Anonymous
Post 01/17/2021 15:33     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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
Post 01/17/2021 15:31     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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
Post 01/16/2021 23:17     Subject: Re:How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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
Post 01/16/2021 21:33     Subject: Re:How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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
Post 01/16/2021 21:30     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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
Post 01/16/2021 21:24     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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?


DP - I don’t think that having a technical degree necessarily means guy should make more. There is a lot of degree inflation going on in jobs today. Jobs that people do not necessarily need a degree for but that employers require because people want them.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 21:18     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
Anonymous wrote:I think companies should pay a living wage. Why people feel like poor people should stay poor while CEOs remain rich as croesus is puzzling to me. (stolen from elsewhere) Jeff Bezos earns $150,000, pays warehouse workers $16/hr and you are mad with the poor soul packing boxes?


correx $150,000/hour
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 21:17     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
I think companies should pay a living wage. Why people feel like poor people should stay poor while CEOs remain rich as croesus is puzzling to me. (stolen from elsewhere) Jeff Bezos earns $150,000, pays warehouse workers $16/hr and you are mad with the poor soul packing boxes?
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 20:04     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
If her boss won’t give her a raise and she wants to make more moment- then she needs to find a new job. That is how the world works.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:52     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
If we eliminate the minimum wage should/would your wife accept a pay cut?

A race to the bottom isn't good. Especially for people like you. I know you need to shit on minimum wage earners to feel better about your position, so I guess it sucks to realize how similar you are to them. You're attacking the wrong group, but sure, go ahead and fight them for table scraps.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:51     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does your wife work 52 weeks a year at 40 hours a week?


Yes.


This surprises me. I can’t think of a single school system that a teacher works all weeks of the year.


She’s not a teacher, she is an HR administrator at a university. I work at a university and am very familiar with these jobs and they are pleasant but low skilled. And low paid. They sure don’t require a masters degree. They don’t even require a bachelors. OP seems to think that his wife should be paid more because she has an irrelevant qualification.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:49     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Unless you think that dignity snd survival is actually something we owe to everyone in our society who works full time. I do.

If this means that fewer people go to college, that’s fine. Non-college requiring work is important, too. But the vast majority will choose education because the jobs that pay “only” $5-7 more are more appealing to them.



So it's a private company's responsibility to provide divinity and survival. Please quantify that. And people who make low wages qualify for medicaid, snap, and food stamps. Quit being so hyperbolic. Maybe middle class making $40-50k now should also get food stamps and medicaid if they're only going to make $5 per hour more than a high school kids scooping ice cream.


SNAP is food stamps, genius. And yes, I think that all companies that employ workers owe full-time workers sufficient pay so that they don’t have to depend on government programs. Why should the government be subsidizing private companies by paying for their workers’ basic needs? If you want to employ a human beings rather than robots, then you need to pay them enough so that they can afford crazy things like food and shelter. Doing otherwise is demanding corporate welfare.

You seem to feel like it is an insult to your wife that minimum-wage workers won’t be making much less than she is. It’s not. It’s a recognition that low-skilled administrative workers are very easy to come by, and therefore that work doesn’t pay well. Her masters degree is completely irrelevant unless she’s actually working in an environment that requires a masters degree. She may be underemployed, but that’s on her, and there’s no reason her employer should pay her more because of it.

Your entitlement is stunning.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:45     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Does your wife work 52 weeks a year at 40 hours a week?


Yes.


This surprises me. I can’t think of a single school system that a teacher works all weeks of the year.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:38     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
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.


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

You know what’s not stagnated? Billionaires wealth growth.
People worry about things costing more because companies have to pay their workers more. How about the CEOS and CFOs and COOs and all the other stakeholders stop getting bonuses?


Or those McDonald’s workers could go get an education or new jobs. I think a lot of lower paid jobs will hopefully be automated. I like the ordering machines
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2021 12:05     Subject: How much raise should my wife ask for now with Biden and $15/h minimum wage?
Do you understand how the world works? If she wants more pay, she should switch jobs. I made more than that in 1997, my first year out of college btw, when you could buy a house in N. Arlington for $200k.