Minimum wage

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Originally Posted by AlyssaEimers

So you think someone working full time should make more per hour then someone working part time, or that all jobs should pay a living wage? I have learned from experience that the more requirements put on full time employees, the less full time employees a company will have. DH works full time in a school and part time for another company. This company has stopped having full time employees outside of management. They have a center in just about every major city in the US, so they hire a lot of people. In the center here they have roughly 50 employees. Almost all of them are part time. Working just under the number of hours that they would need to be full time. Now this is still a great company and you can make a living wage with part time hours as long as you have a spouse that can provide your insurance, but I can see more companies doing this to get out of all of the extra requirements put on having full time employees.

What I am doing a bad job of saying, is that you can't have the minimum wage for part time employees be $7/hour and the minimum wage be for full time employees be $25/hour. No one would hire full time employees.

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I'm not talking about having the minimum wage be different for part time workers than full time workers. I think that the minimum wage should be based off of what you would need to live reasonably in your area based on a 40 hour work week. So I guess the company could technically pay 2 employees (for example) $15 bucks an hour and have them each work 20 hours (at $15 an hour) or they could pay 1 employee to work 40 hours at $15 an hour, but assuming that they have 40 hours worth of work that needs to be done, they are still paying $15 x 40 hours a week, so I guess I don't really see the big benefit to them to hire two part time employees instead. Of course, then we get into other benefits like health care, and whether employers should have to pay for part time employees to have health care....but my thought is that's fixed easily enough (although not through Obamacare.) It's called a Single Payer System. ;)

So to clarify, you think the minimum wage should almost double? Do you think that would inspire job growth?

ETA - Sure, maybe Walmart and McDonald's could handle the for awhile, but what about the thousands of other companies that a bairley making it that would go under? Yes, you might bring some people's wages up, but a massive amount of people would loose their jobs and be out of work all together. Sure it would be nice if money grew on trees and everyone made tons of money, but in reality it does not work that way. I am thinking of my grocery store Bilo. There is no way they could have a $15 minimum wage without charging a ton more for their groceries.

Seeing all companies as having a CEO that sits at the top raking in the bucks is such a gross generalization. There are SO many small-mid sized companies that don't have any high ranking executives that are 'stealing all the dough' while they purposely pay their workers as little as possible. Partners/Owners that barely make ends meet, or struggle every day to figure out how to be profitable at all or not have to lay off more people.

I also don't even get the overall hatred of CEO's and how much they make. The majority of them make what they do because they are the primary reason the companies under them are successful. The CEO of my company makes a ridiculous amount of money and good for him. He is one of the main reasons my company is so profitable and I have been here for over 10 years not once having to worry about my job, regardless of the state of the economy. I know not every CEO is like this but many CEO's get paid the big bucks because they deserve to...the company's success, and the livelihood of everyone who works there, rests on their shoulders.

And I agree with Lisa, raising it is not going to solve the problem.

I actually don't have a set number in mind, although I think that $9 an hour would still be too low in my area. I almost think that it makes more sense to set it at the state level, since the cost of living can vary from state to state. $9 an hour in Denver CO isn't even close to enough to support a family, although I can say that a young 20 something can live with roommates on $9 an hour(that's how much I made at my first "real" job as an Admin Assistant when I was 20) or could about 12 years ago. :)

Like others, I believe that if people have more discretionary money to spend, they will stimulate the economy which is good for everyone, including businesses. The economy is kind of like an ecosystem in that way - when you starve off on peice of it (like people's buying power) it all starts to collapse.

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Originally Posted by SID081108

Seeing all companies as having a CEO that sits at the top raking in the bucks is such a gross generalization. There are SO many small-mid sized companies that don't have any high ranking executives that are 'stealing all the dough' while they purposely pay their workers as little as possible. Partners/Owners that barely make ends meet, or struggle every day to figure out how to be profitable at all or not have to lay off more people.

I also don't even get the overall hatred of CEO's and how much they make. The majority of them make what they do because they are the primary reason the companies under them are successful. The CEO of my company makes a ridiculous amount of money and good for him. He is one of the main reasons my company is so profitable and I have been here for over 10 years not once having to worry about my job, regardless of the state of the economy. I know not every CEO is like this but many CEO's get paid the big bucks because they deserve to...the company's success, and the livelihoods of everyone who works there, rests on their shoulders.

And I agree with Lisa, raising it is not going to solve the problem.

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The average CEO makes about 380 times what the average worker makes. I'm not saying that don't contribute more and shouldn't make more....but 380 times more? Like, they couldn't make 50 times more and still be considered well recognized for their outstanding efforts? Do you really believe that your CEO does such an outstanding job that he's worth 380 of you to the company (assuming you are an "average worker?")

I don't hate CEOs, but I don't really think that the wage disparity in our country is a fair reflection of who works harder or has better ideas or displays better leadership. I also think the extremity of the wage disparity is harmful to the economy and even yes, harmful to our beloved corporations since it limits the spending power of customers. I think that surely there is a (beneficial to ALL) middle ground between your wonderful CEO making 380 times what the average worker makes, and having the CEO and the average worker make the same thing. I don't know what that number is, but even 50 times more sounds more fair to me than 380. Wouldn't you like to make 50 times more than the average Joe? I sure would. :)


CEOs earn 380 times in pay more than average worker - Apr. 19, 2012

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Originally Posted by Alissa_Sal

when you starve off on peice of it (like people's buying power) it all starts to collapse.

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This is not making more money. This is taking money from one person (the owner) and giving it to another (the employee). There is no new money made. That might work in the very top tier few companies. But would not work at all for all the small Mom and Pop businesses. Do you not think it would hurt the economy for all those businesses to close? Plus, how do you think those companies got so big and profitable in the first place? It was not by paying their employees a living wage. Requiring businesses to pay a living wage would in my opinion collapse the economy because so many businesses would go under. You would be left with only the mega places like Walmart because all of the little fish would go under. $9/ hour I think will hurt, but I think requiring a living wage for every employee would be a disaster.

I wonder how much more than the average worker movie stars or star atheletes make? Funny how we don't compare them to the average person's salary.

Bonita, I'll respond when I have a few more minutes. Gloria, I agree, celebrities also get over paid by an appalling amount.

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Originally Posted by GloriaInTX

I wonder how much more than the average worker movie stars or star atheletes make? Funny how we don't compare them to the average person's salary.

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Well, the average person can't be a movie star or a professional athlete. And when people stop buying movie tickets or stop buying tickets to games, the market will then reflect their salaries. Till then, we are the ones paying them and we are the ones creating the market foe their product, and I fully believe that they deserve what they get (or else I would be against the free market, which I am not!)

I think that the idea of making the minimum wage equal to a "living wage" in any given city is catastrophic. Sorry but when I was a 14 year old unskilled hostess at my first job I neither deserved or made a "living wage". The idea that a cashier should make like 50K (probably a living wage for a family in NYC or DC or SF or other areas) is laughable. It does not make sense.

I do not agree with raising the minimum wage to these amounts some list in this debate. I agree with continuing to raise it on par with inflation, but not to the point where you are talking about ~ first off you put most of those people who arent paying taxes into a tax paying bracket, thus taking a percentage right off the top while killing the employer. Secondly, the idea is not that people get and STAY at entry level jobs. Are we? I mean, we live in a country where you are guaranteed a public education through high school. I don't believe that people who choose not to take advantage of a high school education deserve to enter the market place earning what college grads make!

The idea is nice and fuzzy sounding, but so are baby tigers.

I understand the CEO hatred on a visceral level, I mean I get it why people read those numbers and say ! Hey! that sucks! But again, use your money. Boycott those places. Make sure your portfolios don't include their stocks ! (And good luck with that)......but I don't get it on a very literal level. What would you prefer? do you want to see salary caps? Do you want people to be able to vote on how CEO's get paid, regardless of shareholder performance? I mean, what is your realistic solution to that? I'm so curious.

I would rather see training to help the couple that both makes minimum wage move up and make more. I think the real problem is not that the minimum wage is too low, it is that the couple does not have the skills to make more.
I always think of the minimum wage jobs as being specifically for young people (teens and college kids) or for people just starting out in the work force.
My first job started out at minimum wage, within my 60 day probationary period I received a raise, and within 120 I was making almost 2x minimum wage. That was in 1994