Thats around 5% of workers earning below $15/hr. That’s going to be the headline politician against MWI will use. 95% get an increase to a more livable wage, 5% gets the axe. Pain in the short term. Probably a good trade off and better in the long term... But I wonder what’s the impact to small businesses. https://www.yahoo.com/now/cbo-15-mi...jobs-lift-900-k-out-of-poverty-170900012.html A new Congressional Budget Office reportsays the Raise the Wage Act – the bill to gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 – would increase the cumulative deficit by $54 billion over 10 years. The report found the wage hike would cost 1.4 million jobs by 2025. It would also lift 900,000 people out of poverty and increase wages for 17 million people. The CBO said a wage hike would also benefit many of the 10 million people who currently make slightly more than the minimum wage. The CBO says the wage hike would lead to higher prices for goods and services, which would contribute to an increase in federal spending. While spending on nutrition programs would fall, spending for unemployment benefits, health care programs and Social Security would rise due to increased costs. The CBO says Medicaid spending would increase, in part, because so many care workers would receive raises.
I have a hard time supporting bumping up minimum wage. I’ve always seen it as an incentive to get your **** together and get trained in a skilled labor set. I get that people are struggling but that’s on the vast majority of them for settling for lower incomes.
I’m surprised at the statement “so many care workers would receive raises”. Who are they, how many and what level of training do they have ? Doesn’t seem like an unskilled labor... certainly we need care workers as a sustained labor force and not some temp job as a burger flipper and I think the principle of a more living wage is well deserved for care workers.
I don't think most are settling for low paying jobs, when that is all they can get. The reality is there are a lot of people that just aren't capable of much skill. That said $15 is way to high for a large part of the country.
A bit on care workers ... https://phinational.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/research-report/paying-the-price.pdf
$15 minimum wage would benefit 27 million U.S. workers 27 million workers would benefit. 1.4 million would not. 27 million workers should be able to get off of food stamps, pay more for their Obama-care plan, pay more in FIT, etc. I suspect that there would be a great cost shift from the government to the employers. Our taxes pay for the former and employer customers pay for the latter.
But you know what happens when you lift 27 million out of poverty? They have less incentive to work for your shitty business that requires cheap labor to sell cheap goods to cheap consumers. How can these cheap businesses survive without their slavEEEER cheap labor?
This isn't going to be all roses for all people. You have a lot of hard working people that have daycare costs that this is going to hurt. Daycares run on a razor thin margin and those increases to their workers will be passed on to the customers - putting more strain on the hard working families that are barely getting by.
Thats not true. $15.00 magically fixes everything. Now all those no skilled laborers can afford 300k houses and drive fancy new cars and buy healthcare and get off EBT. Those in NYC rejoice!
Capitalism by definition is predatory. Without regulation the inevitable result is monopoly, exploitation and disparity. So what we are really talking about here is where to draw the line. The present minimum wage was debated and decided as fair and necessary in 2009. It has not been raised,leven adjusted for the cost of living since so it's actual value has dropped. The odd part of this argument to me is that raising it would cost jobs and profits. What creates wealth in America is money in circulation, buying goods an services, savings available to banks for loans even excess income to invest. Guaranteeing people a livable wage is a great way to stimulate the economy, promote public health and welfare, and reduce political division. And that's calling $30K a year a livable wage. I would bet none of us could live on that.
I could easily live on 30k a year. Now vacations would be cut and extra spending on bullshit on Amazon would be gone but paying all the bills so long as my wife is also working, wouldn’t be a problem at all. I wouldn’t do it because I don’t need to but I can see that as being a liveable amount of money for a lot of people. It’d also be life changing for many.
there should be a state minimum wage because $15 in NYC is not $15 in Alabama. Also you are right, minimum wage jobs were not designed to be life long careers. It's low skill work that does not require a high school diploma.
Market demand dictates wage. If there's enough people in NYC washing dishes for minimum wage, that's what they're going to get. Millions of people a year move for better opportunities. It's not impossible, especially since anyone in America can access the biggest library ever in the internet.
I feel we should have better rules on this. I know the popular argument usually involves someone flipping burgers or teenagers that still live with their parents. What about caretakers for example? I remember my grandmother use to have a caretaker that was paid about $9/hour. This was provided via her medicaid services. Would it not be wise to pay these individuals more than a non-livable wage? How about daycare centers? Yes, the price would be passed on to the parents, but don't individuals that are watching children should be paid a fair wage as well? It may not be "skilled" labor, but it sucks that you may not get as many good individuals to apply for such a position if they rather look for something better. I guess I'm thinking more of a tiered system that we demand are paid fairly to get better workers in that industry.
Hard to move without money. You need a place to live. If you move out of the city, you'll likely need a car. And then there is the actual expense of moving and interviewing to get said opportunity.
Market demand dictates wage. That could be true in a world with full employment but it's not true in the real world. For one an employer can choose what wage he is willing to pay if there are a number of unemployed that cannot find jobs. Their choice is low pay or no pay. I mean, how many skilled and educated O&G people in Houston are taking jobs at Walmart and Home Depot. And it assumes intelligence, reasonable home life in youth, reasonable education opportunities and mental health. George Carlin used to say "imagine how stupid the 'average' person is, now imagine half of them are more stupid than that". Flawed people, and a lot of them from no fault of their own, are still people and deserve dignity. Also, if they are not given a minimum quality of life, their children will be stuck in the cycle. And that's a big contributor to the wealth disparity we see in this liberal democracy and the cultural divides.
Hustle. Ask for help. There are ways if you're motivated enough. Look at migrant workers and other immigrants who show up here with the clothes on their backs. They work 80+ hours a week to find opportunity.
