In which state does making $15,000 a year keep a person above the poverty line?
Who said it needs to do that?
Less than 2% of workers make minimum wage and about half of them are 25 and under.
Why should businesses pay full time employees wages that keeps them above the poverty line?! How about so the tax payers don’t need to pay full time workers welfare to keep them afloat despite the fact they are fully employed. That may be a point you agree with
Why should businesses pay full time employees wages that keeps them above the poverty line?!
Exactly.
If you produce $10/hour in value, what should your wages be?
so the tax payers don’t need to pay full time workers welfare to keep them afloat
Would the taxpayer funded welfare be higher or lower without the job?
It’s up to the business owner to run their business to produce adequate value to pay their employees, just as it’s up to them to meet regulations and codes for the states and industries they do business in. A persons time is worth more than poverty. If you work for yourself and you produce $10 an hour of value then that’s what you will get and you likely won’t make it. But if you are going to employee people then you have a responsibility to those employees
It’s up to the business owner to run their business to produce adequate value to pay their employees,
Some employees just aren't very productive.
A persons time is worth more than poverty.
Usually, not always.
Can you give a real example where a persons time is not worth more than a poverty lifestyle?
Are you willing to pay $20 for a cheap fast food burger?
If the answer is no... then you yourself are an example of how a persons time is not worth more than a poverty lifestyle.
Every single customer that refuses to pay significantly more for the job, is a someone saying that labor is not worth a middle class income.
Next time you go get your oil changed, how much are you going to pay for it? $100? $50? You drive through Jiffy Lube, how much are you going to pay? Enough for them to have a middle class income? No. You won't. You are lying if you claim you will.
When you go get your Starbucks coffee, are you going to pay $6 for a plain coffee? No? Then you are the one saying that they don't deserve a living wage.
In and out pays their entry workers $13.80 an hour. Their burgers are not $20. Nice try
Oh that evil Christian company? You know they print Bible verses on their packaging?
Lynsi Snyder's uncle, Richard Snyder, was the first person to put "John 3:16" on the bottom of the In-N-Out soda cups
people.com
Regardless, that doesn't actually contradict my point.
Unless you think $13/hour in California, is a middle class life.
"Can you give a real example where a persons time is not worth more than a poverty lifestyle?"
That was the question. A poverty lifestyle.
Are you telling me, that $13/hour in California is not poverty? Yes it is. Very much it is. $15/hour is poverty in California.
If you want to have people live a middle class life in California, yeah the burger is going to be dramatically more expensive. I don't know if it would be $20 specifically for just the burger, but it's not going to be $5.
I don’t think I ever said the words middle class lifestyle in relation to minimum wage jobs. I simply said that anybody working full time should get paid enough to stay above the poverty line and off government assistance. Do you really not agree with that? Do you really want your tax dollars spent giving welfare to full time workers who’s bosses won’t pay them a living wage?
Well here's the first problem. When you say they should be paid enough to be above the poverty line... most people are paid enough to be above the poverty line.
You have a mother and father who work full time, even for minimum wage, unless they have more than 3 kids... they are above the poverty line.
If you have kids and you are single... that makes you stupid, and why should employers be forced to pay for the stupidity of others?
If you hire someone to mow your lawn, or do an oil change on your car, and they say "I just had my 3rd child, and I have no spouse... so I need you to pay me $100 to mow your lawn or oil change".... are you going to pay that?
No you will find someone cheaper to have your oil changed, or your lawn mowed.
You would never pay more for a service, because the people who provide that service acted irresponsibly.
Well... why do you expect employers to pay more, just because their employees acted dumb?
Further, many of these people who even claim to be single parents, are actually living with someone who is an adult.
And if they are, then they are not below the poverty line.... again unless they have 3 kids, and that would once again make them stupid.
I'll say that again, if you are working minimum wage, and your spouse is working minimum wage, and you are popping out your 4th child...... that makes you a moron.... and no the employer is not responsible to pay you more because you are a moron.
Further, it doesn't matter whether a person is above or below the poverty line, if the customer isn't willing to pay more for the service.
Just like the example above if you the customer are not willing to pay me the employer more money for having your lawn mowed, than I the employer can't pay the employee more for the lawn being mowed.
If you are only willing to pay me $30, then I can't pay the employee $30. I have to take out the cost of the office, the equipment, the gas in the mowers, the time traveled between appointments, the dispatcher that setups the appointments. I have to pay all that, and have money left over to repair existing mowers, and replacement mowers for ones no longer worth fixing, and I have to pay taxes, and Obama Care mandates and so on.
And then... I have to make a profit, or it isn't worth my time running the business. A commercial grade mower costs upwards of $25,000. A small fleet of those could easily be a half million.
And you want me to earn $50,000 a year so that a 19-year-old in high school can make a middle class income? No. That's not a thing. And you yourself would never do that either.
A half million in the stock market would bring in $50,000 a year. So if I can't make substantially more money from my half million investment, then I would not do it. I would just lay everyone off, sell off the equipment, and go do something else with my money, and you can just be unemployed.
So the answer to the question is no. I don't think people should be paid more just because you think they ought to. When customers are willing to pay more for the service or products... then I can pay the employees more.
That's how life works. Again, you yourself would never do what you claim others should do. You wouldn't. You are lying if you say otherwise. These kind of theories, only work when you do not apply them to yourself.