Anonymous wrote:

Critics of a higher minimum wage cite a number of reasons for their opposition: the effect on youth employment levels, the likelihood that it will increase the costs of products and services, and the chance that it will decrease the number of jobs available. Such concerns align with the data and projections published by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in July 2019. The CBO estimated that while a $15 minimum wage would increase the wages of 17 million workers and reduce the number of people living below the poverty line, it would also eliminate 1.3 million jobs. The CBO’s projections also indicated a $15 minimum wage would reduce business income while causing prices to increase, concluding that “the $15 option would reduce total real (inflation-adjusted) family income in 2025 by $9 billion, or 0.1 percent.”

Given the opposition to a $15 minimum wage among economists and the projections put out by prominent organizations like the CBO, Biden is wrong to claim that “all the economics” indicate raising the minimum wage to $15 would have an overall positive effect on the economy.

If he does this, he will take the prize as the biggest job killing president. He already has a great start on this unflattering title with many of his EOs.

^^
link to stats:

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20hourly%20paid,collected%20on%20a%20regular%20basis.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20hourly%20paid,collected%20on%20a%20regular%20basis.

In 2017, only 2.3% of workers were making minimum wage. So, I'm guessing the market is working.

This is also a little different from what a PP posted about teens. Very few workers are paid minimum wage--mpst are paid more. I know a teen who was making better than minimum wage at a store at the mall --and this was well over a decade ago. Is it also possible that they are including waiters/waitresses in that number? Because they ,make lower than others, but get tips. Not sure how they calculate their wages statistically.

Age. Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less. Among employed teenagers (ages 16 to 19) paid by the hour, about 8 percent earned the minimum wage or less, compared with about 1 percent of workers age 25 and older.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can’t afford to pay your employees a living wage, your company is not profitable and your business is ALREADY a failure.

+1 million

If your business model depends on your workers living in poverty, you should fail. We need healthy businesses for our economy and our country to actually flourish.

I would also like to see legislation in the future that ties executive salaries to the wages of their lowest paid employees. The ratio was about 20:1 in the 60s. It's ballooned to about 320:1 today. The greed is out of hand.

This.

Anonymous wrote:If you can’t afford to pay your employees a living wage, your company is not profitable and your business is ALREADY a failure.

+1 million

If your business model depends on your workers living in poverty, you should fail. We need healthy businesses for our economy and our country to actually flourish.

I would also like to see legislation in the future that ties executive salaries to the wages of their lowest paid employees. The ratio was about 20:1 in the 60s. It's ballooned to about 320:1 today. The greed is out of hand.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are for “experience”. Jobs are work, and should be paid based on the actual cost of living for a human being in this economy. There are already programs for low paying summer jobs for teens IIRC.

Why would those teens take those jobs if they can just go make $15 somewhere else?

They won’t be able to get those jobs, too ma y other qualified people would be competing with them.

There’s going to be a rush of qualified people competing for minimum wage jobs? Really?

Yes. Because the pay will make it worth their work. I pay my 16 year old babysitter 15 bucks an hour. There is no ethical reason a grocery clerk shouldn’t be paid equal or more.

I guess we have different definitions of qualified. Grocery clerk is not skilled labor, that’s why it’s a minimum wage job. Raising the minimum to $15 does not magically give the clerk some skills, so a teenager can do it, so why would they take the lower paying ones again? Too many college grads fighting to be a grocery clerk?

Too many reliable adults competing for a job that pays the bills. Teenagers are educated employees. And again, they only currently take 2/5 of all minimum wage jobs to begin with.

That’s should say “terrible”, not educated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are for “experience”. Jobs are work, and should be paid based on the actual cost of living for a human being in this economy. There are already programs for low paying summer jobs for teens IIRC.

Why would those teens take those jobs if they can just go make $15 somewhere else?

They won’t be able to get those jobs, too ma y other qualified people would be competing with them.

There’s going to be a rush of qualified people competing for minimum wage jobs? Really?

Yes. Because the pay will make it worth their work. I pay my 16 year old babysitter 15 bucks an hour. There is no ethical reason a grocery clerk shouldn’t be paid equal or more.

I guess we have different definitions of qualified. Grocery clerk is not skilled labor, that’s why it’s a minimum wage job. Raising the minimum to $15 does not magically give the clerk some skills, so a teenager can do it, so why would they take the lower paying ones again? Too many college grads fighting to be a grocery clerk?

Too many reliable adults competing for a job that pays the bills. Teenagers are educated employees. And again, they only currently take 2/5 of all minimum wage jobs to begin with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are for “experience”. Jobs are work, and should be paid based on the actual cost of living for a human being in this economy. There are already programs for low paying summer jobs for teens IIRC.

Why would those teens take those jobs if they can just go make $15 somewhere else?

They won’t be able to get those jobs, too ma y other qualified people would be competing with them.

There’s going to be a rush of qualified people competing for minimum wage jobs? Really?

Yes. Because the pay will make it worth their work. I pay my 16 year old babysitter 15 bucks an hour. There is no ethical reason a grocery clerk shouldn’t be paid equal or more.

I guess we have different definitions of qualified. Grocery clerk is not skilled labor, that’s why it’s a minimum wage job. Raising the minimum to $15 does not magically give the clerk some skills, so a teenager can do it, so why would they take the lower paying ones again? Too many college grads fighting to be a grocery clerk?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are for “experience”. Jobs are work, and should be paid based on the actual cost of living for a human being in this economy. There are already programs for low paying summer jobs for teens IIRC.

Why would those teens take those jobs if they can just go make $15 somewhere else?

They won’t be able to get those jobs, too ma y other qualified people would be competing with them.

There’s going to be a rush of qualified people competing for minimum wage jobs? Really?

Yes. Because the pay will make it worth their work. I pay my 16 year old babysitter 15 bucks an hour. There is no ethical reason a grocery clerk shouldn’t be paid equal or more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are for “experience”. Jobs are work, and should be paid based on the actual cost of living for a human being in this economy. There are already programs for low paying summer jobs for teens IIRC.

Why would those teens take those jobs if they can just go make $15 somewhere else?

They won’t be able to get those jobs, too ma y other qualified people would be competing with them.

There’s going to be a rush of qualified people competing for minimum wage jobs? Really?

“Are there no poor houses? Perhaps they should die and decrease the surplus population?” — conservative dcum trolls.

Fewer people that shouldn’t go to college would go, and take on debt, if they could actually make a living doing low skill labor. Two birds one stone repugs

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine how many good paying small business jobs could be created if college grads could afford healthcare and not be burdened by student debt?

Well, the ACA was supposed to fix the health care part, but as we see.... the "affordable" part was just a ruse.
And, they chose to burden themselves with debt.
Life is full of choices.

Yeah, debt or a sub living wage. Awesome choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys are focusing on the big companies who can absorb it easily, what about the little guys? Look at someone that owns a Rita’s ice franchise for example. They have 4 employees at $9 an hour currently, for a cost of $36 an hour, or $360 for a 10 hour day. At $15 that’s now $60 an hour or $600 a day. You’ve gone from $2520 a week in labor cost to $4200. This doesn’t count your payroll taxes and UI being a % of the payroll amount (so now that’s higher). How is that guy supposed to make it up? Magically sell 60 more a day? Easiest way is to cut to 3 people and raise prices.

Just to break even, not to make more, to break even. Good luck!

Yes you’ll have to cut employees and raise prices, or cut management salaries. But if your product is underpriced to begin with because you are exploiting human beings for profit.... well, get a new business model. There are also some incentives that could be structured to benefit small businesses. And, if we cut healthcare costs by providing a public option, and forgive student loans, a lot of mall businesses was owners would benefit.

"Exploiting." What a crock of total bull$hit.
So many of these people working for $9.00 an hour are doing so as their first job... to earn a few bucks, but more importantly, to gain experience.
We're not doing a "public option" and transferring student loans to the taxpayers either.
Next up - you all will be insisting on paying off auto loans and mortgages for any poor soul making less than $150,000.
Enough with the fricking hand outs.

Actually no. Most people working minimum wage are not doing it as their first job. They’re trying to live.

Not according to these statistics from 2019.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2019/home.htm

Did you actually read that?

“workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about two-fifths of those paid the federal minimum wage or less.”

That means 3/5 are over age 25. So “most”

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine how many good paying small business jobs could be created if college grads could afford healthcare and not be burdened by student debt?

Well, the ACA was supposed to fix the health care part, but as we see.... the "affordable" part was just a ruse.
And, they chose to burden themselves with debt.
Life is full of choices.