What's Your Thinking About A $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage?

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Lon Tanner, Jan 30, 2021.

  1. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    I have mixed feelings about it, but basically I'm against it. That would $ 600.00 for a 40 hour week $ 2,400 per month. $ 28,800 per year.
     
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  2. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Well, Lon, things do cost more today than they use to. There are those that can only get, for whatever reasons, minimum wage. If a higher minimum wage makes it easier for them to maintain their life, let it be.
     
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  3. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I think it's a subversive plot to maintain American dependence on Chinese junk.
     
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  4. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    $15 to flip burgers. Jobs like that are supposed to be the way you enter thee work force. They were never meant to be a career.
     
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  5. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    I think that it is adequate in some locales and not enough in others. No person working a full time job should be in poverty. By poverty I mean a low enough standard that the taxpayers have to kick in to make up the difference. NY is considering a training wage, for people (mostly students) that have never been employed. Caveat is that it can only be paid for 180 days.
    To me it is very simple, Henry Ford built an empire with the belief that if you pay enough for a family to cover house food maybe a vacation in the summer and a bit of savings that all of society will rise.
    It is part of making America Great!
     
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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    This is not the whole picture of how this would work, and it is important to look at everything. If the minimum wage is increased, then businesses will have to lay off people because they can’t afford to pay that much each month, so more people will be out of work if this happens.
    Also, the prices for everything will go up to compensate for having to pay a higher wage to workers, so a happy meal will be $5 instead of $2 , and everything at the grocery stores will cost more.

    The people who are now already making $15 per hour will also have increased wages, because the whole wage cycle will have to go up proportionately, so those with higher paying jobs will also be being laid off because of their wage increase.
    And, the end result , always, is that each wage increase puts people into a higher tax bracket.
    This means it costs more money to buy the same amount of necessities, plus more of your paycheck is going for income tax, so in actually, your situation has not gotten any better, and in many cases, it will actually be worse.

    Many years ago, I remember being so excited that my husband was going to get a wage increase, but then it turned out that even that small increase put him into a higher tax bracket, so he actually had less take-home pay than he got before the wage increase. The company suffered, we suffered, and the government happily collected more money.
     
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  7. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    What kind of life is a minimum wage mean't to support? Food & Housing for one, family of three. car payment, insurance, entertainment?????
     
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  8. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    7.25 as it is now does not come with in a mile of touching that.
     
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  9. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    A lot of minimum wage people are young and live with their parents. They don't have the enormous bills, as in mortgage payment, electricity and so on, older adults do. They pay for their cell phone and that's about it. Perhaps a date now and then to a movie theater, but that's it.

    I remember in 1982, I was making $5 per hour, working as a Stockroom Clerk for an electronics company. I was renting a bedroom from a friend of mine, with kitchen and laundry privileges. I could watch tv with the owner of the house, in the living room, or watch my little black n white in my room. I did ok.

    Another job, I was making $9.50 per hour. Again, renting a room, taking my lunch to work, had an old Dodge D-100 truck, a horse and boarded at a stables. Only time I went out to eat was Saturday or Sunday morning and then, I got a nice breakfast for $2.99. Eggs, hash browns, bacon/sausage, toast, coffee.

    This was all before I met my wife, who, due to her two AA and a Bachelors Degree, made a darn good salary. When I got out of the Navy, I bought a sort of "beat up" 1962 Ford Falcon. All I could afford and, with no credit, couldn't finance, so had to pay cash. Used part of my Discharge money for that. Now, my wife, her first car, which she had credit, so she could finance, was a 1970 (brand new) Mach 1 Mustang. She was working at a CPA Firm making an excellent salary.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 30, 2021
  10. Hoot Crawford

    Hoot Crawford Veteran Member
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    The idea of a federal minimum wage is just odd. $15/hr in BF West Virginia makes for a decent (albeit in WV) lifestyle. In any major city, you have a room mate and a Ramen noodles diet. It makes more sense to let every state set their own minimum wage
     
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  11. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Things costing more has nothing to do with the worth of a persons labor.
     
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  12. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    Fifteen bucks an hour is fine for first-time employees, but hard (or impossible ) for the business owner who has to make the payroll, sometimes resulting in layoffs to avoid bankruptcy.
     
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  13. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    Not like anyone is going to get rich at that wage. Every penny of it will be returned to the economy within a week of it being dispersed. And if you can't run your business without the taxpayers subsidizing your employees, perhaps you should not have employees.
     
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  14. James Hintze

    James Hintze Very Well-Known Member
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    The last 15 years (ending 9/19) was as adjunct professor at the local collage. I felt bad for the youngsters who were tryinSg bo begin their academic careers. The pay isn't much, and the working hours are restricted so that the benefits aren't available, like Walmart does it. They all are jockying for the first full time position.
    In my case, since I had Medicare, Social Security, and pensions from two states (and wife is very good with our investments), the money didn't matter much; I did it because I like to, and I felt good about contributing (I miss it).
    So I wonder about the Basic Income Guarantee?
     
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  15. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    Basic income guarantee is a non starter in my book. Just pay your employees what it costs to live. Yourcute little dream of a personal empire, is just that,yours,don't expect the taxpayers to pick up your slack.
    There possibly should be a basic living standard,but that is another whole ball of wax.
     
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