Anonymous wrote:

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.

What? That's pretty offensive. Best babysitters I had were boys -- the teen girls mostly talked on the phone and ignored us. The one actually engaged with us (e.g., played games, read to us) as opposed to his older sisters.

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.

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.

I'm worried about the adults working McDonalds who will now be replaced by a kiosk. With their limited skills and a $15 minimum, they'll never work again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yup. Good way to drive small businesses out of business or employees out of jobs.

You think the guy who pushes the mail cart around at the office should get $30,000 a year? What will happen is that the mail guy is fired, and employees pick up their own mail in the mail room.

Also, everywhere I've ever worked, the mail delivery guy is mentally challenged. But he's being productive, building his self-esteem, and enjoying the camaraderie of his office mates. Better that he should do that at $9 to $10 an hour than be let go because $30,000 a year, plus health insurance, is just not worth it to an employer.

Sadly, they aren’t even paying the mentally challenged mail guy minimum wage . And why do you think that if someone is mentally challenged that they shouldn’t get a decent wage exactly? They should live in poverty, is that right?

Because they are not producing the output of a non-mentally challenged person, but the work is valuable for them socially and personally.

They dont' live in poverty -- they receive social security for the disabled.

My brother is in this situation. He gets paid below minimum wage but he also doesn't actually need more than a few hundred $$ a year since all his expenses for living and housing are paid by the government. He really enjoys the work, which is the main thing. With the new minimum wage, he'll likely be stuck sitting at home... or maybe they'll move the work to PG county.

That’s true but they don’t have the same output but places like Goodwill literally pay them 14 cents per hour and require them to be there 40 hours a week to stay in the ‘special program’. Be grateful this isn’t your life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yup. Good way to drive small businesses out of business or employees out of jobs.

You think the guy who pushes the mail cart around at the office should get $30,000 a year? What will happen is that the mail guy is fired, and employees pick up their own mail in the mail room.

Also, everywhere I've ever worked, the mail delivery guy is mentally challenged. But he's being productive, building his self-esteem, and enjoying the camaraderie of his office mates. Better that he should do that at $9 to $10 an hour than be let go because $30,000 a year, plus health insurance, is just not worth it to an employer.

Sadly, they aren’t even paying the mentally challenged mail guy minimum wage . And why do you think that if someone is mentally challenged that they shouldn’t get a decent wage exactly? They should live in poverty, is that right?

Because they are not producing the output of a non-mentally challenged person, but the work is valuable for them socially and personally.

They dont' live in poverty -- they receive social security for the disabled.

My brother is in this situation. He gets paid below minimum wage but he also doesn't actually need more than a few hundred $$ a year since all his expenses for living and housing are paid by the government. He really enjoys the work, which is the main thing. With the new minimum wage, he'll likely be stuck sitting at home... or maybe they'll move the work to PG county.