you think all workers should earn $X/hour, perhaps you also think my 13 year old Ford pick-up is worth as much as your new Beemer.

 

[HenryBHough]

Thanx for the reminders....gotta nip over to Wallyworld for some lawn food and people food. I haven't noticed "greeters" of late so will check again. Last I heard - and it was unofficial - was that they had been eliminated because they were being threatened so frequently.

 

[Ernie S.]

Another problem with the "living wage" argument is that it shifts responsibility off of the individual. Essentially you are saying that it is not the individual's responsibility to provide for him/her self and/or family. You are moving that responsibility to either the company or to society in general. In either case you are shifting the responsibility away from where it should rest.

It the richest country in the world, the lowest paid worker should make a living wage. In truth the low wage workers in this country have a huge disadvantage. We bring in more immigrants than all other nations combined, and that's just the legal immigrants. Add the illegals and it's even worse. Since the 70's Americans have limited their birth rate to less than replacement value. If our government had kept our immigration rate at what it was in the 70's, the lowest paid workers would be making a lot of money right now as they would be in great demand.

We're not competing on a level field and it's killing us.

The playing field will never be level. There are people who are content in a minimum wage job and there are people with the motivation to better themselves. There are people with the aptitude to say hello at WalMart and those with the aptitude to play short stop for the Yankees. The bottom line is "What are you worth to an employer?"

 

[Mathbud1]

Has anyone decided just how much the "living wage" should be? Who decided it and based on what?

One more thing, all this talk about college is BS, not everyone needs to go to college. There are plenty of jobs out there that doesn't require a college degree and these jobs have the potential of earning someone 80 to 120 grand a year.

I wish I hadn't gone to college myself. I would be in the same job today without the student loans if I had not. In my field certifications are more respected than a degree, and you can get a certification for as little as $150. You have to self-motivate and study hard to get them, but you don't have to pay anything but the testing fee if you don't want to buy any training materials. Now I'm stuck working to get certifications after already having gone to college and gotten a degree.

 

[Luissa]

The Shocking Truth About What It Would Cost Us All If Walmart Paid A Living Wage



Watch the video.



$300,000,000 a year in food stamps just for walmart employees. Give them a living wage and we pay an extra 1.4% on their goods. One penny for every dollar spent at Walmart and those employees would not need to live on food stamps.

How much went to food stamps to Walmart employees before Obama became god?



Oh and, I don't believe your $300 million claim, not by a long shot.

Obama is God?



Sent from my iPhone using the tears of Raider's fans.

 

[sameech]

Do you have any idea how many college educated people are out there working minimum wage jobs with loans up to the hilt? Our well paying jobs have left the country. Most of those working minimum wage are now adults.

44% of those who would benefit from the raise to $10.10 have at least some college.

There are bias confirming statistics going both ways. The BLS numbers support one argument, while the legitimate concerns over flaws in the BLS cut the other way (like leaving out the data for states with higher than fed MW).

It is not just a question of who gets helped, but also who gets hurt, and that is where the fault line lies between the two sides IMO. For me, the working poor in the poorest states would be hurt the most which is why I prefer more moderate phase-ins of any increases over some bad implementation to be able to sound political trumpets.

--Sam

 

[Ernie S.]

I just really don't understand why folks why people think low wages are OK.
I would guess that most folks posting here are Middle Class. When wages go up at the bottom, typically it spreads to the next group, which would be the Middle Class.
While the Middle Class in America has seen flat/stagnant wage growth (in Real Dollars), other industrial nation's Middle Class has seen wage growth. Canada recently passed the US as having t
the best pad Middle Class and other countries are poised to do the same.
This shouldn't be a partisan subject. Wages for the working Middle Class have been stagnant under both Republican and Democratic presidents and congresses.
I've posted this before, working Americans didn't cause flat wages, the didn't ship jobs offshore and they didn't bring in automation into the workplace. They didn't benefit at all. But someone reaped the rewards of those policies.
A weak Middle Class symbolizes a weak economic environment. While the US spins it's wheels economically, other countries are moving forward.

They are ok because the whole concept of wages is getting paid for the worth you provide in the time you provide it to the company paying you. If your skill set is only worth $10 to them you have to either accept it or decide you are worth more by acquiring the skills to get paid more. Even when I was minimum wage I knew that and accepted it.

American worker productivity has climbed while wage growth has been stagnant. Profits have climbed while wages growth has been stagnate. It's been happening for three decades.
One doesn't have to wonder why the US Middle class has been weakened.

Worker productivity has increased due to inflation and capital investments by the corporations that employ them. Most workers actually put forth less effort than they did 50 years ago due to automation and technology.
Take a roofer, for instance. He is not carrying shingles up a ladder and while he is nailing the shingles (that are brought to him on a conveyor) in place 3 times as fast, he has been provided with an air compressor and a nail gun by his boss. He is not swinging a hammer and climbing a ladder all day.

So, why should we reward the worker for installing more shingles when he is actually working less?

 

[Uncensored2008]

Where does the line form for liberals who want to donate to the federal government because they feel they aren't taxed enough?

Do the companies owned by Warren Buffet all pay above minimum? What about the owner of the democratic party, George Soros? Do all the enterprises that Soros has his pudgy, piggy hooves into, start people at a 'living wage?"

We all know the horror stories of that bastion of leftism. Apple Computer; how workers in the early 80's slaved for 20 hours a day without overtime or even pay - on promises of Jobs and Wozniak that they would be given stock - only to be screwed out of it.

Lefties talk a LOT about the poor, and living wage, BUT when they are in charge, the workers get screwed FAR more than Walmart ever DREAMED of screwing them.

 

[LockeJaw]

The Shocking Truth About What It Would Cost Us All If Walmart Paid A Living Wage

Watch the video.

$300,000,000 a year in food stamps just for walmart employees. Give them a living wage and we pay an extra 1.4% on their goods. One penny for every dollar spent at Walmart and those employees would not need to live on food stamps.

Minimum wage causes more unemployment, most economists agree. The goal should be to decrease inflation so that our dollar buys more, not forcing more businesses to increase wages. This is a government problem, not private sector problem. Your heart is in the right place, and God bless you for that...but youre just wrong on this.

 

[KissMy]

no, i think they DO enjoy their minimum wage jobs.

they just what to be paid MORE for the very little that they do.

Tell me, what walmart greeter doesn't want $15 an hour?

Every worker should be paid more than what they could get sitting on the couch collecting from tax payers. They should not have to stay latched onto the government tit while they are working. Tax payers should not be paying wages for another persons employee.

Government exploded causing inflation to take care of all those underpaid employees. Government shrinks & prices go down every time minimum wage was raised above government dole poverty levels.

People working more than 40/hrs should have money for college savings to better their life. They should not be just surviving or living on government backed student loans.

Do you have any evidence of that? I wouldn't even know where to look to see if that were true. I doubt it based on my own admittedly limited knowledge.

Again, we come to the should. No one seems to want to answer me when I ask what they mean by should. Where do you place the responsibility? Is it society's responsibility to make sure this happens? Is it an employers responsibility? Or is it an individual's responsibility to take care of themselves and their family?

Unless you want to maximize the nanny state government, then you should establish policy that do not have the business, people & the economy relying on government.

Welfare & Entitlement Spending Way Up Under Bush & Down Under Clinton & Since Obama Took Office Because Raising Minimum Wages CUTS Government Spending.

WELFARE SPENDING

The faster & higher you raise the minimum wage, the slower the dollar loses it's value. Because most of the people on the government dole are working at a real job. Prices ALWAYS rise before wages because Government & Banks create money. Wages do not push or drive inflation & wage price spiral is a hoax. Higher minimum wages get workers off the government dole so government does not have to print more money causing inflation. Also higher minimum wages means Government does not have to guarantee bank home or business loans causing inflation because underpaid workers default at high rates.

Raising Wages increases employment & CUTS Government Spending. Socialism is when employers make government tax payers pay for their workers so they can drive others out of business & pocket everyone else's wealth. If you don't like the minimum wage then pass a law banning employment of someone on the government dole. Because I already pay my workers & should not have to keep subsidizing yours, harming my business. Employment rises as wages & minimum wages rise.

 

[Ernie S.]

What's wrong with doing what they enjoy? I HATED school and would only go back to a tech school of some kind without all the goofy pointless classes. I know others who are completely different and enjoyed school and want to go to college. Wages should be tied to inflation after we bump the minimum wage up to at least 10$ an hour.


I have. Many times.

So what you're saying is school was unpleasant for you so you are stuck flipping burgers and you think you are owed more money to do it?
Sorry, Charlie. Sitting right next to you in high school was another guy who hated school as well, but instead of dropping out, he sucked it up and graduated and got into a decent college. Guess what? He's making 10 times what you're making because he made himself more valuable to an employer.

Do you have any idea how many college educated people are out there working minimum wage jobs with loans up to the hilt? Our well paying jobs have left the country. Most of those working minimum wage are now adults.

Jobs have left the country because labor costs are too high due to minimum wage laws and labor unions.

Want those jobs back in the US? It would be easy enough to do.

 

[Asclepias]

Has anyone decided just how much the "living wage" should be? Who decided it and based on what?

One more thing, all this talk about college is BS, not everyone needs to go to college. There are plenty of jobs out there that doesn't require a college degree and these jobs have the potential of earning someone 80 to 120 grand a year.

I wish I hadn't gone to college myself. I would be in the same job today without the student loans if I had not. In my field certifications are more respected than a degree, and you can get a certification for as little as $150. You have to self-motivate and study hard to get them, but you don't have to pay anything but the testing fee if you don't want to buy any training materials. Now I'm stuck working to get certifications after already having gone to college and gotten a degree.

I'm glad I went to college if only to learn that they teach you to work hard for other people so they can become wealthy. Once I got my degree in network engineering no one would hire me until I lied and said I had experience in the field. My certs were through Cisco. Sounds like you are in the same field?