Obama proposes raising the minimum wage to $9/hour...

[Wickabee]

Consumer Price Index (index of the cost of good and services purchase by households).

What's wrong with tying minimum wage to that? Would you have it stay stagnant as the cost of living increases? That sounds like a good way to further divide the rich and the poor.

[tpeichel]

I guess it's not a problem if you think it is a good thing to overpay people compared to the value they provide. I don't because most businesses will avoid it whenever possible. So in essence, the minimum wage discriminates against the least skilled people in society, the very people that politicians claim to be helping.

[Wickabee]

I guess it's not a problem if you think it is a good thing to overpay people compared to the value they provide. I don't because most businesses will avoid it whenever possible. So in essence, the minimum wage discriminates against the least skilled people in society, the very people that politicians claim to be helping.

That's the thing though. You see it as overpaying, I see it as raising minimum value. Prices on things are going to go up, always. Inflation is a fact of life. If you don't raise the minimum wage to reflect the cost of living, who will be left to work those jobs? Even if there are no entitlements, it still makes no sense to not work and get nothing than work and get the same.

[tpeichel]

But the value that is set is artificial. Unless there are no other workers that would do the same exact for less than $9.00, the minimum value is completely bogus and creates distortions in the marketplace. What are some possible consequences for being forced to overpay your least skilled workers?

-Underpaying more productive workers
-Smaller bonuses and raises for productive workers
-Diminished benefits for employees
-Fewer employees
-Higher costs for customers
-Using illegal labor
-Offshoring jobs to cheaper locales

[shrewsbury]

I think when minimum wage goes up, every employer should have to give a raise to reflect the need to minimum wage to go up.
just to say a job at mcdonalds, you get hired in at 7.50, work for six months get a .50 raise, work another 6 months get $1 raise, after 2 years you are making $10.50 an hour, minimum wage goes up, the new guy is making the same as you now.

and just to say they didn't hire anyone and after 1 year you made $9 and hour and minimum wage went up and that's your raise for the year?

by raising minimum wage you are guaranteeing prices to go up. we need prices to go down, debt to go down, spending to go down.

sure it will help in the short run, but in the end, it did nothing.

we need to force the government to cut spending, there is no other long term solution. raising taxes, tax cuts, raising minimum wage, extending benefits, increasing benefits will do nothing but break us in the end. look what is just beginning in Europe, the government doesn't have the funds to pay for all they promised, and this is just the beginning.

sorry for the conservative rant!!

[Wickabee]

But the value that is set is artificial. Unless there are no other workers that would do the same exact for less than $9.00, the minimum value is completely bogus and creates distortions in the marketplace. What are some possible consequences for being forced to overpay your least skilled workers?

It's not overpaying if it's still not enough to really live on. Anyone doing any job deserves to afford to live. Minimum wage barely does that, and you call it overpayment.
No offense, but that's kind of inuman.

[Wickabee]

I think when minimum wage goes up, every employer should have to give a raise to reflect the need to minimum wage to go up.
just to say a job at mcdonalds, you get hired in at 7.50, work for six months get a .50 raise, work another 6 months get $1 raise, after 2 years you are making $10.50 an hour, minimum wage goes up, the new guy is making the same as you now.

and just to say they didn't hire anyone and after 1 year you made $9 and hour and minimum wage went up and that's your raise for the year?

by raising minimum wage you are guaranteeing prices to go up. we need prices to go down, debt to go down, spending to go down.

sure it will help in the short run, but in the end, it did nothing.

we need to force the government to cut spending, there is no other long term solution. raising taxes, tax cuts, raising minimum wage, extending benefits, increasing benefits will do nothing but break us in the end. look what is just beginning in Europe, the government doesn't have the funds to pay for all they promised, and this is just the beginning.

sorry for the conservative rant!!

Heard it before. Watched to see if it was true and would happen. It wasn't and didn't.

Look, you can speculate all you want, at the end of the day almost the exact same thing was done and our economy is fine (comparitively). Many people said all the same things and predicted doom and gloom and none of it happened. NONE.
That's all there is to it for me.

[tpeichel]

Heard it before. Watched to see if it was true and would happen. It wasn't and didn't.

Look, you can speculate all you want, at the end of the day almost the exact same thing was done and our economy is fine (comparitively). Many people said all the same things and predicted doom and gloom and none of it happened. NONE.
That's all there is to it for me.

Does the Canadian minimum wage apply to teenagers?

[Wickabee]

Does the Canadian minimum wage apply to teenagers?

BC used to have a partial wage for anyone who had worked less than 500 hours, but I think they did away with that when they raise the min. Also, I do think waitresses have a lower min wage than everyone else. I forget the particulars on that.