Should Minimum Wage Be Raised to $15 Per Hour?
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (118449)
Gainesville, Florida
November 13, 2015 2:21pm CST
It started out several years ago with striking McDonalds workers demanding wage increases to $15/hour, but it seems to have spread across the country now to include all minimum wage jobs. We are seeing more and more people protesting for minimum wage to be raised. What are your thoughts? Two thoughts I have right now:
1. We live in a capitalistic free-market economy, and wages should be based on what the market is willing to pay;
2. Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be a career job for people to support their families with. They are supposed to be part-time jobs for the likes of high school and college kids to put a little extra spending money in their pocket, and teach them about the working world.
It is unfortunate that the job situation in this country has changed so much over the past decade. Millions of high-paying jobs have vanished, leaving people with no choice but to work minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. Should we just raise minimum wage, or should we instead focus on bringing back high-paying jobs?
12 people like this
15 responses
@Castlerock34 (2259)
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
13 Nov 15
I have an idea the people who are complaining about raising the minimum wage should go to school or finish school so they can get those jobs that pay higher. As an educated women I do not agree with raising it to $15 an hour. I worked hard busting my butt to get through college to make the wage I am making now and now people just want to stroll in with barley having any education to HS diploma and make 15 an hour are you kidding me??? NO!!
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
13 Nov 15
You make a very valid point! I also busted my butt in college to ensure that I get a good paying job after graduation. Minimum wage jobs were meant to be stepping stones to give people experience so that they could work toward better paying jobs. People expect too much entitlement these days.
2 people like this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
13 Nov 15
@moffittjc
Stepping stones for kids so they could experience what it is to go out and work for some money, this was not meant to be for a long term job nor for adults.
1 person likes this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
13 Nov 15
@Castlerock34
It is meant to be only a stepping stone to other employment if that is your lifes ambition than don't have any children and expect the State to pay for them. There is already to much of that going on.
@Castlerock34 (2259)
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
13 Nov 15
Well if they have bills to pay and families to support then they should do something to better their life not rely on a Mcdonalds type job to raise their wage so they can live. I am sorry but that's no one fault but theirs, they should of made better choices in life. @Jeff Moffitt has a great point those type jobs are made to be stepping stones!
2 people like this
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
14 Nov 15
If it is minimum wage, no matter how high the amount is, it is still the minimum wage.
i cannot understand the mentality of the people.
Why stay at the minimum wage?
Why not aim higher, and take up a course or two to learn skills that can land a person in a higher wage job.
If everyone just wants to take up minimum wage jobs, and not aiming higher, the country is doom.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
It goes back to that sense of entitlement. People want to be lazy and do as little as possible, and then expect everything to be handed to them. Sadly, our society has become one where we allow this and coddle these people. What ever happened to personal accountability?
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
14 Nov 15
Since I'm retired I don't have to worry about a min wage other than what we get on SS! I think 15 bucks an hour for saying 'fries with that?' is too much.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
14 Nov 15
@moffittjc Most of them sure all, fast food translated means slow food.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
I agree! The degree of difficulty of the workload doesn't coincide with their demands of pay. I have lifeguards that work for me that save people's lives each and every day, and they only make $9.00/hour! If anything, they should be the ones making $15/hour! Flipping burgers or dropping the fries basket in cooking grease doesn't warrant such high pay. If anything, I think they're overpaid already!
2 people like this
@BethieAnnie (818)
• Dayton, Ohio
13 Nov 15
I believe raising minimum wage by that much, all at once, would cause more pain. I think we need to bring back our jobs. This town thrived until the GM and Chrysler plant moved out of the country. Then everything crumbled. If we brought back the factories, and began producing again, then people wouldn't have to live off the low paying jobs. They could go back to work in the factory.
1 person likes this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
13 Nov 15
@moffittjc
Wage increase when social security participants are not even going to be getting any type of raise this year, no way. But I would bet Congress will vote a raise for themselves like they don't make enough already.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
13 Nov 15
I agree that we need good-paying jobs brought back to this country. I also agree that increasing the amount of minimum wage by what people are demanding would put too much of a strain on businesses. Maybe there is a happy compromise, something like tying the minimum wage increase each year to the cost of living index. That way, it is at least moving upward at the same pace as inflation.
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (1763)
• United Kingdom
15 Nov 15
I am in the UK so our minimum wage is different but I do think that there should be one. It should be enough to get people off benefits I think.
1 person likes this
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
13 Nov 15
I think we need to make the laws such that companies should come back to the US without all those dang regulations and taxes. Why should someone with a bare minimum education make as much as someone who has gone through College and is not making very much more than that now. Doesn't make sense to me. But what the heck raising the minimum wage will only raise the prices of food higher and than there will be less people buying and no need for so many workers.
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
14 Nov 15
@moffittjc
then they will be laying people off because folks can't afford that much to buy anything anymore.
@Marcyaz (35316)
• United States
14 Nov 15
@sugartoes
I have to disagree with you if a person starts out making a low wage and raises him/herself to a higher position and goes on up the ladder I can't belive you think they should not get a raise while the person making less than $15 an hour should get a raise, to me that is not fair and I would not do that to anyone.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
13 Nov 15
People also forget about the trickle effect. If you raise the bottom level of workers up to $15/hr, then you have to go up the chain of command and give everyone else raises too! So what about the guy who is currently making $15/hour, who started at minimum wage and worked his way up to his current pay? Now you're going to have to give him a raise to $25 or $30/hour to compensate him for those others who got their minimum wage jobs increased. Now everyone is getting raises, and all our prices on everything skyrockets! People freak out when gas prices go up ten cents. What's going to happen when milk and eggs and sugar and everything else goes up by a dollar each? Because that's what will happen!
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
13 Nov 15
Wages should be based on what you're worth and what the job is worth. Therefore, the minimum wage is zero. There should be laws that keep employers from taking advantage of people, but it's rough on kids to get a job when employers have to pay unskilled labor $15 an hour. No one is going to give that 16 year old kid a few hours after school bagging groceries if they can get by without him.
@LeaPea2417 (36442)
• Toccoa, Georgia
14 Nov 15
It should not be raised too much because if you raise the minimum wage a lot, then places like McDonald's will have to raise the price of their food.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
That's a major point that people seem to be missing. Businesses are not going to absorb these extra costs themselves, they are going to pass them on to the consumer. In the end, we'll all be paying higher prices for everything.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (48994)
• United States
15 Nov 15
It seems that some work minimum wage jobs their whole life. I would like to see them be able to care for their families.
@Pattitude (1287)
• Newton, North Carolina
13 Nov 15
I don't understand why they don't go to school, either. The resources are out there, if they would just look.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
13 Nov 15
I'm with you on that. Every single person in this country has free access to the same public education system. Why do some excel and others drop out? Or why do some barely make it through? Obviously, there are many reasons that are too numerous to go into here, but each person has the CHOICE of whether or not they get an education. If they choose not to get that education, then they must be prepared to suffer the consequences. The real world is tough and unfair.
1 person likes this
@Pattitude (1287)
• Newton, North Carolina
13 Nov 15
@moffittjc It is motivation. If they really want to learn, they will.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
@Pattitude But the problem is, they don't want to learn. They feel entitled and think they don't have to do the work, and if they complain enough we'll give them everything they want. The sense of entitlement is killing this country.
1 person likes this
@RonElFran (1214)
• Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
14 Nov 15
The answer to your question of whether we should raise the minimum wage or try to bring back high paying jobs is, "yes." Actually the minimum wage was instituted by FDR during the Depression not for teenagers, but for full-time workers who weren't making a living age. Economists have shown that a higher minimum wage stimulates the economy by putting money in the pockets of people who usually put it right back into circulation because they spend it on necessities. So, raising the minimum wage to a reasonable (not excessive) level should be part of a strategy of lifting wages generally.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
I can see your point. I don't have a problem with gradually raising minimum wage (perhaps tie annual increases to the cost of living index), but to have it almost triple overnight is too much to ask for at one point. Probably should be phased in over a period of several years.
@NicoleMcNeal (130)
• St. Cloud, Florida
14 Nov 15
I dont know about the raise to $15 an hour, but higher pay would be a nice concept for the US economy. Alot of people are broke these days and its no thanks to all these krappy paying jobs. But getting a big raise? What are the employers supposed to do, pull it out their backsides?
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
15 Nov 15
@NicoleMcNeal This is such a tough issue. I get that people are struggling, and I understand that good high paying working class jobs are hard to find these days, but common sense has to prevail at some point in this whole conversation. Somebody standing at a grill with a spatula in their hands that the hardest decision they have to make all day is when to flip the burger patty over, to me it is asinine that people think this is worth $15/hr.
@moffittjc (118449)
• Gainesville, Florida
14 Nov 15
I get that people are struggling financially, but you can't expect to work at an entry level job and be able to support a family with it. Flipping burgers at McDonalds was never intended to be a career job, and someone in that job shouldn't expect a pay rate that would put them above the poverty level.
@cindiowens (5120)
• North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
14 Nov 15
Raising the minimum wage only ends in higher prices. It always has, and always will. It will benefit those people getting minimum wage for about a week. As long as it take to raise prices to pay those extra dollars in wages.
