Raise the minimum wage!
By estherlou
@estherlou (5015)
United States
February 25, 2007 6:04pm CST
I read an article by John Stossel in NewsMax magazine. He says if the government mandates a higher minimum wage, some workers will get a raise. Cool! Some! But! Some employers will quit hiring low skilled workers. Others will let employees go. Some won't choose to expand their businesses. A few would close. And if an employer doesn't feel a worker is worth $7 an hour...he just won't pay it! Most people don't stay at minimum wage. They get more skills and their wages increase. Legal wage minimums have cut all kinds of entry-level jobs like kids washing your windows at gas stations or being movie ushers at theaters. (Are there any kind of gas stations left that are not self-serve?) These types of jobs disappear because they are worth less than the legalized minimum. Stossel says raising the minimum wage is a "feel-good" law so politicians and poverty activists would be able to say they've "done something" for the poor. the resulting unemployment would mean expanding the welfare state. Now...I'm no economist, but this sounds like it makes a lot of sense! It sounds like as usual, the little people, the common man, the working class will have to pay the bill once again! It also sounds like a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" story!
2 people like this
6 responses
@tarsadawn (350)
• United States
2 Mar 07
I agree, the minimum wage should be raised. It is ridiculous to think that people can make it on it for a full work week. It should be raised and I think that it is ridiculous that in this country, it is not raised...we're supposed to be the richest country in the world, why can't we take care of our own.
1 person likes this
@dragonstar13 (1465)
• United States
2 Mar 07
I admit I don't understand all the economics involved but I don't see how any good can come of raising the minimum wage. For instance, this year it was raised by one dollar an hour here. Immediately, my granddaughters day care raised their rates by 40.00 a week to cover the increase in their payroll. So that wiped out one week of my daughters raise. Actually more since Uncle Sam took taxes out first. At that rate, it will took only three more businesses to raise their rates before my daughter's raise will be wiped out. But of course she deals with many more than 3 businesses. Less than a month after the raise went into effect, she had to quit her job because she could no longer pay for day care.
Now look at someone like me, the businesses I deal with will also raised their rates, but I didn't get a raise. My pay is set by the state legislature who only meet every 2 years and don't always see the need to hand out raises.
Not only that, since my daughter lost her job, guess who has been helping support her family?
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
26 Feb 07
There is always a price to pay, and in this case the price is someone else's employment.
I fully agree that raising the minimum wage will reduce the workforce, and in the cases were all the staff are required it will raise the cost of manufacturing or the cost of the service provided. In short, it is a prelude to inflation, which will in turn remove the benefit that the increase has provided.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
26 Feb 07
I saw a show this summer about minimum wage workers and the dilemmas they face without insurance and sick leave and personal time off. I think it was on Oprah. The thing is, they also lumped in people makeing as much as ten dollars an hour as minimum wage. It is hard for working class families to survive. I know so many people who are either going under, or are working two or three jobs. I am afraid the negative consequences would probably be the outcome of an increase. Some people do stay at minimum wage, or a very low wage. Some jobs, like my second one, are regulated by the state, and have a ceiling. I am lucky, my primary job pays for health insurance, and has a retirement component,also mandated by the state.
1 person likes this
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
26 Feb 07
If a worker gets minimum wage and works for a week that still does not make the worker enough to take care of the necessities. Either the wages go up or the cost of goods and services need to come down. The aliens that are illegal need to go and we need to assume those jobs. We don't currently and so the aliens do them. Often sending money back home. We lose alot of money because we are lazy.
Not sure how this will play out however we do need to address it.
1 person likes this
@patootie (3592)
•
2 Mar 07
We've had a minimum age here in the UK for a number of years now .. and it has had several rises made to the lowest wage that can be offered .. at first employers said they wouldn't be able to afford it and would have to let staff go etc etc .. but to be honest it doesn't seem to have made too much change to the job market .. emplyers have been able to find the extra money needed for wages .. and many people have had some decent wage rises ...
1 person likes this
