Anonymous wrote:I’m not worried about teens. I’m worried about single adults trying to afford a one bedroom apartment on 40 hours a week, so they have time to go to MC or a training school. I’m worried about the young married couple with a baby trying to afford an apartment, daycare, diapers, and formula with both parents working only 40 hours a week. Those folks need $15/hour.

This makes a very compelling case for why a $15 minimum wage is just as laughable as the current one. Nothing will change, nothing will be helped by going to $15.

If we really want it to be a workable, living wage that gives a single parent a fighting chance, it needs to be in the $35-hr range. And even that is bare bones when you take into account daycare costing $1,500/mo. But $35 would at least be fair. $15 is a complete joke

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not worried about teens. I’m worried about single adults trying to afford a one bedroom apartment on 40 hours a week, so they have time to go to MC or a training school. I’m worried about the young married couple with a baby trying to afford an apartment, daycare, diapers, and formula with both parents working only 40 hours a week. Those folks need $15/hour.

These folks shouldn't have had a baby and should be living with their parents or a roommate. Just because you made poor decisions doesn't mean we should pay you more.

But they are paying more. $15 an hour.

Anonymous wrote:Most people pay high school babysitters $15/hour.

Do you have a 40-hr/wk sitter?

No? Shocking.

All I hear on here are a bunch of whiners. Nothing must ever change! I'm getting old and cranky and cannot deal with it!

You do know that federal laws exempt full time students from the minimum wage laws.

Are your teens part time students?

Anonymous wrote:I’m not worried about teens. I’m worried about single adults trying to afford a one bedroom apartment on 40 hours a week, so they have time to go to MC or a training school. I’m worried about the young married couple with a baby trying to afford an apartment, daycare, diapers, and formula with both parents working only 40 hours a week. Those folks need $15/hour.

It's not worth the stress. Just move to Denmark and relax, ok?

Unlike a lot of spoiled yuppies on DCUM, I worked many crappy jobs while in high school and it was great motivation to go to college. If those jobs would have paid more, I would have probably ended up like many of my friends who didn't go to college, still working at a back breaking job for nada.

Anonymous wrote:I’m not worried about teens. I’m worried about single adults trying to afford a one bedroom apartment on 40 hours a week, so they have time to go to MC or a training school. I’m worried about the young married couple with a baby trying to afford an apartment, daycare, diapers, and formula with both parents working only 40 hours a week. Those folks need $15/hour.

These folks shouldn't have had a baby and should be living with their parents or a roommate. Just because you made poor decisions doesn't mean we should pay you more.

According to BLS statistics, most people who earn minimum wage are NOT the primary wage earners in their household. It's either a teenager earning pocket money, or a person with a second job (like someone who works retail on weekends).

It makes sense too -- in low-wage jobs with high turnover, anyone who sticks around for even a few months and shows dedication is going to get a raise and promoted pretty quickly.

So what this will do is shut the door on entry-level jobs for youth without any experience, like camp counselors and lifeguards and so on. No way to get your foot in the door since someone with no experience isn't worth $15/hour.

This was a big ploy by Council members, nearly half of who are making a run for County Executive next year (partly due to the voters kicking them out via term limits), to appease the unions and get their vote. The unions also benefit because union dues are tied to wages so higher revenues for the union. The Council likes the minimum wage approach because it plays well politically, and it doesn't cost the taxpayer that much (actually it will cost $10-20mln -- remember those lifeguards and camp counselors work for the County parks department and will get a wage increase).

Yes, cost of living is high in MoCo, and yes, people generally don't want to see a single parent supporting 3 kids on minimum wage struggling to survive, but there's a lot better solution to this -- raise the Earned Income Tax Credit. MD already provides it, and MoCo could just increase it for MoCo residents. The nice thing about EITC is it looks at household size and overall household income from all sources. So it goes to those who actually need it, while minimum wage goes to people who don't like teenagers earning pocket money.

Anonymous wrote:My teenager works full-time in the summers at a private school camp in DC and makes $15/hour. The OP's concerns will go the way of the "Ohmigod, the plastic bag tax will mean that DC residents will never grocery shop again!" and "Ohmigod, the smoking ban will mean that all bars and restaurants in DC will close!"

+1. My 16 yo made the DC minimum wage last summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the rite of passage for teens working all summer to save up for a used car?

Gas money?

Money to go out with their friends?

Money for clothes?

Does the bank of mom & dad now have to cover these expenses as well?

Newsflash: Babysitting.

We pay our teenage sitter $15/hour cash. We use a handful of neighborhood teens as after school sitters. They make great money.
Boys can babysit, too. Our friends hired a neighborhood teen boy to hang out with their son after school and do homework.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious: a teen can earn far more babysitting for cash than working at McDonalds. And let's face it: your teen was never going to work at McDonalds.

All of the summer jobs currently held by teens will still be available (pools, camps, etc.). And the reality is that pools have been importing workers from Eastern Europe for years...because your teens didn't want those crummy, low paying jobs. Ditto for most seasonal beach towns.

Yeah, Newsflash: in this area most teens are overbooked with 100 afterschool activities and you can't find decent responsible teens/high schoolers who will babysit regularly.

Anonymous wrote:My teenager works full-time in the summers at a private school camp in DC and makes $15/hour. The OP's concerns will go the way of the "Ohmigod, the plastic bag tax will mean that DC residents will never grocery shop again!" and "Ohmigod, the smoking ban will mean that all bars and restaurants in DC will close!"

That is just for a few weeks.

What about year round at $15 an hour full time workers?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the rite of passage for teens working all summer to save up for a used car?

Gas money?

Money to go out with their friends?

Money for clothes?

Does the bank of mom & dad now have to cover these expenses as well?

Newsflash: Babysitting.

We pay our teenage sitter $15/hour cash. We use a handful of neighborhood teens as after school sitters. They make great money.
Boys can babysit, too. Our friends hired a neighborhood teen boy to hang out with their son after school and do homework.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious: a teen can earn far more babysitting for cash than working at McDonalds. And let's face it: your teen was never going to work at McDonalds.

All of the summer jobs currently held by teens will still be available (pools, camps, etc.). And the reality is that pools have been importing workers from Eastern Europe for years...because your teens didn't want those crummy, low paying jobs. Ditto for most seasonal beach towns.

I would NEVER let a teenage boy babysit my kids.

You are ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not worried about teens. I’m worried about single adults trying to afford a one bedroom apartment on 40 hours a week, so they have time to go to MC or a training school. I’m worried about the young married couple with a baby trying to afford an apartment, daycare, diapers, and formula with both parents working only 40 hours a week. Those folks need $15/hour.

Their hours are about to get cut drastically. From 40 to 20.

No, they won’t. Quit being Chicken Little.

I don't think hours will be cut so much as positions eliminated especially in smaller stores. The higher wages attract better workers. Better workers mean less workers needed to do the same jobs. Chains and larger stores will simply move to automated systems on their stores. The majority of people who couldn't make it before on minimum wage jobs are actually likely to be worse off because limited jobs in the market to begin with.

I've stopped going to the McDonalds in Sterling. They got rid of their cashiers and have a single kiosk. People don't know how to use it - you have to work through six screens before you get to the payout screen - and it slows everything down.

I also see this at Panera in Reston. They've put in ordering kiosks, but still have a person working the cash register. If FFX increases the minimum wage, goodbye cashier.

I also see this at the grocery store. Sometimes there are two full-service registers open, with half-a-dozen self-service kiosks. If the minimum goes up, say goodbye to at least one of the full-service cashiers.

Things are so automated as is that I can leave the house, do a ton of errands involving purchases, and never interact with a single human being. Pretty soon, all the low-level jobs will be fully automated, and the increase in minimum wage will only hasten the day.

The average HHI across the country is $54k a year, and that factors in the 30% of people with college degrees AND those living in high COLAs.

So MoCo wants to require that a $60k HHI (a couple) be provided to those who are working at the very bottom rung of the job spectrum, and best the AVERAGE for all households (including educated ones)?

Plus, it won't happen. Unemployment will increase substantially among the uneducated (who already have trouble finding jobs), and more people will be totally dependent on government support. The liberal dream.

I wouldn't worry. Who pays on handymen and teens on the books anyway??????