Should the minimum wage be hiked?

Hank77

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The people who always seem to get hurt when the minimum wage is increased are students working part-time jobs. When the wage goes up employers tend to require more work from their full-time employees and cut back or eliminate part-time student workers. Sad because many times these young people are trying to save money for college.
That doesn't make any sense. Employers don't want to pay full-time workers for overtime, they'd be paying them time and half for anything over 40 hrs. If that starts happening they hire more workers or part-time workers.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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That doesn't make any sense. Employers don't want to pay full-time workers for overtime, they'd be paying them time and half for anything over 40 hrs. If that starts happening they hire more workers or part-time workers.

Exactly. No health insurance costs either (historically none was needed as working minors were covered under their parents family plans).
 
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Hank77

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Would be a textbook case of Cobra Effect. It would created more automated jobs, resulting in higher unemployment. Simply put, a job seeker enters into a wage contract freely and can choose whether or not to accept a job based on offered compensation. To force companies to pay a minimum certain rate will result in more job loss and fewer jobs overall.
Every state does have a minimum wage. My state is $11.10 an hr. and goes up to 12.00 next yr. How's our economy? GDP growth rate of 3.2% and overall rate one of the top in the nation.
Washington state's minimum wage is $12.00 going up to 13.50 next yr. They are rated number two best economy, only DC is ahead of them and DC's min.wage is $14.00.
Then you have TX min.wage 7.25 and ranked 4th best economy, oil/gas...
There are a few other states where it's 7.25 and they are ranked in the top ten. There's others with 11.00-12.00 and they are ranked in the top ten.
So it appears to me that the minimum wage doesn't have that much to do with how the economies perform. There many other factors to take into consideration.
Still I think the federal min. wage should be increased over the next three yrs. to reach at least $10.
 
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Archivist

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That doesn't make any sense. Employers don't want to pay full-time workers for overtime, they'd be paying them time and half for anything over 40 hrs. If that starts happening they hire more workers or part-time workers.
No, what you are saying doesn’t make sense because I never said that employers would require workers to work over 40 hours. I said that they would simply require them to do more work.
 
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Hank77

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Exactly. No health insurance costs either (historically none was needed as working minors were covered under their parents family plans).
Neither of the people I was talking about are minors.
 
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Hank77

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The people who always seem to get hurt when the minimum wage is increased are students working part-time jobs. When the wage goes up employers tend to require more work from their full-time employees and cut back or eliminate part-time student workers. Sad because many times these young people are trying to save money for college.
See your quote above. Usually a full-time employee works 40 hrs. a week.
No, what you are saying doesn’t make sense because I never said that employers would require workers to work over 40 hours. I said that they would simply require them to do more work.
 
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Douger

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IMO there should be no minimum wage, just like there should be no mandated employer provided healthcare.
I think that a guarantee for a minimum standard of living along with healthcare should be provided directly as welfare from the government rather than mandated to the employer.
The government should stick to taxing and spending, not imposing fixed prices on the private sector.
 
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FenderTL5

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Every state does have a minimum wage...
I agree with your overall point. However the quoted portion is incorrect, even if it is mere semantics. There are five states without a state minimum wage; Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Alabama.
The federal minimum still applies, but there is no state level requirement.
 
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Archivist

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See your quote above. Usually a full-time employee works 40 hrs. a week.
Again, I never said that employers would be paying overtime. I said they would be requiring them to do more work. Try reading what is written.
 
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Hank77

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Again, I never said that employers would be paying overtime. I said they would be requiring them to do more work. Try reading what is written.
You don't have to get snarky. I read what you wrote and....
Full-time employee usually work 40 hr. wk. and....
Labor laws say that employers must pay time and a half for anything over 40 hr. a week.

If you didn't mean full-time employees.....
 
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Hank77

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I agree with your overall point. However the quoted portion is incorrect, even if it is mere semantics. There are five states without a state minimum wage; Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Alabama.
The federal minimum still applies, but there is no state level requirement.
My bad, I should have corrected that statement when I found the chart of minimum wages.
Thanks for correcting me.
 
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Archivist

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You don't have to get snarky. I read what you wrote and....
Full-time employee usually work 40 hr. wk. and....
Labor laws say that employers must pay time and a half for anything over 40 hr. a week.

If you didn't mean full-time employees.....
I’m not getting snarky. I’m being clear. I never said that anyone be required to work more than 40 hours per week. Archarios understands what I’m saying, he was equally clear in his post 87. Companies just require that employees do more work in 40 hours.
 
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Hank77

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Companies just require that employees do more work in 40 hours.
Now that is clear. But there are many jobs that one can't do more work in 40 hrs. Especially low paying jobs. Retail clerks, restaurant workers, many hotel workers, basically almost all customer service jobs.
 
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Foxfyre

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Adjusted for inflation the minimum wage (Wisconsin) is the same as it was in 1960.

1960- 85 cents/hr
2019- $7.50/hr

However, entry level pay in many traditionally minimum wage jobs is actually $9-$12 per hour. So gains have been made in some areas.

So few people stay at minimum wage if they earn their wages that the minimum wage should not be any kind of issue. I myself, due to a husband who was transferred a lot, had to start over in each new town. Several times I took minimum wage to get my foot in the door so I could prove to an employer what I was worth. The longest I ever stayed at minimum wage was 2 to 4 weeiks.
 
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Foxfyre

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Hi foxfyre,

You responded to another post:


Average wage and minimum wage are two completely separate economic measurements.

God bless,
In Christ, ted

Yes they are completely separate economic measurements. But so few people stay at minimum wage if they are worth more than minimum wage, it really isn't much of an issue. All that significantly raising the minimum wage will accomplish is to shut more of the difficult to employ out of the labor market again. Currently due to a booming employee many are getting jobs where they can acquire skills, develop a work ethic, acquire references etc. and are on their way to experiencing the pride of self reliance and accomplishment.
 
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Sparagmos

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The damage is to people like me. I don't get even get cost of living raises now. So every time the minimum wage increases my dollar goes less far because product prices increase. If I can make $15 an hour to assemble a hamburger and not have the stress of 12 hour shifts or worrying about any of my patients dying and not have to touch blood, vomit, or poop...it might be time for a career change. I can imagine anyone willing to be a nurse aide or push stretchers anymore. Not if they can make the same as a fast food worker or other minimum wage job. The healthcare industry isn't going to give us any raises to make them get more than the minimum wage even though they do make more than the current min wage now
That is called wage compression and it is a temporary effect of raising the minimum wage. In the long term, raising the floor does cause the other wages to increase. And what do you mean every time the min wage increases products increase? The CPI in areas where the min wage has increased has not increased at the same rate - that’s flat wrong.
 
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Sparagmos

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He said "require more work." Not "gladly pay for overtime".

Archivist is absolutely right. Anytime companies "downsize", now the remainder get to do the work of two or three. Any overtime is heavily monitored and given grudgingly.
Which is moot, since few companies downsized due to min wage increases. That’s just the fear everyone had but we now know it isn’t the reality.
 
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