Posted on Nov 11, 2015
What are your thoughts on the "Fight for $15?"
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Fast food and other service workers are uniting to demand the minimum wage be set at $15 an hour. They also want a union. What are your thoughts? The personal feelings I have are mixed. Fast food is supposed to be a starter job for most. Of course I don't live in a large city. But then again, most fast food workers I have encountered aren't the sharpest spork in the plastic wrap. What say you?
Economy
Jobs
Sociology
Employment
Minimum Wage
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 130
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Labor, like it or not, is about supply and demand. If there are a lot of people for a position/role, the role will likely pay less. If a position/role is sought after of there are not enough people to fill the demand, the market will pay more. Basic labor positions have a high level of workers for the number of roles, consequently they pay less.
The lesson here should be to make yourself more marketable through experience/education/training etc and go after a higher paying job. In 21st century American the lesson seems to be to demand more, picket and try to force a change. They will force a change to fewer workers and more automation and fewer jobs for the same number of people. There is also the problem that no one wants to talk about which is a flood of inexpensive labor crossing our southern border. The same people complaining about their wages support a party that is undermining their market value by allowing inexpensive labor to flood the market, ta da, incredible!
Some smarter companies are now looking at using fewer higher skilled more productive) and higher paid employees. The solution for years has been to throw lower cost labor at problems. With demand for higher prices labor the solution might be fewer higher skilled employees. Not a bad thing for higher skilled people but it will be for the lower skilled.
It may not seem fair but life is not fair. If you haven't learned that lesson by 25 you are not paying attention. If you find yourself in a minimum wage job at 30 years old the problem is staring back at you in the mirror if you are willing to face it.
Taking wages up artificially is inflationary. The people that currently make $15 an hour will want more than an entry level minimum wage person (if the minimum wage goes to $15) and then comes the ripple effect through higher wages, higher cost of production and higher prices.
The lesson here should be to make yourself more marketable through experience/education/training etc and go after a higher paying job. In 21st century American the lesson seems to be to demand more, picket and try to force a change. They will force a change to fewer workers and more automation and fewer jobs for the same number of people. There is also the problem that no one wants to talk about which is a flood of inexpensive labor crossing our southern border. The same people complaining about their wages support a party that is undermining their market value by allowing inexpensive labor to flood the market, ta da, incredible!
Some smarter companies are now looking at using fewer higher skilled more productive) and higher paid employees. The solution for years has been to throw lower cost labor at problems. With demand for higher prices labor the solution might be fewer higher skilled employees. Not a bad thing for higher skilled people but it will be for the lower skilled.
It may not seem fair but life is not fair. If you haven't learned that lesson by 25 you are not paying attention. If you find yourself in a minimum wage job at 30 years old the problem is staring back at you in the mirror if you are willing to face it.
Taking wages up artificially is inflationary. The people that currently make $15 an hour will want more than an entry level minimum wage person (if the minimum wage goes to $15) and then comes the ripple effect through higher wages, higher cost of production and higher prices.
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Look for those people to be replace by machines and unemployed soon
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If you want to make a career out of flipping burgers to make $15 an hour, this story show how's that becoming another "pipe dream" for many.
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Take a good look at what is happening in Seattle right now. Since the wages are going up, the workers are asking for less hours so they can stay on the welfare rolls.
http://shiftwa.org/seattle-experiences-more-consequences-of-15-minimum-wage/
http://shiftwa.org/seattle-experiences-more-consequences-of-15-minimum-wage/
Seattle experiences more consequences of $15 minimum wage
More consequences of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage are becoming apparent. According to recent reports, as their wages rise, workers are asking employers for fewer hours in hopes of keeping their overall income down—they do not want to lose access to certain welfare programs for food, child care...
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Wages increase - prices increase. In the end all stays the same.
My Dad was livid because the sticker price of a car was over $4000. That was new top of the line.
Fact is a person works about the same number of hours today as one worked to buy the same item years ago.
Much ado about something that will have little or no eddfect and if it has any effect it will be very short term,
My Dad was livid because the sticker price of a car was over $4000. That was new top of the line.
Fact is a person works about the same number of hours today as one worked to buy the same item years ago.
Much ado about something that will have little or no eddfect and if it has any effect it will be very short term,
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I think it is utter nonsense.
I, as a 10 year SSG in the US Army, on a 40 hour work week scale (without BAH and BAS), make $14.02 an hour. If you are working at McDonalds flipping burgers or salting fries, you SHOULD be a high school or college student working there solely for spending money. However, there are far too many people that are doing this as a career which, to me, means they screwed up somewhere in their life. McDonalds SHOULD NOT be a career, unless you are a franchise owner.
If you are complaining that you cannot get another job, JOIN THE MILITARY! Do it for 6 years, get a degree, and then get out and find a better job.
It is a direct correlation to the "No Child Left Behind" debacle. We are teaching out children they do not have to try. They can squeak by doing the bare minimum and ambition is overrated.
I, as a 10 year SSG in the US Army, on a 40 hour work week scale (without BAH and BAS), make $14.02 an hour. If you are working at McDonalds flipping burgers or salting fries, you SHOULD be a high school or college student working there solely for spending money. However, there are far too many people that are doing this as a career which, to me, means they screwed up somewhere in their life. McDonalds SHOULD NOT be a career, unless you are a franchise owner.
If you are complaining that you cannot get another job, JOIN THE MILITARY! Do it for 6 years, get a degree, and then get out and find a better job.
It is a direct correlation to the "No Child Left Behind" debacle. We are teaching out children they do not have to try. They can squeak by doing the bare minimum and ambition is overrated.
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Here is an interesting break down of minimum wage recipients from the Heritage Foundation:
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MCPO Brian Legg
Here is an interesting quote about the data:
"Minimum-wage workers under 25 are typically not their family’s sole breadwinners. Rather, they tend to live in middle-class households that do not rely on their earnings—their average family income exceeds $65,000 a year. Generally, they have not finished their schooling and are working part-time jobs. Over three-fifths of them (62 percent) are currently enrolled in school.[10] Only 22 percent live at or below the poverty line, while two-thirds live in families with incomes exceeding 150 percent of the poverty line. These workers represent the largest group that would benefit directly from a higher minimum wage, provided they kept or could find a job.
Adults who earn the minimum wage are less likely to live in middle- and upper-income families. Nonetheless, three-fourths of older workers earning the minimum wage live above the poverty line. They have an average family income of $42,500 a year, well above the poverty line of $23,050 per year for a family of four. Most (54 percent) of them choose to work part time, and two-fifths are married.
Many advocates of raising the minimum wage argue it will help low-income single parents surviving on it as their only source of income. Minimum-wage workers, however, do not fit this stereotype. Just 4 percent of minimum-wage workers are single parents working full time, compared to 5.6 percent of all U.S. workers.[11] Minimum-wage earners are actually less likely to be single parents working full time than the average American worker.
Though some minimum-wage workers do struggle with poverty, they are not representative of the typical worker in minimum-wage jobs. The data simply does not support the stereotype of minimum-wage workers living on the edge of destitution."
http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2013/06/what-is-minimum-wage-its-history-and-effects-on-the-economy
"Minimum-wage workers under 25 are typically not their family’s sole breadwinners. Rather, they tend to live in middle-class households that do not rely on their earnings—their average family income exceeds $65,000 a year. Generally, they have not finished their schooling and are working part-time jobs. Over three-fifths of them (62 percent) are currently enrolled in school.[10] Only 22 percent live at or below the poverty line, while two-thirds live in families with incomes exceeding 150 percent of the poverty line. These workers represent the largest group that would benefit directly from a higher minimum wage, provided they kept or could find a job.
Adults who earn the minimum wage are less likely to live in middle- and upper-income families. Nonetheless, three-fourths of older workers earning the minimum wage live above the poverty line. They have an average family income of $42,500 a year, well above the poverty line of $23,050 per year for a family of four. Most (54 percent) of them choose to work part time, and two-fifths are married.
Many advocates of raising the minimum wage argue it will help low-income single parents surviving on it as their only source of income. Minimum-wage workers, however, do not fit this stereotype. Just 4 percent of minimum-wage workers are single parents working full time, compared to 5.6 percent of all U.S. workers.[11] Minimum-wage earners are actually less likely to be single parents working full time than the average American worker.
Though some minimum-wage workers do struggle with poverty, they are not representative of the typical worker in minimum-wage jobs. The data simply does not support the stereotype of minimum-wage workers living on the edge of destitution."
http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/2013/06/what-is-minimum-wage-its-history-and-effects-on-the-economy
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There are two arguments that seem to prevail against raising the minimum wage.
(1) It is impractical. Economics will confound any attempt to impose artificial wages. Work has value. It creates wealth. If workers create $5 in value each hour and their employers are forced to pay $15 for each of those hours, the employers will soon fail and there won't be any jobs at any wages for anyone.
(2) Is is not a legitimate function of government to impose artificial values (wages or prices). Show me the Constitutional provision mandating this power to the federal government and I'll admit that I'm wrong. Good luck...
(1) It is impractical. Economics will confound any attempt to impose artificial wages. Work has value. It creates wealth. If workers create $5 in value each hour and their employers are forced to pay $15 for each of those hours, the employers will soon fail and there won't be any jobs at any wages for anyone.
(2) Is is not a legitimate function of government to impose artificial values (wages or prices). Show me the Constitutional provision mandating this power to the federal government and I'll admit that I'm wrong. Good luck...
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