How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?

[Anonymous]

Your wife probably gets benefits worth another $30-50k that the minimum wage worker does not get. My health insurance alone (carefirst family plan) is 36K a year. Does she get paid vacation, sick days, paid federal holidays, health insurance, pension or 401k, life insurance, guaranteed days of notice prior to a layoff? Those all have a cost.
Also, at that wage rate she probably gets OT, no? If not, she might under Biden dol regs.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure policy makers realize how devastating this can be for depressed cities, especially former industrial towns. I live in one and it declined majorly 20 years ago as factories shut down. Now they are building up again as distribution centers for online retailers (we have 5 major retailers doing it here so far) open up, as well as assembly plants for major automakers. What draws these new businesses here is that the wages here are low -- below $15/hour -- for entry-level, and we're near major interstates. However, our minimum wage is a good wage because cost of living is low here. Cost of living is easily half of in DC where we used to live.

If the minimum wage goes to $15/hr nationwide, then suddenly our town is no longer attractive to employers as being low-cost, and the jobs will start disappearing. There are a million towns also along the interstate where they can put their next warehouse.

If the goal is to make sure households earn enough to live, then we should index the minimum wage in that area to cost of living, or even better just adjust the earned income tax credit (EITC). The EITC takes into account total household income, particular since people may work more than one job, and also household size, like number of children at home.

I know $15/hr is a great soundbite, but I'm pretty sure it's going to leave towns like ours worse off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure policy makers realize how devastating this can be for depressed cities, especially former industrial towns. I live in one and it declined majorly 20 years ago as factories shut down. Now they are building up again as distribution centers for online retailers (we have 5 major retailers doing it here so far) open up, as well as assembly plants for major automakers. What draws these new businesses here is that the wages here are low -- below $15/hour -- for entry-level, and we're near major interstates. However, our minimum wage is a good wage because cost of living is low here. Cost of living is easily half of in DC where we used to live.

If the minimum wage goes to $15/hr nationwide, then suddenly our town is no longer attractive to employers as being low-cost, and the jobs will start disappearing. There are a million towns also along the interstate where they can put their next warehouse.

If the goal is to make sure households earn enough to live, then we should index the minimum wage in that area to cost of living, or even better just adjust the earned income tax credit (EITC). The EITC takes into account total household income, particular since people may work more than one job, and also household size, like number of children at home.

I know $15/hr is a great soundbite, but I'm pretty sure it's going to leave towns like ours worse off.

+1, I’d much rather see a more generous EITC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife currently makes $42k. She has multiple years of experience and a master's degree. Yes, the salary is pretty low, but that's what the University system pays. It seems like people are now gonna make $15 per hour to work at Walmart or McDonald's. That's about $31-32k per year. If someone with zero education and no skills can make that much, it seems.like someone with a lot more eduction and years of experience doing work at a university should make more than only $9k more than that kind of work at walmart. Is a $20k raise reasonable?

Op, not sure why you are here instead of your DW. Not sure if this is a real post.

Universities are not doing well financially right now. Many have had layoffs, even those in good financial shape before the pandemic. Many research universities have frozen hiring, cut benefits, and frozen salaries (no COLA this year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[b wrote:]My wife [/b]currently makes $42k. She has multiple years of experience and a master's degree. Yes, the salary is pretty low, but that's what the University system pays. It seems like people are now gonna make $15 per hour to work at Walmart or McDonald's. That's about $31-32k per year. If someone with zero education and no skills can make that much, it seems.like someone with a lot more eduction and years of experience doing work at a university should make more than only $9k more than that kind of work at walmart. Is a $20k raise reasonable?

Why are you asking for your wife? Maybe leave it to her to figure it out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife currently makes $42k. She has multiple years of experience and a master's degree. Yes, the salary is pretty low, but that's what the University system pays. It seems like people are now gonna make $15 per hour to work at Walmart or McDonald's. That's about $31-32k per year. If someone with zero education and no skills can make that much, it seems.like someone with a lot more eduction and years of experience doing work at a university should make more than only $9k more than that kind of work at walmart. Is a $20k raise reasonable?

Op, not sure why you are here instead of your DW. Not sure if this is a real post.

Universities are not doing well financially right now. Many have had layoffs, even those in good financial shape before the pandemic. Many research universities have frozen hiring, cut benefits, and frozen salaries (no COLA this year).

Yup. Johns Hopkins suspended all retirement contributions for their staff for the fiscal year. We also laid off a bunch of people, many of whom were low-level admins like OP’s wife. I can’t wait to see what happens when she complains to management about how she should make more because the minimum wage went up.

I suspect that both OP and OP’s wife know that this isn’t a serious possibility, and that this is just a MAGA whine about how they’re not getting everything that they’re entitled to.

[Anonymous]

Your wife's employer will laugh at her if she asks for a $20K raise. Go ahead and try.

[Anonymous]

Does your wife have health insurance? Paid leave? Any sick days, even unpaid? Any type of retirement, like a 401(k)? Disability, either short or long term? If yes to any of these, she makes more than $42k and is a lot better off than working at McDonalds for $15/ hr.

[Anonymous]

Odd, OP. My husband works for a university in a manager-level that sounds similar to your wife, but makes almost $70K. Sounds like your wife has not been working hard enough to warrant promotions and raises.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's not going to go well for your wife if she requests a 50% raise and cites increased minimum wage as the reason.

What is her job?

Why wouldn't it go well? She will now only make a few dollars more per hour than a high school kid who pushes carts at a grocery store. She's an administrator in HR.

Perhaps she should get a job pushing carts then.

[Anonymous]

It usually takes a year or two (or more) for economies to adjust. Your wife can ask for whatever she wants. Whether or not the employer has to pay it depends on whether there is another job up the street paying more.

If she (and you) are so envious of the folks at Wendy's, you could always take jobs there.

[Anonymous]

More white collar workers should probably be making minimum wage.

[Anonymous]

OP, I have an idea for your wife. Since flipping burgers is so easy, and her job so difficult, she should just switch jobs and go flip burgers for a living. As you said, the salary difference is going to be small, so it would definitely be worth it for her to switch over to the easy burger flipping job instead of her brutally difficult job of sitting behind a desk all day.

Or, if you don't want to lose the income, she can just pick up extra hours at the easy burger-flipping job.

[Anonymous]

OP, I can't give you a precise number...but if the point you are trying to make is that increasing the minimum wage will also result in an increase in wages for non-minimum wage low- and middle-income workers, you are correct. That's another good reason why Congress should raise the minimum wage!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife currently makes $42k. She has multiple years of experience and a master's degree. Yes, the salary is pretty low, but that's what the University system pays. It seems like people are now gonna make $15 per hour to work at Walmart or McDonald's. That's about $31-32k per year. If someone with zero education and no skills can make that much, it seems.like someone with a lot more eduction and years of experience doing work at a university should make more than only $9k more than that kind of work at walmart. Is a $20k raise reasonable?

How much does your wife make with benefits included?