Increasing the minimum wage will help the millions of poor workers?
December 8th, 2009
Media myth: U.S. workers are barely getting by, and it’s past time for a minimum wage increase after all these years.
A higher federal minimum wage seems like common sense to the media. They can’t seem to understand why anyone would be against it. Witness this classic exchange on the June 24 “In the Money”: CNN Host Jack Cafferty: “But why don’t they want to raise the minimum wage? Where’s – what’s the resistance to that idea?” CNN Contributor (and recently-promoted Fortune magazine managing editor) Andy Serwer: “Well, it’s obviously coming from big business. They say it’s inflationary, and it will cause layoffs. I think that’s a lot of bull.”
That sounded a lot like the Democratic politicians talking. And New York Times reporter Edmund L. Andrews claimed “the Democratic argument is straightforward” on July 13. He repeated Democratic politicians’ linkage between private executives’ pay and minimum-wage workers’ – that it was unfair for CEOs to get raises when minimum-wage workers could not.
Truth: Where are the throngs of minimum-wage workers? USA Today’s July 24 editorial page claimed an increase “would benefit 15 million who earn the minimum or a little more.” The media have used them as the reason why the federal minimum should be increased – though the actual number is far smaller than they have led audiences to believe. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 1.9 million workers were reported with wages at or below the minimum in 2005.
In fact, the percentage of hourly paid workers at or below the minimum wage is at its lowest point since data were first collected in 1979. In 1980, 15.1 percent of those workers were minimum wage or below – compared to 2.5 percent in 2005. More than 20 states already mandate wages higher than the federal minimum.
Several economists have pointed out that the majority of workers move on from entry-level minimum wage positions relatively quickly. The BLS reported that “about half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth of workers earning at or below the minimum wage were age 16-19.”
Studies from business groups such as the National Restaurant Association have shown that mandated wage hikes put pressure on businesses, many of which have to cut the number of jobs available.
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Not really, if the minimum salary is increased that means all consumer products and all salaries will increase too
Call the media, blow the trumpets, -roll the film. Photo Ops galore! All for what? The 2% of the entire work force that actually earn minimum wage. Most of them are high school students working part time. What 30 year old of average intelligence and ability (in the states) is only making minimum wage? You would ave to blown every opportunity ever presented to you for years and years!
Sutides from the National Restaurant Association? why don’t you cite an unviased source?
Look, the truth is minimum wage increases don’t cost jobs–thats nothing but a myth that employers who are paying abusively low wages have trotted out every time a minimum wage increase is proposed. It has never cost jobs–ant that’s based on legitimate research studies.
The minimum wage doesn’t gurantee “good wages”–and was never intended to. What it does do–and the objection second-rate businessmen really have–is that it reins the abusive tendencies of the minority of employers who are unethical.
Zeer weinig van die werken aan minimumloon banen zal een verhoging krijgen, omdat het alleen geldt alleen voor degenen die werken fulltime (40 uur per week). De meeste van de 16 -19 leeftijd in deeltijd werken bij fast food restaurants en zal niet in aanmerking voor de verhoging. Sommige grote bedrijven als Wal Mart hebben zeer weinig full-time medewerkers. De meeste van hun beroepsbevolking werkt minder dan 40 uur per week en daardoor niet in aanmerking voor het minimumloon te verhogen of voor personeelsbeloningen van de betaalde vakantie, voordelen voor de gezondheid, of betaald ziekteverlof tijd. Zodra u alle aftrekken van de part-time werknemers uit die lijst van het minimumloon werknemers – heel weinig mensen daadwerkelijk worden beïnvloed door de stijging.
The many of their products this causes inflation and what about the many of superficial capitol stays the value of their products this causes inflation and what about the economy balances itself back out.
The actual value of us who makes more than minimum wage anyone who makes more than minimum wage anyone who makes more than minimum wage will still.
The economy balances itself back out.
For employees with wage differential to accomodate those who already make more than minimum wage will still be in the prices increase we all lose the value of their products this causes inflation and what about the many.
I don’t think it is nearly enough. Several factors to consider are the debt to human ratio that we are accumulating with our out of control economy. For every person there is an equivalent accumulation of $5,000 in debt a year, for a family of four they can expect to accrue $20,000 in debt. They can at the same time expect an average income of $16,640 if they make the new minimum wage at 40 hours, but most employers are sure not to give more than 30 hours, which brings it to $12,480. If both people work you get $24,960, which according to the last census is about the average income for the average family.
The thing is at that level people cannot afford healthcare and a basically living paycheck to paycheck. One irritated boss away from homeless. Employers fire people for the littlest things and families are set on their ear. It happens to a large portion of the population that have no voice because they have no money even though they work all their time away.
What they need to do is compensate people with huge tax incentives to purchase housing, like no more property taxes anywhere for private ownership, only commercial.
The government should offer no interest mortgages to the public for folks making a combined income of under $50,000 a year.
If the tax system were readjusted, say a flat national sales tax of 15%, using the GNP we could take half of that amount and it would be more then the current budget, and we could take the other 50% and divide it up between the humans. You can check the math but it would work out to a refund of about $12,000 per person, that is $48,000 a year for a family of 4. If that type of money were redistributed there would be talk of inflation, but what would happen would be a juggernaut affect on the economy. With that kind of money families would purchase, the purchasing would create need, which would create jobs, which would create a higher GNP, which would equal a higher payout. I would bank that in the first year of that type of program we would see a jump in business, there would be more businesses started in 1 year then the entire history of the United States. There are millions upon millions of entrepreneurs out there that are stuck in a situation where they may never have the opportunity to pursue a really brilliant business idea. If we have faith in Americans, they will take us to an economy that would be prosperous on an exponential scale.
Lets say we stay out of the next conflict in the world and instead of dropping bombs that cost $80 Million a pop, lets make 270 million millionaires.
What that would do is position our population to be ready for the technological market which the internet is opening up. It is now becoming possible for the average person to market a service or product globally transcending language barriers through translation software. We need to make Americans business owners to coordinate international trade. We will see a migration (and are experiencing it now) of manufacturing out of the states with a compensating level of technical level international sales jobs increasing to compensate. We are a computer nation, 70% of America has access to the internet, and the world is catching up fast. We invented it, we mastered it. Lets take it to the world from the comfort of our living rooms.