Minimum wage has completely out grown it's usefulness to the American people. Because of minimum wage, workers who deserve better wages because of their great work ability and good work ethics, are being paid the same and never better than citizanes who do not put out good work habits. one's wages should souly be determined by what one can do for said employeer.
I agree "that the small businesses will always suffer" especially since bigger corporations have more capacity to hire and generally make more money. In the Seattle times article I thought it was interesting that a quarter of those who make minimum wage are teenagers, and half are those up to 25 years of age. I think this is appropiate in seeing that in those years you are either starting college and/or finishing. In seeing this, it would make more sense that those without a degree would make minimum wage. Not to say that those who don't go to college don't deserve above minimum wage, because if you're loyal to the complany you work at, that should be taken into consideration too. As for minimum wage being worth 0$ I completely disagree. Our economy would then again fall just like it did in the Great Depression. Most of America would struggle because not everyone can be a CEO or start their own business. It would make "switching classes" virtually impossible. No one would have the money to do it. Businesses could pay you what they want, no matter how big their profit was. Each employee's pay should be judged accordingly. It would just lead to Large Corporations vs the "Okies" yet again. As for the tip credit, I don't think it should count. I believe if you do your job well, you deserve more. -KKayL
Since most likely there will always be a minimum wage it is a good idea to increase it annual if not more often. Maybe if they raised it higher people will have to work less jobs allowing them to be home more often with their children to help raise them properly. A lot of kids are neglected due to the fact that their parents have to work long hours and multiple jobs instead of spending time with their kids. So either minimum wage either needs to be increased or salaries should be judged by the persons qualifications for a certain job.
I think if there were a way to fix the minimum wage problem someone would of done it by now. If you raise it or lower it someone will be there to complain about it. So until someone finds a solution to the problem we need to make a happy medium for minimum wage. Hopefully one day someone will think of a buyable solution to it all. Most minimum wage jobs involve tipping, how much does this really help?
I think that one of the best parts about the minimum wage increasing is that some people won't have to work multiple jobs. Then, people who are unemployed will have a better chance at getting a job. And possibly, the amount of welfare will decrease, lowering taxes. Of course, thats in the ideal situation. The downside of raising the minimum wage is that small businesses may not be able to afford the extra costs. Also, high school dropout rates may increase because working for an easy $8.07 an hour doesn't seem all that bad to some... I do not agree with $0 minimum wage that Will suggested. If the state will not set an amount that people must be paid, then they cannot charge us for taxes off our paychecks to pay for various government sponsered organizations. The people working in Olympia probably wouldn't like having their paychecks docked as well. -sybouts
I think that all of the small business's will always continue to suffer, compared to the larger business's. The smaller business don't have the power to hire and make a profit to make a larger company. For the Seattle times article i wasn't suprised that a quarter of the minimum wage workers are teenagers. It supports the theroy that you must be educated to get a higher wage. As for the comment of making minimum wage $0 would distroy America. Employers would lower their workers wages and make the maximum profit they could.
As for Will's article, the comment about $0 minimum wage seems obsurd. The supply and demand system that drives our economy would be off balance. Plus our economy will suffer inflation if our employment rate is messed with enough. I think he has a valid point that minimum wage needs to be allocated over time, and not all at once. -KtB
As an added note look at countries with a modest minumum wage, they seem to do quite well.
Canada, Ireland, France, U.K., they are not too high not too low and are functioning fine with a stable middle class.
Mexico has a ridiculously low minumum wage at like 4$ an hour, and nobody can survive off that. Sure they have a large economy, but their classes are the RICH or poor. Is this what we want in America.
Other sweatshop countries have NO minumum wage and they are considered 3rd World with mostly everyone in poverty.
The proof is in history, why do you think we don't drastically change our system? It works fine. WE do not need to ELIMINATE the minumum wage. -Mikey
I don't like the minumum wage increase at all. From experience working in a small business, it just makes things harder. The bosses are expecting double the work out of us, or an increase in prices where the customer would want better quality delivered which CAN'T happen and will ultimately drive customers away from small business.
Speaking of small business, that is what our nation is. Sure we could get rid of all of them and be able to pay higher wages to everyone, but that would be setting us back politically as well. With a select few MEGA-Corperations owning everything and paying everyone high wages. Sure it seems like Utopia, but with so little people in power corruption is bound to occur. The spreading of the wealth is what we need. This is why we can't keep raising the minimum wage.
I know it must be raised, but they took a horrible approach. Maybe instead of jumping HUGE jumped. They should increase it by a steady 5 cents a year or so. Its not logical to pay someone $5.15 for 20 years then suddenly have it jump a dollar. That could cost businesses thousands of dollars in a year with no way to readjust. Silly if you ask me.
And the article about a zero minumum wage is just silly. Sure it could bring more jobs to America by not outsourcing everything, and would make companies compete, but it would really set us back. We would have people working for sweat shop wages. Companies would hire workers that would take less and less money, until they had barely enough to survive just like we saw in GoW. People are greedy, we need to hold them to some standard...
So as for a solution let's just let the minumum wage chill right now. Its not TOO high [yet] and not ridiculously LOW. -Mikey
I believe minimum wage should be a set amount for every state, even though some cities and states have a higher living cost. I don't see minimum wage as a punishment of any kind; I see it as the bottom of the barrel, but people work minimum wage jobs, because maybe that's all that town has to offer. If I'm making $14 an hour and the minimum wage has just went passed $8 an hour, I feel that I should get a raise also. I guess the question you could ask yourself is; what if there is no room for you to excel in your job and you stay at the wage you've been at? Are the people that make minimum wage going to pass or catch up to my wage if the minimum wage keeps on the rise?
I think we need a minimum wage in order to balance out the time parents spend away from their children working. 2 jobs vs 3 could make the difference between the amount of time parents are spending with the family thus creating less oppertunity for the growth in troubled youth, kids without guidance and direction. Minimum wage is by no means the absolute answer for our troubled youth problems, but it could be part of the solution.
The discussion we had in class really got me thinking, and with it being the new year minimum wage has once again increased! Those who are earning minimum wage, I feel happy for, but what about the rest of us? Where is the balance, that so called 'happy medium'? I think that the small business will always suffer, if there was a way to fix everything, I think it would have been done already. Maybe its one of the holes in the system, and for now life is just unfair! Its like if you raise it people complain, if you lower it people still complain and both sides have their fair reasoning to do so. Aren't we called the united states? Maybe it should be a set amount for every state because I think it would bring some balance to the system. -Savannah
I think small business's will always suffer in comparison to large corporations. The smaller buisness's are not able to have very many locations, so they are not able to make as much money compared to the large business's. It doesn't suprise me that 25% of minimum wage workers are teenagers. At my last job, I started out making $8.00/hr, which was 7 cents more than minimum wage, so I wouldn't have even been considered part of the 25%. I don't think making minimum wage $0.00/hr would be a good idea because employers would lower the wages they paid their employees to the bare minimum. This would help small buisnesses by increasing their income, but it would hurt the employees because they would barely survive.
I agree more with the opinion of the second article in that it's almost pointless to continue raising the minimum wage. They raise it to "help out" the workers, but in reality it's a wash because the cost of living inflates right along with any wage increase. So it's really not putting any extra cash into anyone's pocket, except for the governments. Although I do like the idea of what ben-harvery said in that wages should be set on one's work ethic and quality of production, there really should be some set starting point. How that is determined should be up to each individual state. J.Novak
Increasing the minimum wage would eventually just increase the cost of everything else. If your minimum wage increases, the place you work will have to increase their prices. It is a cascading affect and unfortunately never ending. Also, it never really seemed fair to me that there could be two McDonald’s workers and one does all the work and gets paid the same as the other. People should be paid for the work that they provide. Setting a minimum wage is just saying to employers this is all you need to pay people. Personally if I am going to have a job I am not going to be doing minimum wage work and so I would expect to make more money. What I mean by minimum wage work is when you go to Wal-Mart and see loads of employees just standing around. We are privileged in America to be able to get a job, period, and for people to take advantage of employers is just as bad to me as the employers taking advantage of the employee.
well i think when it comes down to it small business's will be tug along by larger corp. price will change due to min. wage simple as that. yet in my opion there should not be a min. wage or even a living wage, yet a wage based on what you can do and how many others can do this as well.. more like a supply and demanded. i strongly agrree with ben-harvey.{2 coomments down}
well i think when it comes down to it small business's will be tug along by larger corp. price will change due to min. wage simple as that. yet in my opion there should not be a min. wage or even a living wage, yet a wage based on what you can do and how many others can do this as well.. more like a supply and demanded. i strongly agrree with ben-harvey.{2 coomments down}
first of all i want to agree with katie b's statement, that will's statement is indeed obsurd. There is no i know that would work for no pay and quite frankly i cant blame them.
small bussiness's will always have a harder time making money then large corporations because larger corparations have more money and can afford to higher more workers and sell thier goods at a lower price. it is just the way things work.
I believe both La Corte and Will have interesting and valid arguments concerning minimum wage. La Corte tries to play the sympathy hand by beginning with a story about a woman who is single and has to work two jobs to provide for her three young sons. This persuades many readers into thinking that minimum wage should be increased, so this woman only has to work one job and can be home with her kids more. However, this still doesn't solve the problem. As minimum wage increases, so does the price of everything else including food and housing. There is no solution. High costs already hinder smaller business from growing as their expenses are too high. On the other side of the argument, Will has interesting points as well. He believes there should be no minimum wage. I strongly detest that idea. If there was no minimum wage, bosses could pay their employees $1 per hour. When there were no other jobs available, people would have to work for that ridiculous pay no one could survive on. Still, I don't think the minimum wage should be increased drastically. I think there should be a reasonable minimum wage, that is low enough that it allows bosses to give their employees who deserve raises more money. If minimum wage is high, all workers are usually forced to be paid the same, no matter how they perform, as the boss can't afford to pay more for better performances. Also, according to Will, “a 10 percent increase in state minimum wage cause[s] teenage school enrollment to drop”. If people earn a minimum wage you can easily and comfortably survive on, there is no incentive to remain in school, or excel in the workplace. The above statistic should leave people thinking, “do I want to earn more money, or be around more uneducated people?”.
I like the fact that the author points out different wages for various years, and that the number of people who have those low paying jobs are, more or less, students or minors trying to earn a couple extra bucks. Yes small buisnesses will suffer from federal minimum, unless they are doing particularly well. And no i dont agree with the author standpoint on no minimum wage because equality in payment would become an issue that im sure only the prosporous buissnesses would address. Leaving all others in a dissmal state, scrapping to get by. ben britz english 102 9:30-10
For single people living in Yakima, Washington’s minimum wage might not be too horrible. However, for people like Jessica Barragan, who is trying to support a family, minimum wage is unacceptable, even at $8.07. It is only right that workers be paid a salary that they can decently live on. It is true that businesses will lose money paying their workers more, but in situations where the business owners are extremely wealthy and their employees are extremely poor, the business owners should have to raise their employees wage even if it means a cut of their own profit. Greed is corrupting the money system.
George Will’s idea of minimum wage being $0 is totally hogwash! If there were not a minimum wage, greedy businesses owners would have their employees working for hardly anything. Will’s essay also brings up the point that raising the minimum wage would increase school dropout rate. However, the reason people go to college is so that they have the opportunity to make a decent living. If the minimum wage was raised so someone could make a decent profit and avoid large college dept, what’s horrible about that? Not having a huge dept to pay off isn’t a bad thing…
When I read both article I felt that many people do not see the big picture and that is that many families can live in minimum wage; if the mom, dad and their kids work, they will be fine .In some cases this does happened. I have seen many families struggle in life because of minimum wage it is necessary form them to get that extra quarter in hour in order to keep up with the daily expenses especially when mom and dad have to work jobs that many people do not want to do and have to take extra jobs. George F. Will argues that the minimum wages job should be $0 nationwide. This individual has never felt the need of money; because if he did he would not be writing this.
What would happen if the minimum wage was $0? Would minimum wage workers suffer or prosper? What about the employers? Maybe, wages would be based more on the actual jobs and how hard the employees work rather than an amount set by an outside source. I know minimum wage is a "minimum", but it seems to me that if minimum wage increases much more, it will become more of a standard wage or even a maximum wage. Employers would not be inclined to pay much more than the minimum. On the other hand, maybe no minimum wage is a little drastic. As I understand it, a minimum wage is set in place to permit employers from paying their employees absurdly low wages. One must take into account inflation. With housing, food, and fuel costs increasing, it seems reasonable that wages should increase to counteract the effect. If wages continue to increase, prices will continue to increase as well. Then, what? When will it stop? Raising minimum wage would only exasperate the problem. Would $0 an hour solve the problem? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it's too late for a minimum wage of $0 especially since studies show that most minimum wage workers are under twenty-five years old. How would they be able to attend college debt free without a higher wage? I believe George F. Will has a good point with $0 as a minimum wage. If the United States was not so financially unstable, no minimum wage might end up freeing the wage slave from standard wages.
I think that the minimum wage should be the same everywhere. For instance in Pullman, WA there are very few businesses, but when you venture 10 or so miles you find Moscow, ID where there are many more businesses. And you wonder why this is? Its because of minimum wage. Having it the same minimum wage would get rid of this problem. Besides that face i do kind of like having a high minimum wage because i'm only 17 and i do not have to pay for much so it is just extra spending cash.
I thought it was interesting how Congress raised the minimum wage for the first time in a decade from $5.15 to $5.85 in July. Then raising it again in 09 to $7.25, which is such a big jump in that short amount of time. i can only speculate as to what will happen to our nation's economy when this happens.
I don't think that there is really one right or wrong answer when it comes to minimum wages. No matter what happens with it there will be the people whining and complaining about it still being "too high" or "too low". With that being said, there are still multiple ways it could go. One being it raises to unheard of hieghts to the point we are paying $15 for a candy bar (I hope that never happens by the way). Another is that the "reset" button is pushed, in other words we go back down to $0 for minimum wage. Now this seems to me to be the most attractive of the two ideas, but the hardest one to make work. The only way in my jarbled mess of a mind to make sense of it is to do just that. Hit the "reset" button BUT before doing that figuring out fair prices to pay employees for each type of job there is based on the importance of it (example being a Police Officer has a minimum wage of $25 an hour while the guy who works the register at the local clothing store only gets $6 an hour). This could make the guy that comes around picking up your trash a rich man depending what the final product is.
The controversy about whether or not there should be minimum wage is truly very complicated. Both sides of the issues have great points that they put across very clearly and accurately. However, in my personal opinion I do feel that minimum wage is necessary. A huge part of our population works minimum wage jobs; many because they have children, disabilities, or where unable to or chose not to graduate from high school and or college for whatever reason. These people are incapable of holding most jobs that are not paid minimum wage as a result of their lack of educational skills, time, or money. Therefore, minimum wage jobs are needed for their survival. I believe the amount of $8.07 is a suitable minimum wage because it provides enough for someone to survive without paying as much as those jobs held by people not receiving minimum wage.
I think that minimum wage increase in the state shouldn't be a problem unless it becomes drastic increases. But I don't really think that the federal minimum wage should increase. Cleary it's worked for a decade. I think that employers will always have a problem with minimum wage because if they wanted to pay their employees more they wouldn't have a problem with minimum wage in the first place.
After reading those articles, I now understand how many problems there are with the increase of the minimum wage. By increasing minimum wage, we now have more of an increase in everything we buy. By increasing the wage we are making food more expensive. The more money is used to keep the people happy, the more a meal is going to be.
I believe small businesses will always suffer but not only because of wage increases. They have to fight with big corporations in order to suvive. I think the increase of the minimum wage was a good thing because people are haveing a harder and harder time surviving in our country. People with children have it much harder because you have to factor in that they are not only providing for other people but also daycare and other related expenses. I do not think it is right that parents should have to work two jobs to support their families. Not only does it hurt the worker but their children suffer as well. I think Will's comment about minimum wage being 0$ is horrible. Most employers would begin to pay their employees next to nothing because they could gain profit and most employers are about themselves and how well they are doing. Most low wage workers are very replaceable and if they don't like how it is they can always find someone more desperate for the job. So, really I think they should continue on with their increase of minimum wage every year. If the prices are going up then people's income also needs to rise.
The consant increase in minimum wage, just raise the prices of the products being sold. If a small business owner has to pay out more and more money each year the cost of product in their store is also going to rise. Everyone pays when minimum wage rises weather you make minumum wage or make double that. That increase has to be made up somewhere and it is made up in the product or service that is being offered to the public.
For me, its really hard to determine what minimun wage should be, but after reading the articles, i believe $8.07 is a good amount. I have to say though, i think the amount being changed should be the prices of living, but thats not really possible. Some articles say that changing the minimum wage "does little to harm business and benefits the vast majority of low-paid workers." Since this was said many times, it made up my mind that $8.07 is good. Also, if some people have to work less jobs to support themselves and their family, that is very positive.
I think that there will always be issues with minimum wage. For me its hard to have a strong opinion on the subject because I've never had a job that paid minimum wage. I do think that $8.07 sounds reasonable, its one of the highest in the U.S.
Both sides of this aurgument have valid points, but neither propose a solution to the minimum wage debate that can please everyone, far from it.
Will's idea is intriguing, and worth some thought, but it has some major holes in it. The same can be said for the raising of the minimun wage but at this piont in time I do not see this country being capable of dropping it for good.
i think that minimun wage should be higher, but the question is how to do it without rising cost of goods? i understand that people are not going to be as motivated to get education and get a better job if minimum wage would be higher. but i think people who want to be more educated and have even beter pay would still go to college and do it.
i think that minimun wage should be higher, but the question is how to do it without rising cost of goods? i understand that people are not going to be as motivated to get education and get a better job if minimum wage would be higher. but i think people who want to be more educated and have even beter pay would still go to college and do it.
I think minimum wage should be determined by the economy within a given region. Living expenses in Central Washington varies considerably to living expenses in Western Washington. If minimum wage is based on the economy in regions it would be more equitable for businesses. The public will always pay more when minimum wage increases because the price of goods will go up. It comes down to the moral decision of helping the lower class at a loss to the middle class. Is it ethical to do so?
I tend to argee more with the idea that minimum wage should stay low for a couple of reasons like the following. There is a reason why this is called minimum wage impling that it unskilled labor that almost any person of age can do so why should we reward mediocracy. Another is that if we raise minimum wage to high it would not give people a reason to try to improve thier their skills or knowlege. My final reason for wanting to lower minimum wage is to help those who are not on minimum wage because every time you raise it it puts pressure on small buisnesses and those right above minimum wage by increasing the prices for food and gas becauses those industries employ many miminum wage workers.
There are pros and cons to minimum wage and having the individual states dictate how each will decide is just wrong. First off George Will is wrong when he states "minimum wage is and idea whose time came in 1938". We still need a minimum wage since there will always be employers and corporation that want more for less. However, it does not need to be as high as it is here in Washington State, in fact all states should be one minimum wage.
With the higher wages as we have here we see that prices have gone up, this in turn comes partly since the business owners, ect. are not willing to finance this increase out of their own pockets so in turn it falls back on the consumer and of course the employees who are now doing the work of two employees. Jobs are being cut since the owners and businesses do not want to eat this cost of paying higher wages and are demanding more from the ones who do work for them or if they do fill vacancies they take longer to fill them expecting the others there to pick up the slack. So now we need to have unions in to watch over the employees rights.
I agree with Will's theory that higher wages are part of the higher drop out rate since a lot of youth might think they are being paid a great wage and are doing okay for now, but what happens when they have a family to support? They can't and this falls to the tax payer and becomes a burden on the state.
The articles did show that minimum wage does negatively effect other areas of the economy such as agriculture, but I still think that it is important that we have a minimum wage just to ensure that people get a reasonable amount of pay. I know that if I took a job for the federal minimum wage of a little less than six dollars, depending on the shift that I worked, about a little less than half of my income would go to vehicle expenses (fuel and maintanence). I do understand, though, that some jobs aren't worth $8 an hour and shouldn't be paid that much. On the other hand, occording to a study conducted by WSU, an increase in the minimum wage would be absorbed by the economy with little effects to certain areas of the economy. So, I'm not quite sure right now if we should or should not have a state and federal regulated minimum wage.
Miss La Corte was dead on when she penned the title "Low-wage workers happy to see raise, but restaurants see trouble." As the minimum wage raises incrementally over the next couple of years, we can expect to see an increase in the price of food served in local restaurants and in doing so, nothing has changed other than the amount of money changing hands. We're right back to where we started. Also, as the minimum wage increases, the amount of people dependant on that wage to make a living can be expected to increase. Minimum wage was never meant to be a way of life, merely a means to get to a better future.
As for Mr. Will's idea that minimum wage should be $0, I say that the mere mention of this is preposterous. Granted, minimum wage has it's problems, but it should definitely be used. I personally don't believe it should be as high as it is; because that just allows people to settle for the minimum wage jobs instead of living up to the expectations of others and their inner potential; but it definitely shouldn't be $0. Maybe having the national minimum wage as our state minimum wage wouldn't be such a bad idea. It might encourage them to seek more for themselves. And there are always possibilities for saving money, one just has to look for them.
Minimum wage is more than fair. If people don't try to get an education to get a well paying job, they have to settle for what they can do. In this day in our society there are thousands of ways to get the help to better yourself. I have friends who, recieve enough financial aid, that they don't even have to work full time to support themselves while attending college. I feel if a person over 18 is stuck earning minimum wage, its simply because they don't try hard enough at the job they have, don't try hard enough to find a decent job, or are simply to lazy to go and find out how to get an education.
First of all I wondered where Will got all the statistics he used. If they are accurate then the way La Corte starts her article is not the prominent living situation for those who work minimum wage jobs. Even if most people who work for minimum wage use it as supplemental income, I think they should get paid a fair amount for the work they do. That being said I do not like the idea of no minimum wage. I think it would be too much of a temptation for business owners to be greedy and unfair. I do like the idea of people who work hard and show dedication getting raises, I think that is how it should be. If the minimum wage got raised too high then it would be virtually impossible for those who deserve a raise to get one. I think $8.07 is fair.
I don't think that the minimum wage problem will be solved any time soon. Depending on which individual's story you look at one gets a different view of it. I believe that the job and work that one does should be the regulating factor of how much money one gets paid.
I believe workers deserve the raise if they are working to their potential. However business owners often face problems with raises due to coming up with more money. It would be very helpful the minimum wage could go up but the cost of 'life' in general didnt rise. However I dont think thats possible.
I think that the author George F. Will presented the strongest argument. I agree with his state ment that: " Raising the minimum wage predictably makes work more attractive relative to school for some teenagers and raises the dropout rate. " Although I dont think minimum wage should be at zero, it should not ever be raised to an ammount that should make one consider not getting a specialized job. Perhaps instead of raising the minumum wage, the government should put more money into scholarships and grants. Then the states could fill the manual labor jobs that are left over by putting convicts to work. Thats just an idea though. -Todd Ferguson
I don't agree with the belief that minimum wage should be $0 because then bussiness men who are a lot of the time greedy would underpay their workers. They would take advantage of the system. I also believe the minimum wage shouldn't be high because it is true that minimum wage is for the younger people and it says over 25% of minimum paying workers are between 16 and 19 and over half are under 25 years old and most are in school. Yes, their are some families who are on minimum paying jobs, but they can make it and it was their choices to get in those situations. You can't raise everything because then their wouldn't be that drive to go to school to get that better job, their would be no reason for that hard working student to go to school and make a better life for themselves. I know it is hard for people who don't have enough money, I know personally, but it is their own choice and there is enough help out there to make it better for themselves. I don't believe in hand outs and if we raised minimum wage to like $15 then it would be a hand out.
Jennifer McInnis- I think that going with out minimum wage would damage everything that we stand for as a nation. Letting owners of companies determine the pay of their workers wouldn't allow a fairness between workers. If an apple company can choose what they pay and they choose 4.00 a bin how is that fair, if a bin takes an hour to pick that is only 4 bucks an hour. You can't live on that.
Was the country more balanced when everyone HAD to and did work? Like during the farm days when people had more kids to help with the chores? When the men worked outside all day on their OWN land and looked forward to coming hometo a hot cooked meal and a house kept by a real homemaker? It seems to me like these occupations were much more natural then and now they are just stuff we have to do on top of careers we have to have to survive. But the careers people are going into now are just created out of demand- like cable installer or fast food worker, they are really not necessities of life like a farmer is. I just have always wondered about that.
53 comments:
I think that the small business's will always suffer, no matter what they have to pay their employees.
Minimum wage has completely out grown it's usefulness to the American people. Because of minimum wage, workers who deserve better wages because of their great work ability and good work ethics, are being paid the same and never better than citizanes who do not put out good work habits. one's wages should souly be determined by what one can do for said employeer.
I agree "that the small businesses will always suffer" especially since bigger corporations have more capacity to hire and generally make more money.
In the Seattle times article I thought it was interesting that a quarter of those who make minimum wage are teenagers, and half are those up to 25 years of age. I think this is appropiate in seeing that in those years you are either starting college and/or finishing. In seeing this, it would make more sense that those without a degree would make minimum wage. Not to say that those who don't go to college don't deserve above minimum wage, because if you're loyal to the complany you work at, that should be taken into consideration too.
As for minimum wage being worth 0$ I completely disagree. Our economy would then again fall just like it did in the Great Depression. Most of America would struggle because not everyone can be a CEO or start their own business. It would make "switching classes" virtually impossible. No one would have the money to do it. Businesses could pay you what they want, no matter how big their profit was. Each employee's pay should be judged accordingly. It would just lead to Large Corporations vs the "Okies" yet again.
As for the tip credit, I don't think it should count. I believe if you do your job well, you deserve more.
-KKayL
3:02 PM
Since most likely there will always be a minimum wage it is a good idea to increase it annual if not more often. Maybe if they raised it higher people will have to work less jobs allowing them to be home more often with their children to help raise them properly. A lot of kids are neglected due to the fact that their parents have to work long hours and multiple jobs instead of spending time with their kids. So either minimum wage either needs to be increased or salaries should be judged by the persons qualifications for a certain job.
I think if there were a way to fix the minimum wage problem someone would of done it by now. If you raise it or lower it someone will be there to complain about it. So until someone finds a solution to the problem we need to make a happy medium for minimum wage. Hopefully one day someone will think of a buyable solution to it all. Most minimum wage jobs involve tipping, how much does this really help?
I think that one of the best parts about the minimum wage increasing is that some people won't have to work multiple jobs. Then, people who are unemployed will have a better chance at getting a job. And possibly, the amount of welfare will decrease, lowering taxes. Of course, thats in the ideal situation.
The downside of raising the minimum wage is that small businesses may not be able to afford the extra costs. Also, high school dropout rates may increase because working for an easy $8.07 an hour doesn't seem all that bad to some...
I do not agree with $0 minimum wage that Will suggested. If the state will not set an amount that people must be paid, then they cannot charge us for taxes off our paychecks to pay for various government sponsered organizations. The people working in Olympia probably wouldn't like having their paychecks docked as well.
-sybouts
I think that all of the small business's will always continue to suffer, compared to the larger business's. The smaller business don't have the power to hire and make a profit to make a larger company. For the Seattle times article i wasn't suprised that a quarter of the minimum wage workers are teenagers. It supports the theroy that you must be educated to get a higher wage.
As for the comment of making minimum wage $0 would distroy America. Employers would lower their workers wages and make the maximum profit they could.
As for Will's article, the comment about $0 minimum wage seems obsurd. The supply and demand system that drives our economy would be off balance. Plus our economy will suffer inflation if our employment rate is messed with enough. I think he has a valid point that minimum wage needs to be allocated over time, and not all at once.
-KtB
As an added note look at countries with a modest minumum wage, they seem to do quite well.
Canada, Ireland, France, U.K., they are not too high not too low and are functioning fine with a stable middle class.
Mexico has a ridiculously low minumum wage at like 4$ an hour, and nobody can survive off that. Sure they have a large economy, but their classes are the RICH or poor. Is this what we want in America.
Other sweatshop countries have NO minumum wage and they are considered 3rd World with mostly everyone in poverty.
The proof is in history, why do you think we don't drastically change our system? It works fine. WE do not need to ELIMINATE the minumum wage.
-Mikey
I don't like the minumum wage increase at all. From experience working in a small business, it just makes things harder. The bosses are expecting double the work out of us, or an increase in prices where the customer would want better quality delivered which CAN'T happen and will ultimately drive customers away from small business.
Speaking of small business, that is what our nation is. Sure we could get rid of all of them and be able to pay higher wages to everyone, but that would be setting us back politically as well. With a select few MEGA-Corperations owning everything and paying everyone high wages. Sure it seems like Utopia, but with so little people in power corruption is bound to occur. The spreading of the wealth is what we need. This is why we can't keep raising the minimum wage.
I know it must be raised, but they took a horrible approach. Maybe instead of jumping HUGE jumped. They should increase it by a steady 5 cents a year or so. Its not logical to pay someone $5.15 for 20 years then suddenly have it jump a dollar. That could cost businesses thousands of dollars in a year with no way to readjust. Silly if you ask me.
And the article about a zero minumum wage is just silly. Sure it could bring more jobs to America by not outsourcing everything, and would make companies compete, but it would really set us back. We would have people working for sweat shop wages. Companies would hire workers that would take less and less money, until they had barely enough to survive just like we saw in GoW. People are greedy, we need to hold them to some standard...
So as for a solution let's just let the minumum wage chill right now. Its not TOO high [yet] and not ridiculously LOW.
-Mikey
I believe minimum wage should be a set amount for every state, even though some cities and states have a higher living cost. I don't see minimum wage as a punishment of any kind; I see it as the bottom of the barrel, but people work minimum wage jobs, because maybe that's all that town has to offer. If I'm making $14 an hour and the minimum wage has just went passed $8 an hour, I feel that I should get a raise also. I guess the question you could ask yourself is; what if there is no room for you to excel in your job and you stay at the wage you've been at? Are the people that make minimum wage going to pass or catch up to my wage if the minimum wage keeps on the rise?
I think we need a minimum wage in order to balance out the time parents spend away from their children working. 2 jobs vs 3 could make the difference between the amount of time parents are spending with the family thus creating less oppertunity for the growth in troubled youth, kids without guidance and direction. Minimum wage is by no means the absolute answer for our troubled youth problems, but it could be part of the solution.
The discussion we had in class really got me thinking, and with it being the new year minimum wage has once again increased! Those who are earning minimum wage, I feel happy for, but what about the rest of us? Where is the balance, that so called 'happy medium'? I think that the small business will always suffer, if there was a way to fix everything, I think it would have been done already. Maybe its one of the holes in the system, and for now life is just unfair! Its like if you raise it people complain, if you lower it people still complain and both sides have their fair reasoning to do so. Aren't we called the united states? Maybe it should be a set amount for every state because I think it would bring some balance to the system.
-Savannah
I think small business's will always suffer in comparison to large corporations. The smaller buisness's are not able to have very many locations, so they are not able to make as much money compared to the large business's. It doesn't suprise me that 25% of minimum wage workers are teenagers. At my last job, I started out making $8.00/hr, which was 7 cents more than minimum wage, so I wouldn't have even been considered part of the 25%.
I don't think making minimum wage $0.00/hr would be a good idea because employers would lower the wages they paid their employees to the bare minimum. This would help small buisnesses by increasing their income, but it would hurt the employees because they would barely survive.
I agree more with the opinion of the second article in that it's almost pointless to continue raising the minimum wage. They raise it to "help out" the workers, but in reality it's a wash because the cost of living inflates right along with any wage increase. So it's really not putting any extra cash into anyone's pocket, except for the governments.
Although I do like the idea of what ben-harvery said in that wages should be set on one's work ethic and quality of production, there really should be some set starting point. How that is determined should be up to each individual state.
J.Novak
Increasing the minimum wage would eventually just increase the cost of everything else. If your minimum wage increases, the place you work will have to increase their prices. It is a cascading affect and unfortunately never ending. Also, it never really seemed fair to me that there could be two McDonald’s workers and one does all the work and gets paid the same as the other. People should be paid for the work that they provide. Setting a minimum wage is just saying to employers this is all you need to pay people. Personally if I am going to have a job I am not going to be doing minimum wage work and so I would expect to make more money. What I mean by minimum wage work is when you go to Wal-Mart and see loads of employees just standing around. We are privileged in America to be able to get a job, period, and for people to take advantage of employers is just as bad to me as the employers taking advantage of the employee.
well i think when it comes down to it small business's will be tug along by larger corp. price will change due to min. wage simple as that. yet in my opion there should not be a min. wage or even a living wage, yet a wage based on what you can do and how many others can do this as well.. more like a supply and demanded. i strongly agrree with ben-harvey.{2 coomments down}
well i think when it comes down to it small business's will be tug along by larger corp. price will change due to min. wage simple as that. yet in my opion there should not be a min. wage or even a living wage, yet a wage based on what you can do and how many others can do this as well.. more like a supply and demanded. i strongly agrree with ben-harvey.{2 coomments down}
first of all i want to agree with katie b's statement, that will's statement is indeed obsurd. There is no i know that would work for no pay and quite frankly i cant blame them.
small bussiness's will always have a harder time making money then large corporations because larger corparations have more money and can afford to higher more workers and sell thier goods at a lower price. it is just the way things work.
I believe both La Corte and Will have interesting and valid arguments concerning minimum wage. La Corte tries to play the sympathy hand by beginning with a story about a woman who is single and has to work two jobs to provide for her three young sons. This persuades many readers into thinking that minimum wage should be increased, so this woman only has to work one job and can be home with her kids more. However, this still doesn't solve the problem. As minimum wage increases, so does the price of everything else including food and housing. There is no solution. High costs already hinder smaller business from growing as their expenses are too high.
On the other side of the argument, Will has interesting points as well. He believes there should be no minimum wage. I strongly detest that idea. If there was no minimum wage, bosses could pay their employees $1 per hour. When there were no other jobs available, people would have to work for that ridiculous pay no one could survive on. Still, I don't think the minimum wage should be increased drastically. I think there should be a reasonable minimum wage, that is low enough that it allows bosses to give their employees who deserve raises more money. If minimum wage is high, all workers are usually forced to be paid the same, no matter how they perform, as the boss can't afford to pay more for better performances. Also, according to Will, “a 10 percent increase in state minimum wage cause[s] teenage school enrollment to drop”. If people earn a minimum wage you can easily and comfortably survive on, there is no incentive to remain in school, or excel in the workplace. The above statistic should leave people thinking, “do I want to earn more money, or be around more uneducated people?”.
Beth (Elizabeth)
I like the fact that the author points out different wages for various years, and that the number of people who have those low paying jobs are, more or less, students or minors trying to earn a couple extra bucks. Yes small buisnesses will suffer from federal minimum, unless they are doing particularly well. And no i dont agree with the author standpoint on no minimum wage because equality in payment would become an issue that im sure only the prosporous buissnesses would address. Leaving all others in a dissmal state, scrapping to get by.
ben britz
english 102
9:30-10
For single people living in Yakima, Washington’s minimum wage might not be too horrible. However, for people like Jessica Barragan, who is trying to support a family, minimum wage is unacceptable, even at $8.07. It is only right that workers be paid a salary that they can decently live on. It is true that businesses will lose money paying their workers more, but in situations where the business owners are extremely wealthy and their employees are extremely poor, the business owners should have to raise their employees wage even if it means a cut of their own profit. Greed is corrupting the money system.
George Will’s idea of minimum wage being $0 is totally hogwash! If there were not a minimum wage, greedy businesses owners would have their employees working for hardly anything. Will’s essay also brings up the point that raising the minimum wage would increase school dropout rate. However, the reason people go to college is so that they have the opportunity to make a decent living. If the minimum wage was raised so someone could make a decent profit and avoid large college dept, what’s horrible about that? Not having a huge dept to pay off isn’t a bad thing…
When I read both article I felt that many people do not see the big picture and that is that many families can live in minimum wage; if the mom, dad and their kids work, they will be fine .In some cases this does happened. I have seen many families struggle in life because of minimum wage it is necessary form them to get that extra quarter in hour in order to keep up with the daily expenses especially when mom and dad have to work jobs that many people do not want to do and have to take extra jobs.
George F. Will argues that the minimum wages job should be $0 nationwide. This individual has never felt the need of money; because if he did he would not be writing this.
What would happen if the minimum wage was $0?
Would minimum wage workers suffer or prosper? What about the employers?
Maybe, wages would be based more on the actual jobs and how hard the employees work rather than an amount set by an outside source. I know minimum wage is a "minimum", but it seems to me that if minimum wage increases much more, it will become more of a standard wage or even a maximum wage. Employers would not be inclined to pay much more than the minimum.
On the other hand, maybe no minimum wage is a little drastic. As I understand it, a minimum wage is set in place to permit employers from paying their employees absurdly low wages. One must take into account inflation. With housing, food, and fuel costs increasing, it seems reasonable that wages should increase to counteract the effect. If wages continue to increase, prices will continue to increase as well. Then, what? When will it stop?
Raising minimum wage would only exasperate the problem.
Would $0 an hour solve the problem? Maybe. Maybe not.
Maybe it's too late for a minimum wage of $0 especially since studies show that most minimum wage workers are under twenty-five years old. How would they be able to attend college debt free without a higher wage? I believe George F. Will has a good point with $0 as a minimum wage. If the United States was not so financially unstable, no minimum wage might end up freeing the wage slave from standard wages.
Hannah
I think that the minimum wage should be the same everywhere. For instance in Pullman, WA there are very few businesses, but when you venture 10 or so miles you find Moscow, ID where there are many more businesses. And you wonder why this is? Its because of minimum wage. Having it the same minimum wage would get rid of this problem. Besides that face i do kind of like having a high minimum wage because i'm only 17 and i do not have to pay for much so it is just extra spending cash.
I thought it was interesting how Congress raised the minimum wage for the first time in a decade from $5.15 to $5.85 in July. Then raising it again in 09 to $7.25, which is such a big jump in that short amount of time. i can only speculate as to what will happen to our nation's economy when this happens.
I don't think that there is really one right or wrong answer when it comes to minimum wages. No matter what happens with it there will be the people whining and complaining about it still being "too high" or "too low". With that being said, there are still multiple ways it could go. One being it raises to unheard of hieghts to the point we are paying $15 for a candy bar (I hope that never happens by the way). Another is that the "reset" button is pushed, in other words we go back down to $0 for minimum wage. Now this seems to me to be the most attractive of the two ideas, but the hardest one to make work. The only way in my jarbled mess of a mind to make sense of it is to do just that. Hit the "reset" button BUT before doing that figuring out fair prices to pay employees for each type of job there is based on the importance of it (example being a Police Officer has a minimum wage of $25 an hour while the guy who works the register at the local clothing store only gets $6 an hour). This could make the guy that comes around picking up your trash a rich man depending what the final product is.
The controversy about whether or not there should be minimum wage is truly very complicated. Both sides of the issues have great points that they put across very clearly and accurately. However, in my personal opinion I do feel that minimum wage is necessary. A huge part of our population works minimum wage jobs; many because they have children, disabilities, or where unable to or chose not to graduate from high school and or college for whatever reason. These people are incapable of holding most jobs that are not paid minimum wage as a result of their lack of educational skills, time, or money. Therefore, minimum wage jobs are needed for their survival. I believe the amount of $8.07 is a suitable minimum wage because it provides enough for someone to survive without paying as much as those jobs held by people not receiving minimum wage.
I think that minimum wage increase in the state shouldn't be a problem unless it becomes drastic increases.
But I don't really think that the federal minimum wage should increase. Cleary it's worked for a decade.
I think that employers will always have a problem with minimum wage because if they wanted to pay their employees more they wouldn't have a problem with minimum wage in the first place.
After reading those articles, I now understand how many problems there are with the increase of the minimum wage. By increasing minimum wage, we now have more of an increase in everything we buy. By increasing the wage we are making food more expensive. The more money is used to keep the people happy, the more a meal is going to be.
I believe small businesses will always suffer but not only because of wage increases. They have to fight with big corporations in order to suvive. I think the increase of the minimum wage was a good thing because people are haveing a harder and harder time surviving in our country. People with children have it much harder because you have to factor in that they are not only providing for other people but also daycare and other related expenses. I do not think it is right that parents should have to work two jobs to support their families. Not only does it hurt the worker but their children suffer as well. I think Will's comment about minimum wage being 0$ is horrible. Most employers would begin to pay their employees next to nothing because they could gain profit and most employers are about themselves and how well they are doing. Most low wage workers are very replaceable and if they don't like how it is they can always find someone more desperate for the job. So, really I think they should continue on with their increase of minimum wage every year. If the prices are going up then people's income also needs to rise.
The consant increase in minimum wage, just raise the prices of the products being sold. If a small business owner has to pay out more and more money each year the cost of product in their store is also going to rise. Everyone pays when minimum wage rises weather you make minumum wage or make double that. That increase has to be made up somewhere and it is made up in the product or service that is being offered to the public.
For me, its really hard to determine what minimun wage should be, but after reading the articles, i believe $8.07 is a good amount. I have to say though, i think the amount being changed should be the prices of living, but thats not really possible.
Some articles say that changing the minimum wage "does little to harm business and benefits the vast majority of low-paid workers." Since this was said many times, it made up my mind that $8.07 is good. Also, if some people have to work less jobs to support themselves and their family, that is very positive.
I think that there will always be issues with minimum wage. For me its hard to have a strong opinion on the subject because I've never had a job that paid minimum wage. I do think that $8.07 sounds reasonable, its one of the highest in the U.S.
Both sides of this aurgument have valid points, but neither propose a solution to the minimum wage debate that can please everyone, far from it.
Will's idea is intriguing, and worth some thought, but it has some major holes in it. The same can be said for the raising of the minimun wage but at this piont in time I do not see this country being capable of dropping it for good.
i think that minimun wage should be higher, but the question is how to do it without rising cost of goods?
i understand that people are not going to be as motivated to get education and get a better job if minimum wage would be higher. but i think people who want to be more educated and have even beter pay would still go to college and do it.
i think that minimun wage should be higher, but the question is how to do it without rising cost of goods?
i understand that people are not going to be as motivated to get education and get a better job if minimum wage would be higher. but i think people who want to be more educated and have even beter pay would still go to college and do it.
I think minimum wage should be determined by the economy within a given region. Living expenses in Central Washington varies considerably to living expenses in Western Washington. If minimum wage is based on the economy in regions it would be more equitable for businesses. The public will always pay more when minimum wage increases because the price of goods will go up. It comes down to the moral decision of helping the lower class at a loss to the middle class. Is it ethical to do so?
I tend to argee more with the idea that minimum wage should stay low for a couple of reasons like the following. There is a reason why this is called minimum wage impling that it unskilled labor that almost any person of age can do so why should we reward mediocracy. Another is that if we raise minimum wage to high it would not give people a reason to try to improve thier their skills or knowlege. My final reason for wanting to lower minimum wage is to help those who are not on minimum wage because every time you raise it it puts pressure on small buisnesses and those right above minimum wage by increasing the prices for food and gas becauses those industries employ many miminum wage workers.
There are pros and cons to minimum wage and having the individual states dictate how each will decide is just wrong. First off George Will is wrong when he states "minimum wage is and idea whose time came in 1938". We still need a minimum wage since there will always be employers and corporation that want more for less. However, it does not need to be as high as it is here in Washington State, in fact all states should be one minimum wage.
With the higher wages as we have here we see that prices have gone up, this in turn comes partly since the business owners, ect. are not willing to finance this increase out of their own pockets so in turn it falls back on the consumer and of course the employees who are now doing the work of two employees. Jobs are being cut since the owners and businesses do not want to eat this cost of paying higher wages and are demanding more from the ones who do work for them or if they do fill vacancies they take longer to fill them expecting the others there to pick up the slack. So now we need to have unions in to watch over the employees rights.
I agree with Will's theory that higher wages are part of the higher drop out rate since a lot of youth might think they are being paid a great wage and are doing okay for now, but what happens when they have a family to support? They can't and this falls to the tax payer and becomes a burden on the state.
The articles did show that minimum wage does negatively effect other areas of the economy such as agriculture, but I still think that it is important that we have a minimum wage just to ensure that people get a reasonable amount of pay. I know that if I took a job for the federal minimum wage of a little less than six dollars, depending on the shift that I worked, about a little less than half of my income would go to vehicle expenses (fuel and maintanence). I do understand, though, that some jobs aren't worth $8 an hour and shouldn't be paid that much. On the other hand, occording to a study conducted by WSU, an increase in the minimum wage would be absorbed by the economy with little effects to certain areas of the economy. So, I'm not quite sure right now if we should or should not have a state and federal regulated minimum wage.
Miss La Corte was dead on when she penned the title "Low-wage workers happy to see raise, but restaurants see trouble." As the minimum wage raises incrementally over the next couple of years, we can expect to see an increase in the price of food served in local restaurants and in doing so, nothing has changed other than the amount of money changing hands. We're right back to where we started.
Also, as the minimum wage increases, the amount of people dependant on that wage to make a living can be expected to increase. Minimum wage was never meant to be a way of life, merely a means to get to a better future.
As for Mr. Will's idea that minimum wage should be $0, I say that the mere mention of this is preposterous. Granted, minimum wage has it's problems, but it should definitely be used. I personally don't believe it should be as high as it is; because that just allows people to settle for the minimum wage jobs instead of living up to the expectations of others and their inner potential; but it definitely shouldn't be $0. Maybe having the national minimum wage as our state minimum wage wouldn't be such a bad idea. It might encourage them to seek more for themselves. And there are always possibilities for saving money, one just has to look for them.
Minimum wage is more than fair. If people don't try to get an education to get a well paying job, they have to settle for what they can do. In this day in our society there are thousands of ways to get the help to better yourself. I have friends who, recieve enough financial aid, that they don't even have to work full time to support themselves while attending college. I feel if a person over 18 is stuck earning minimum wage, its simply because they don't try hard enough at the job they have, don't try hard enough to find a decent job, or are simply to lazy to go and find out how to get an education.
First of all I wondered where Will got all the statistics he used. If they are accurate then the way La Corte starts her article is not the prominent living situation for those who work minimum wage jobs. Even if most people who work for minimum wage use it as supplemental income, I think they should get paid a fair amount for the work they do. That being said I do not like the idea of no minimum wage. I think it would be too much of a temptation for business owners to be greedy and unfair. I do like the idea of people who work hard and show dedication getting raises, I think that is how it should be. If the minimum wage got raised too high then it would be virtually impossible for those who deserve a raise to get one. I think $8.07 is fair.
I don't think that the minimum wage problem will be solved any time soon. Depending on which individual's story you look at one gets a different view of it. I believe that the job and work that one does should be the regulating factor of how much money one gets paid.
I believe workers deserve the raise if they are working to their potential. However business owners often face problems with raises due to coming up with more money. It would be very helpful the minimum wage could go up but the cost of 'life' in general didnt rise. However I dont think thats possible.
I think that the author George F. Will presented the strongest argument. I agree with his state ment that: " Raising the minimum wage predictably makes work more attractive relative to school for some teenagers and raises the dropout rate. "
Although I dont think minimum wage should be at zero, it should not ever be raised to an ammount that should make one consider not getting a specialized job. Perhaps instead of raising the minumum wage, the government should put more money into scholarships and grants. Then the states could fill the manual labor jobs that are left over by putting convicts to work. Thats just an idea though.
-Todd Ferguson
I don't agree with the belief that minimum wage should be $0 because then bussiness men who are a lot of the time greedy would underpay their workers. They would take advantage of the system.
I also believe the minimum wage shouldn't be high because it is true that minimum wage is for the younger people and it says over 25% of minimum paying workers are between 16 and 19 and over half are under 25 years old and most are in school. Yes, their are some families who are on minimum paying jobs, but they can make it and it was their choices to get in those situations. You can't raise everything because then their wouldn't be that drive to go to school to get that better job, their would be no reason for that hard working student to go to school and make a better life for themselves.
I know it is hard for people who don't have enough money, I know personally, but it is their own choice and there is enough help out there to make it better for themselves. I don't believe in hand outs and if we raised minimum wage to like $15 then it would be a hand out.
Jennifer McInnis- I think that going with out minimum wage would damage everything that we stand for as a nation. Letting owners of companies determine the pay of their workers wouldn't allow a fairness between workers. If an apple company can choose what they pay and they choose 4.00 a bin how is that fair, if a bin takes an hour to pick that is only 4 bucks an hour. You can't live on that.
Was the country more balanced when everyone HAD to and did work? Like during the farm days when people had more kids to help with the chores? When the men worked outside all day on their OWN land and looked forward to coming hometo a hot cooked meal and a house kept by a real homemaker? It seems to me like these occupations were much more natural then and now they are just stuff we have to do on top of careers we have to have to survive. But the careers people are going into now are just created out of demand- like cable installer or fast food worker, they are really not necessities of life like a farmer is. I just have always wondered about that.
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