Minimum Wage

Tsutarja

Tsutarja

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    Given that there's been debate in recent months about the current federal minimum wage needing to be increased (at least in the United States), I was curious to know what your stance on this was.

    Is the minimum wage (which is currently $7.25 USD/hour) fine enough as is, or should it be higher or maybe even lower?
     
    In the UK ours is £6.31 for people over 21. Assuming someone is working a 36 hours week (9-5, 5 days a week) that is £227 a week -> over £900 a month.

    Of course, taxes and loan payments and things might cut into that, but it's definitely enough to survive and live off of - it just depends on your lifestyle and how flexible you are, who you live with, your responsibilities, etc.

    I don't think minimum wage should ever be lowered, as it can only put more people in poverty, but if people cannot live off a monthly wage then it clearly needs to be raised to match a living wage.
     
    There is a thing called "inflation" that causes the cost of living to go regularly up. It only makes sense to increase the minimum wage accordingly, or otherwise the cost of labour will become increasingly cheaper at the cost of the workers.
     
    As Ivysaur said, inflation continues to raise prices in our economy of just about everything, therefore it's only logical to raise minimum wage. It's always been that way, and as you can see here, it's been raised a lot since the early 1900's.
     
    Here in Denmark we have no minimum wage. In principle it is possible to hire workers for next to no money, but in reality that doesn't happen. At least not that often. However, in Denmark, wages and working conditions are typically defined in collective agreements agreed upon by the trade unions and employers' organisations. This means that the state does not play an active role in determining the wages and working conditions in Denmark. Therefore you will not find a minimum wage defined in the law. The wages and working conditions will be defined in each individual sector as a result of an often times lengthy period of negotiation. Every two to four years, depending on the job sector, the employers' organizations and the trade unions get together to negotiate. They negotiate not only the minimum wage, but also working conditions and workers' rights and benefits. This is unique, and except for Sweden which has a pretty similar system, this model is found nowhere else in the world.

    As far as my limited knowledge goes, this system works really well on a national basis, and I believe that an agreement from the two parts is in many cases the right way to define minimum wages. I do, however, not see this model making its entry into other countries, as it relies heavily upon prerequisite membership of a trade union. THIS statistic shows that Scandinavian countries are among the highest percentages of trade union memberships in Europe, which is related to the 1899-1945 rise of social democracy in the Scandinavian countries. This social democracy has played a huge role in the evolution of the danish labor market, and this is what led to the unusual situation with the minimum wage in Denmark.
     
    what he have now in the United States is a refusal to let the minimum wage catch up with inflation because most corporations & companies want huge profits and bonuses for top management, shareholders, etc., at the expense of the regular, "Average Joe" employee. And people wonder why the United States has an increasingly alarming wealth disparity and rampant economic inequality. I would think that a sensible, adjusted-for-inflation minimum wage would do wonders for the lower and middle classes and would address the crippling wealth disparity here. Might hurt some smaller businesses, sure, but if a company like Costco can pay their employees an average of $21 an hour, nearly 75% higher than their main competitor, a little start-up called WALMART, and outperform walmart, other companies can do the same and adapt.
     
    Based on my understanding of the minimum wage in the US, most people who receive that as a wage survive on tips to make ends meet. If you need tips to get by, the wage is too low in my opinion.

    In Australia, full-time minimum wage is $16.37/hour whereas casual minimum wage is $20.30/hour. This obviously differs when you're not an adult.

    It's not much money, you're looking at around $32,000 a year for full time work. To put that into perspective, my husband and I were renting a basic 3 bedroom house that cost us $400 a week ($20,800 a year) that was well out in the suburbs until recently. Granted, Australia has a serious issue with an expensive property market at the moment (anything less than $300 a week is a dump).
     
    Lotus the Cat said:
    Based on my understanding of the minimum wage in the US, most people who receive that as a wage survive on tips to make ends meet. If you need tips to get by, the wage is too low in my opinion.

    In Australia, full-time minimum wage is $16.37/hour whereas casual minimum wage is $20.30/hour. This obviously differs when you're not an adult.

    It's not much money, you're looking at around $32,000 a year for full time work. To put that into perspective, my husband and I were renting a basic 3 bedroom house that cost us $400 a week ($20,800 a year) that was well out in the suburbs until recently. Granted, Australia has a serious issue with an expensive property market at the moment (anything less than $300 a week is a dump).
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    There is a tipped minimum wage and a non-tipped minimum wage. In Michigan, up to a few weeks ago, tipped minimum wage was $3.something an hour and untipped was $7.something an hour. Regardless, neither of those are livable wages.

    Raising minimum wage gives consumers more money to put back into the system and, as an added bonus, saves a lot of lives. I'm glad it's going up.
     
    the minimum wage should place you at a livable wage. In many places the current minimum wage places people far below the poverty line - that isn't livable.
     
    I have mixed feeling about minimum wage laws, but there's no denying that hiding behind tipping rules to avoid paying your employee's livable wage to maximize your profits makes you a class-A douchebag.
     
    Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be livable wages. The only reason it's getting expected now in the US is because the job market is horrible here and 9 times out of 10 when they talk about new jobs being added to the economy, they are minimum-wage, service-sector jobs. People aren't leaving their current jobs because there's nothing with comparable benefits to go to, and new job seekers are left with few options.
     
    Minimum wage in my state is $7.95. I think that's sufficeable if you're still living with / supported by your parents, but I couldn't live off that on my own. I don't know how some people do it.
     
    Awkward. said:
    Minimum wage in my state is $7.95. I think that's sufficeable if you're still living with / supported by your parents, but I couldn't live off that on my own. I don't know how some people do it.
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    They do it by taking two or even three such jobs, often working 12-16 hour days and sometimes with no days off just to make ends meet. And these aren't just high school graduates only we're talking about, it's also people with college diplomas and university degrees working these jobs because a) they have to pay back all those student loans some how and b) the jobs that they were hoping to get, the reason they studied in the field of their choice, aren't available or the expectations are so high that they have no hope of ever getting a decent paying job.
     
    General Bravo said:
    Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be livable wages. The only reason it's getting expected now in the US is because the job market is horrible here and 9 times out of 10 when they talk about new jobs being added to the economy, they are minimum-wage, service-sector jobs. People aren't leaving their current jobs because there's nothing with comparable benefits to go to, and new job seekers are left with few options.
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    Considering that it was enacted in the United States on a federal level during the Great Depression (1938 specifically), I'm fairly certain that making bottom of the wage-ladder jobs have livable wages was the intention of the law, in order to reduce homelessness in the United States.

    It's only by cultural expectation and habit that they were turned into jobs that didn't hold livable wages, due to ridiculous general prosperity and economic ladder movement from the late 1940s on through to the early 2000s, an era in which bottom of the ladder jobs had to be filled and teens were finally able to find the free time to work of their accord rather than helping out around the house or at the farmstead.
     
    Awkward. said:
    Minimum wage in my state is $7.95. I think that's sufficeable if you're still living with / supported by your parents, but I couldn't live off that on my own. I don't know how some people do it.
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    Minimum wage is $8.25 here and a lot of people on min wage here is getting government assistance.. because well.. Illinois taxes are asinine and the cost of living is waaay too high.. To support yourself where I'm at you need at least $18 an hour and that's pretty ridiculous. There's not many jobs that pay that without some sort of degree and even then you only see like 60% of it due to federal and state taxes. If anything the government needs to lower the federal tax % instead of ♥♥♥♥ing over hard working employers forcing them to struggle in life while they sit in their multi million dollar mansion living the life.

    On another note, we all know how the economy is and how inflation works. If minimum wage goes up the stock markets gonna go up. Always has and it always will.
     
    In Ontario, Canada, minimum wage just raised to $11 on June 1st of this year. However, I don't think it's enough. It barely gets you over the poverty line which I believe is around $18,000 a year in Canada. When I look at the min wages in they are in the same position. It may look like Ontario is getting more, but everything here is more expensive.

    I think min wage should be more than just barely getting you to the poverty line. People should be able to survive, not barely make ends meet.
     
    Addy said:
    I think min wage should be more than just barely getting you to the poverty line. People should be able to survive, not barely make ends meet.
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    I agree with you, min wage isn't nowhere near enough for one person to survive with that pay. It gets even worse when you make that pay and you have to pay for children. The main issue with this is that if minimum wage went up to $18 an hour and everyone can support themselves it would put a lot of franchisees out of business. They gotta pay for you to work there, they gotta pay for whatever they sell, whatever it is they gotta pay and their job is to make profit. Meaning if min wage went up they would either terminate people or the stock market would go up.

    .The biggest issue here is America's debt problem.
     
    The minimum wage here (Montreal) is like 10.90? iirc? And even then it's still not enough to pay yourself a few goodies. Also gotta consider that we also are the province with the highest paying taxes, 15%. But I don't think 7$ is enough for a minimum wage...

    If 10$ is barely enough to get you living then I can't even imagine with 7$.
     
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