Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raising minimum wage is to help people out of poverty. If everyone else gets a "raise", it just continues the gap. What your wife makes has nothing to do with minimum wage increasing. Wow, just wow.

You don't think people with technical skills and experience should make more than someone that can walk onto a job with no specialized experience?

They do make more, and have far better work conditions and benefits. You just think the gap should be bigger.

Yes, the gap between a college educated person with years of experience vs a high school student pushing carts should be bigger than a measly $5 per hour. What's the point of paying for expensive college educauons then if your boost to income is only $5-7 per hour over a high school student?

If she wants to make more, she needs to look for a new job. An education provides you with mobility--if she fails to take advantage of that, it's on her. No one "owes" her more money for doing the same job.

Use that same logic for minimum wage workers then too. If you want more than minimum wage jobs apply for new jobs that pay more. Or gain skills/education so you can earn more. No one owes mimum wage earners $15 per hour using your logic too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, but I was also thinking about this in regard to a proposed $15 minimum wage. A lot of people with degrees and experience are making between $40-50K. Why should they make that little when you can make 30K with zero experience?

Because most of the people making minimum wage aren’t doing so from laziness. They are locked in by oppressive systems in our society. College is to expensive to afford without taking on crushing debt.

Then tell organizations and companies to stop requiring college educations for everything if they're only going to pay $5-8 per hour more now than a high school job with zero experience.

They pay what the market demands. Maybe raising the minimum wage will finally result in wage inflation

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, but I was also thinking about this in regard to a proposed $15 minimum wage. A lot of people with degrees and experience are making between $40-50K. Why should they make that little when you can make 30K with zero experience?

Because most of the people making minimum wage aren’t doing so from laziness. They are locked in by oppressive systems in our society. College is to expensive to afford without taking on crushing debt.

Take on a trade job then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP, but I was also thinking about this in regard to a proposed $15 minimum wage. A lot of people with degrees and experience are making between $40-50K. Why should they make that little when you can make 30K with zero experience?

Because most of the people making minimum wage aren’t doing so from laziness. They are locked in by oppressive systems in our society. College is to expensive to afford without taking on crushing debt.

Then tell organizations and companies to stop requiring college educations for everything if they're only going to pay $5-8 per hour more now than a high school job with zero experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is my field. These jobs are incredibly easy to fill. Every opening gets hundreds of applicants. No, she doesn’t deserve more.

There are many fields with lots of job applicants..

And that results in downward wage pressure

Exactly. The existence of a survival-level wage floor in no way changes the value of her work. She’s welcome to quit and work at McDonald’s if the extra effort and stress (hahaha) of her admin job isn’t worth it.

My husband is a postdoc with a PhD and 5 years of postdoctoral experience. He's turning 40 this year. He just got a raise to $60k. (Before you say "if he were good he'd be a professor by now," he hasn't been able to pursue job opportunities outside the DC area since we have kids and can't give up my salary.)

I'm almost sure he can make more in government or industry, as I and all of our friends who have left academia do, but he loves it. And that's how jobs get away with paying people less than other jobs with a lot less education and experience required. There are intangible tradeoffs like "passion" and "prestige." It's a little more complicated than just "more skills = more money."

Anonymous wrote:NP, but I was also thinking about this in regard to a proposed $15 minimum wage. A lot of people with degrees and experience are making between $40-50K. Why should they make that little when you can make 30K with zero experience?

Because most of the people making minimum wage aren’t doing so from laziness. They are locked in by oppressive systems in our society. College is to expensive to afford without taking on crushing debt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raising minimum wage is to help people out of poverty. If everyone else gets a "raise", it just continues the gap. What your wife makes has nothing to do with minimum wage increasing. Wow, just wow.

This is why some people don't want to raise the minimum wage - because it drives inflation. Everyone wants to make more and everything starts to cost more. I support increasing the minimum wage, but that's reality.

Housing, healthcare and education inflation are proceeding just fine alongside wage stagnation

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raising minimum wage is to help people out of poverty. If everyone else gets a "raise", it just continues the gap. What your wife makes has nothing to do with minimum wage increasing. Wow, just wow.

You don't think people with technical skills and experience should make more than someone that can walk onto a job with no specialized experience?

They do make more, and have far better work conditions and benefits. You just think the gap should be bigger.

Yes, the gap between a college educated person with years of experience vs a high school student pushing carts should be bigger than a measly $5 per hour. What's the point of paying for expensive college educauons then if your boost to income is only $5-7 per hour over a high school student?

If she wants to make more, she needs to look for a new job. An education provides you with mobility--if she fails to take advantage of that, it's on her. No one "owes" her more money for doing the same job.

She should apply for jobs that pay more money. They’ll be possibly more stressful but hey she’s in it for the cash right? And she’s bringing the value, isn’t she?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is my field. These jobs are incredibly easy to fill. Every opening gets hundreds of applicants. No, she doesn’t deserve more.

There are many fields with lots of job applicants..

And that results in downward wage pressure

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is my field. These jobs are incredibly easy to fill. Every opening gets hundreds of applicants. No, she doesn’t deserve more.

There are many fields with lots of job applicants..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raising minimum wage is to help people out of poverty. If everyone else gets a "raise", it just continues the gap. What your wife makes has nothing to do with minimum wage increasing. Wow, just wow.

You don't think people with technical skills and experience should make more than someone that can walk onto a job with no specialized experience?

They do make more, and have far better work conditions and benefits. You just think the gap should be bigger.

Yes, the gap between a college educated person with years of experience vs a high school student pushing carts should be bigger than a measly $5 per hour. What's the point of paying for expensive college educauons then if your boost to income is only $5-7 per hour over a high school student?

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.

This is my field. These jobs are incredibly easy to fill. Every opening gets hundreds of applicants. No, she doesn’t deserve more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Raising minimum wage is to help people out of poverty. If everyone else gets a "raise", it just continues the gap. What your wife makes has nothing to do with minimum wage increasing. Wow, just wow.

You don't think people with technical skills and experience should make more than someone that can walk onto a job with no specialized experience?

They do make more, and have far better work conditions and benefits. You just think the gap should be bigger.