POLL: Do you think we should have a "Living wage" $10/hr Minimum wage?

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: thebestMAX
No, do away with it altogether.

And life will be great like it was in the early 1800s right? Let's get rid of the weekend and 8 hour work day too.

Yes, very true. A lot of people around here seem to know economics pretty good, but they seem to lack any knowledge of US history! Before all of the labor laws were created, we had 14 year old kids working in factories for 12 hours a day for just a few cents an hour.

Want to see what a country without the minimum wage would look like? Look at countries like Malaysia and China, where kids are STILL being abused like how I mentioned above. THAT, my fellow Econ textbook reading friends, are what working conditions are like in an unregulated "pure capitalistic" economy.

 

[flyfish]

I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare). A worker at Taco Bell in Dallas does not make min. wage. It's better to be on welfare in Dallas than to work and make Min. Wage!!

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: thebestMAX
No, do away with it altogether.

And life will be great like it was in the early 1800s right? Let's get rid of the weekend and 8 hour work day too.

Neither of which are mandated by federal law, but were introduced by employers to compete in the employment market. The only time related law that is federal is the 40 hour week. However, this does not apply to salaried employees.

Are you really so blind that you can't see employers offering things without federal mandate?

There are more reasons than federal mandate for employers to maintain standards.
There are no Unions for the thousands of different jobs that pay minimum wage.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage?

Sadly, I don't think that most people around here would agree with you. Most people who frequent Anandtech Forums seem to be pretty ruthless when it comes to money.

Personally, I blame the Hot Deals forums. It seems to attract the Ferengi-type people, who are willing to do almost ANYTHING to save a few bucks 🙂

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare).

When I was 16 I worked for a cable company doing some video production work for a while for $7 an hour.

I'm now 21 in college and working for an ISP. I've done tech support and now am working with our sister company helping with their network, namely transitioning them over from a nt environment for a freebsd environment including sql servers, mail servers, web servers, web development, etc. I like to think I'm a pretty dedicated and hardworker worth a decent pay. It turns out though I get the same $7 I did 5 years ago doing far less technical work. Its a bit of a depressing thought.

That said I disagree with raising minimum wage. Those at the bottom of the chain who work hard will eventually (I hope) work hard enough to pull themselves out of it, no reason to screw the economy.

 

[MinorityReport]

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare).

Yes .. reduce welfare and the people who depend on them ... offer a better min wage and force people to work ... I am not talking about disabled, children, old or veterans. The able bodied American on welfare is a shame to his nation.

WORK is the key word here ... there are too many people with food stamps and enough laziness .. they think a federal spoon will feed them and a federal tent will cover their heads .. without any work.

I make $150/hr now and I started at $6.50/hr.

That is the proof that hard work, ambiton, emphasis on education and a persistent drive for achieving something is more than enough to lift you from min wage to a life of decent income. If I could do it in 10 yrs, anyone can.

Best of luck to all ...

 

[flyfish]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage?

Sadly, I don't think that most people around here would agree with you. Most people who frequent Anandtech Forums seem to be pretty ruthless when it comes to money.

Personally, I blame the Hot Deals forums. It seems to attract the Ferengi-type people, who are willing to do almost ANYTHING to save a few bucks 🙂

Don't get me wrong! I enjoy a Hot Deal every once in a while 😉
I would pay a little more in general across the board though, If it would help close the gap between that haves and the havenots.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: flyfish

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage?

Sadly, I don't think that most people around here would agree with you. Most people who frequent Anandtech Forums seem to be pretty ruthless when it comes to money.

Personally, I blame the Hot Deals forums. It seems to attract the Ferengi-type people, who are willing to do almost ANYTHING to save a few bucks 🙂

Don't get me wrong! I enjoy a Hot Deal every once in a while 😉
I would pay a little more in general across the board though, If it would help close the gap between that haves and the havenots.

heh i enjoy the hot deals. i figure it helps the economy out by haveing me spend money all the time!

anyway. raising the min wage will not really help the "working class" or whatever you want to call them. As others pointed out if you raise the wage then companys will just raise the cost of stuff. it wont work. If you are 25+ and still on min wage then you need more help then the extra $3 an hour will do.

as stated as a business owner i will not sacrifice my pay to pay my people more. That aint going to happen. If they want more pay then the either get a diffrent job, get a education, move or suffer. not really my problem i have never had trouble getting new people in.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Soybomb

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare).

When I was 16 I worked for a cable company doing some video production work for a while for $7 an hour.

I'm now 21 in college and working for an ISP. I've done tech support and now am working with our sister company helping with their network, namely transitioning them over from a nt environment for a freebsd environment including sql servers, mail servers, web servers, web development, etc. I like to think I'm a pretty dedicated and hardworker worth a decent pay. It turns out though I get the same $7 I did 5 years ago doing far less technical work. Its a bit of a depressing thought.

That said I disagree with raising minimum wage. Those at the bottom of the chain who work hard will eventually (I hope) work hard enough to pull themselves out of it, no reason to screw the economy.

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

 

[Ramses]

I was going to post something on this, but it's pointless. None of you want to hear it, as long as it's not you that has to try and scrape by and wonder where the money for your next month's insurance payment or whatever is comeing from, you don't give a rip. It's thing's like this that make me hope the black plague or some modern equal returns and thin's our species out again. The world would be a better place with about 3/4 less human beings, and all there assorted silly s*&t.

 

[xuanman]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: Soybomb

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare).

When I was 16 I worked for a cable company doing some video production work for a while for $7 an hour.

I'm now 21 in college and working for an ISP. I've done tech support and now am working with our sister company helping with their network, namely transitioning them over from a nt environment for a freebsd environment including sql servers, mail servers, web servers, web development, etc. I like to think I'm a pretty dedicated and hardworker worth a decent pay. It turns out though I get the same $7 I did 5 years ago doing far less technical work. Its a bit of a depressing thought.

That said I disagree with raising minimum wage. Those at the bottom of the chain who work hard will eventually (I hope) work hard enough to pull themselves out of it, no reason to screw the economy.

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

yeah, it definitely doesn't hurt to have some mad connects...just ask our esteemed president...

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

Originally posted by: Soybomb

Originally posted by: flyfish
I make about $18/hr.
I would not mind paying a little bit more for stuff, if the extra would go to the employee at the bottom of the payscale. How can I be assured that would be the case? Raise the Min. Wage? The people at the bottom WORK! Lets give more to them and less to those that don't (welfare).

When I was 16 I worked for a cable company doing some video production work for a while for $7 an hour.

I'm now 21 in college and working for an ISP. I've done tech support and now am working with our sister company helping with their network, namely transitioning them over from a nt environment for a freebsd environment including sql servers, mail servers, web servers, web development, etc. I like to think I'm a pretty dedicated and hardworker worth a decent pay. It turns out though I get the same $7 I did 5 years ago doing far less technical work. Its a bit of a depressing thought.
That said I disagree with raising minimum wage. Those at the bottom of the chain who work hard will eventually (I hope) work hard enough to pull themselves out of it, no reason to screw the economy.

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

Actually you can. you can get a managment job. they do pay pretty well.
not to mention i have a brother-in-law who started working as a janitor for ComEd about 15yrs ago. Now he is a manager in the inventory department (or something like that) and he makes well over 50k year. it took him a few years to make it. but now he makes darn good money for someone who did'nt go to college or join the military.

 

[woodie1]

Do you think we should have a "Living wage" $10/hr Minimum wage?

NO!

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Carbonyl
Entry-level workers do not usually agree to their wages; they take whatever is offered. This is because there are more workers than jobs in the economy, and workers are in competition for those jobs -- the alternative is starvation. Employers often take advantage of this to let wages fall as low as they can get away with and still meet their needs. Allowing such a trend has historically resulted in greater income inequality

So do we - the taxpayer, business owner, and consumer - have a duty to improve the lifestyles of those who choose not to improve their situation themselves?

What a bunch of tripe.

To keep downward pressure on their bids, you make sure to keep a few of them unemployed and unfed at all times.

Notice that this injustice becomes even worse by making this mobility a meritocracy, in which the smartest or hardest working rise to the top, leaving the bottom 75 percent with almost no hope of breaking in.

God forbid we should be rewarded for how hard we work.

I could go further, but I'm actually genuinely irritated by this idiot's logic.

 

[PistachioByAzul]

Don't think it would work.

 

[Keego]

Up for more opinions!

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

That's pure BS. The owner of 7 McDonald's restaurants in southern Mississippi went from working at a hamburger shop, to owning it, to changing it to a McDonalds, to expanding.

He's worth many millions now. He was just a poor working guy.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Jellomancer

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

You have to love this tripe. Why does the left do everything it can to abdicate personal responsibility?

People make it out of the ghetto every day, Jello.

I was broke, on drugs, and on the streets when I turned 18. I now own my own business.

I had no capital, and I've never been a very social person.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Keego
Can you imagine all the teenage burger flipping acne faced ankle biters having all that money? I think not!!

Here the minimum wage is age dependant, but for each age group it is set by the law.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Ramses
I was going to post something on this, but it's pointless. None of you want to hear it, as long as it's not you that has to try and scrape by and wonder where the money for your next month's insurance payment or whatever is comeing from, you don't give a rip. It's thing's like this that make me hope the black plague or some modern equal returns and thin's our species out again. The world would be a better place with about 3/4 less human beings, and all there assorted silly s*&t.

Piss off wanker. If the plague does kill off 3/4 of us, it'll be your worthless minimum wage ass that doesn't make the cut. Good riddance.

 

[Linflas]

I am in agreement with the no minimum wage folks. If you don't want to be exploited take steps to improve yourself so you are qualified for something more than a "minimum wage" job. There are countless examples of folks that have come from the most hellish backgrounds imaginable that have done exactly that.

 

[markuskidd]

Originally posted by: Linflas
I am in agreement with the no minimum wage folks. If you don't want to be exploited take steps to improve yourself so you are qualified for something more than a "minimum wage" job. There are countless examples of folks that have come from the most hellish backgrounds imaginable that have done exactly that.

Examples maketh not this case. Find statistics, they will guide you.

 

[KC5AV]

This is America. You can't just work your way up from flipping burgers to making $18 an hour, or whatever. It takes two things to make money... capital and social wealth.

Why not? I did. I worked for minimum wage all through high school and college, and even for a little while after college. Now, I make in the neighborhood of $15 an hour. Here in Deep East Texas, that's considered pretty good starting out.

During the time I was making minimum wage, there were a few increases mandated by law. It must be pure coincidence that prices went up on everything at just about the same time. Of course, the prices went up more than my pay did. Consider this: In high school, I was flipping burgers. If I had 24 co-workers (for a total of a nicely rounded 25 employees, excluding management), and minimum wage increased (a nicely rounded) $1 per hour, then my employer would have to pay out an additional $25 per hour per day. Most fast food places are open 18 or more hours per day. Let's go with 20 hours. That means the employer must now pay out:

$25 per hour * 20 hours per day * 30 days per month = An additional $15,000 per month

I don't think any employer is going to take that kind of hit on the bottom line just to be nice and help the national economy. They are going to increase prices. That is what happened in my case. My pay raise was only about $.15 per hour, but the burger I was flipping went up about $.50 each.

When I got tired of making minimum wage, I did something about it. I got the skills necessary to find a better paying job. Others have done the same thing. Everyone else has essentially the same opportunity. Some will take it. Others won't. That's fine with me. We need people who will work in low paying jobs. I think a minumum wage is a mistake. Sure, there need to be safeguards against the worker being abused, but the worker should be paid for the work done. It has been mentioned that a lot of fast food places are paying above minimum wage. That's the case around me. Taco Bell is paying people $7 an hour. Pay people for the work they do. If someone works hard at what they do, pay them more. If someone just wants to sit around and draw a paycheck, let them go somewhere else. Don't tell employers that they have to pay everyone a certain amount. That's just crazy.

 

[BoberFett]

For those saying you can't pull yourself out of poverty, I'm another example that you can.

I made barely more than minimum wage for a couple years after high school working various blue collar jobs. When I got married I decided I needed something better so I started sending hundreds of resumes out. I scraped some money together to buy a suit and a used computer to teach myself how to use it. I went on interviews. Eventually I got an entry level position making not much more than the blue collar jobs, but it was the foot in the door. At my last job I was making $60K/yr, at my current job I'm making $20/hr. I'm not rich by any means, but it's better than flipping burgers, and all I have is a high school diploma.

 

[Zebo]

Labor unions, to me, is the best way to handle low wages and stop exploitation..

1) they are private, not the ineffececnt government, handling wage negotiations ...
2) the contracts that come about because of collective bargining are voluntray for both sides, the employee and employer.
3) They can account for regoinal cost of living discrepancies which the minimum wage will never be able to do.

So reluctantly I must vote no. Perhaps cause I'm also planning on opening a business too I don't know. Most everything we make a call on is for what best for us rather than what's best for the country and everyone in it.