[Poll] Should the minimum wage be raised?

[newflesh]

fuck minimum wage. everything should be nationalised including homes who would belong to those living in them not landowners and the shareholder property owner classes should be exterminated if they put up a fuss.

Bad idea! A nationalized industry is a failed industry. The end result of nationalizing an industry is that the workers would end up with less money and higher future liabilities.

Tell that to the bankers who were bailed out in the last financial crisis

Minimum wage should be raised though. I think $100 might be a bit too high, will be interesting to see if NYC's mayor Bill de Blasio living wage plans get expanded across the city:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/nyc-mayor-de-blasio-plans-expansion-of-living-wage-nyt/

"New York Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to expand the city’s living wage measure to include thousands of additional workers, as well as increase the amount workers are paid under the law, the New York Times reported on Monday.

De Blasio will sign an executive order on Tuesday to make the change, which his administration estimated could extend coverage to 18,000 workers over the next five years, the newspaper said on its website.

The living wage would go to $11.50 an hour from $10.30 for workers who receive benefits such as health insurance, and for those without benefits, it would rise to $13.13 an hour from $11.90 an hour, the paper said".

[Sindelar1938]

Fixing an unsustainable minimum wage is only going to accelerate the trend of industrial automation
Common man is fucked no matter what

[Timetwister]

Only if they want to increase unemployment.

[SquareApple]

Increasing minimum wage would only make the dollar be worth less.

[redrage]

The only 'real' use of minimum wage is to help make sure things like slavery are not big issues.

TL;DR at the bottom of this post.

Most everything else with minimum wage is pointless.

in '12 about 73.5 million workers with about 3.5 million at or below minimum wage.  That is about 5% of ALL workers.

Of those 3.5 million about 1.7 million where under 25, about 990 thousand with out HS diploma/GED.  These people are probably in high school or college supplementing their coursework either to pay their way through school or to party ;-)  Or even just for work experience.  Wopper flopping your way through school looks better on a resume than playing world of warcraft 30 hours a week, even if you spent the money on hookers and blow (as long as you didn't get caught lol)

There are always going to be those who make less.  Everyone has a chance to live the dream but sometimes that dream is a nightmare.  How you live in a free market democratic system is up to you.  You don't like your situation there are ways out of it... and often it is not as hard as it seems.

Point is the amount of people making the federal minimum is not all that high and in many areas is enough to live on if you are single.  If you got kids chances are you got enough assistance to make it work fairly easily financially though it might still be a headache.  It is just another one of those "War on somethings" like healthcare, LGBT, different Sexes, climate etc that really do not effect a lot of people until there is a law to change it and then it screws everyone over.  I think the whole raising the min wage is to put people into higher tax brackets for a temporary boost in revenue.

IMO: Federal minimum wage should be abolished and replaced with State and local minimum wages. (almost done now)  New York state just raised minimum wage this past January to $8 an hour and will be raised again next January.  In New York City or Buffalo it is very rough to live on.. but in rural areas that is more than enough.  I think one county out west somewhere raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour.  I bet the cost of living is really high there.

Another thing to consider.  If minimum wage is $8 per hour, I make $9 per hour at a semi-skilled job and then minimum wage gets raised to $11 an hour I get a $2 raise with my skill set.. unskilled positions get a $3 raise.  Basically I got a pay cut.

TL:DR: not really much of a problem, just a scare tactic against the GOP and the 1%, IMO put minimum wage on states and local governments as the COL is different for different areas.  and don't eff my pay up by raising it to what I make ;-)

[kuusj98]

Ofcourse not.

Supply and demand, it's that simple.

Say this 100$ an hour is a 20% raise over the previous year, and the company has reached a 3% improve in profit, it would mean the company has to get that 17% from somewhere.
Most high position people are also investors, they want to get their money back, not lose even more. What is going to happen to give people their 17%, is that 17% of the employees are getting fired.

otherwise the company will go bankrupt, and firing people is bad for the economy which in it's place will create a downwards spiral.

Basic economy with kuusj98.

[boumalo]

Two videos from Schiff for those interested by the topic :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_MHVTjfz8&list=UUIjuLiLHdFxYtFmWlbTGQRQ
43:42 - LA raises minimum wage for hotel workers


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZDvVaUrM4&list=UUIjuLiLHdFxYtFmWlbTGQRQ

He explains that when you raise the minimum wage the firms will have higher costs so higher prices slower business so will need less workers; they will hire better skilled workers and fire a lot of unskilled workers that are working for them because they can afford workers with more skills, they will try to use less workers for services or replace them by automation.

[a447513372]

Ofcourse not.

Supply and demand, it's that simple.

Say this 100$ an hour is a 20% raise over the previous year, and the company has reached a 3% improve in profit, it would mean the company has to get that 17% from somewhere.
Most high position people are also investors, they want to get their money back, not lose even more. What is going to happen to give people their 17%, is that 17% of the employees are getting fired.

otherwise the company will go bankrupt, and firing people is bad for the economy which in it's place will create a downwards spiral.

Basic economy with kuusj98.

Investors generally will want to see profits increasing every year, and if they do not they will demand changes. Investors will likely demand that these low wage workers be replaced by automation which will result in them not having any work at all

[Full Spectrum]

Do you think the government should force employers at the point of a gun to pay a wage that the federal government comes up with and spur the robot and automation industry to replace jobs or send jobs overseas?

Simply put, no, in my belief no one has a right to force you via coercion to do something, but I feel people should vote with their money more wisely, if you're on the West Coast find a local WinCo and shop there, at least your money stays local instead of going into some (Wall St.) shareholder's pocket. If you're on the East Coast well crowdsource something similar to WinCo.