ack. it's early. I meant to post this to an existing thread.

[cali]

Don't even know how I did this. Anyway, it's about raising the minimum wage to 21 something an hour.

owners who couldn't possibly pay that. They would go under. And what about small non-profits? Hell, there are people who head up small non-profits who make less than that.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. See what? Pay what? I'm missing something here..

[malaise]

2. So maybe free labor would solve their problems

If you can't pay a living wage, you shouldn't be in business.

[cali]

4. right. because there's nothing whatsover between

existing minimum wage and 21 dollars an hour.

[safeinOhio]

3. Results from rising incomes would include

a huge increase in business for small business and higher donations for non-profits.

One thing Henry Ford got right, increase wages result in increase sales.

Low income earners tend to spend almost all of their wages. Any increase to that group would boost the economy quickly.

The biggest problem for small business is low demand, not the cost of wages.

[cali]

9. Henry Ford didn't run a small business

I'm all for raising the minimum wage but I don't see how raising it to 21 dollars an hour would work.

And I know several businesses in my area where demand outstrips production but the owners couldn't maintain quality and up production.

Down the road from me is a brewery that's just been rated by ratebeer as the best in the world, but owner Shaun Hill has no interest in becoming much larger.

http://www.hillfarmstead.com/main/

I'm certain that this place couldn't afford to pay a $21 an hour wag.

http://www.highfieldscomposting.org/

Or this place:

http://www.cellarsatjasperhill.com/

I know Linda couldn't afford that wage and thus our wonderful bookstore would no longer exist:

http://www.galaxybookshop.com/

or:

http://www.petesgreens.com/

or:

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/staff-directory.html

All valuable, socially responsible local businesses.

Maybe if there was some mechanism that exempted businesses with under 50 employees (arbitrary number there) or a tiered system.

[safeinOhio]

13. We could start with a dollar raise.

Last year I worked a part time minimum wage job. The turnover alone must have cost a bunch. One girl that worked there was only able to pay the interest on her student loan and nothing else.

[cali]

14. Absolutely. I'm all for raising the Federal minimum substantially.

[safeinOhio]

15. Agreed

I would like to see wages tied to profits and CEO pay. That job I worked for minimum wage was for a major oil company that paid the CEO 28 million that year

[htuttle]

5. It's $70 a week

If a business can't cover an extra $70 a week per employee at the same time that it's starving them on minimum wage, it's doing it wrong. How much are the owners of these poverty-stricken businesses taking home themselves?

You can't live on minimum wage. In many places, not even two minimum wage incomes are enough to support even the basics (shelter, food, transportation...forget health care).

Every time there is talk about raising the minimum wage, we hear these sad stories of mom and pop businesses that can't afford to pay more. Most of the time, these stories get spread and paid for by much bigger, wealthier corporations that just don't want to pay more.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Same with paying for Obamacare. I think it's more about whether or not the

owner truly cares about people or not. Most who do are probably already helping out with healthcare. We know a small business owner who is loaded. A huge home and property, a million in cash on hand, a beach house, a boat, 6 big vacations a year, a $150k motor home, etc.etc. And he is having a conniption fit over healthcare for his 69 employees.

[cali]

11. huh?

Minimum wage here in Vermont is $8.60. The difference between $21 and 8.60 is 12.40.

A forty hour work week gross wage at 8.60 an hour is $344. At $21 an hour it's $840 a week.

[htuttle]

16. At the time, I thought you were talking about raising it to $9, not $21

[htuttle]

6. Oh.

$21 would be nice, but it won't happen unless worker cooperatives outnumber privately held corporations someday.

Or the dollar is worth much less...

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. And what do these owners manage to pay themselves?

ETA; Just to clarify, $21.75 p/hr is a gross annual salary of $45,240. That leaves a net income of about $30,000, or $600 p/wk take home pay. Just about enough to live in a small apartment and drive a used car. You live in Vermont, so that figure would have to be adjusted down to accommodate the state income tax.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Everyone needs a 'moderate income'

$11 million annual salary is “modest,” says bailed-out bankster Chairman



Only in the banking world could you expect to hear such nonsense as the chair of a bank suggesting that an $11 milion dollar annual salary (including bonus) is “modest.”

The Royal Bank of Scotland Chairman is trying to suggest that because other bank CEOs are paid even more, his CEO’s salary of nearly $2m a year, and potential bonus of over $9m, are “modest.”

http://americablog.com/2013/02/chairman-of-bailed-out-bank-multi-million-dollar-pay.html

I think $11 dollars an hour is a modest minimum hourly wage and equals out to what it should be due to inflation.


Countries that have mammon wage around $22 also have high taxes but with benefits such as paid sick leave, vacation pay, health care, etc but the individual is taxed accordingly for those services.

[malaise]

17. If $11 million is modest then

$20,000 a year is slave labor

[lynne]

12. You're right. Heck, I'm worried about what the $9. proposal -

- will do to the non-profit I work for. Budgets are determined far in advance and much of what we have to work with is contributions and grants. We have quite a few part-time positions - most of which are held by students - that pay a little over $8. per hour. We have no "wiggle room" in our budget and I fear what will happen is that we will cut back part-time worker hours and use our volunteers to make up the difference in work load.

There is a segment of workers that will either lose jobs or see a reduction in work hours and income whenever there is an increase in the minimum wage. It's always been that way and I've seen it before. Unfortunately, it usually is those who can least afford it. I guess you can call them "collateral damage".

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Here in Oregon it is $8.95 right now. $9.19 in Washington. Our non profits are dong fine.

I notice that while you speak of the part timers costing too much, you do not think to include the top earner's salaries.

[lynne]

19. Please don't read things I didn't write into my post -

- I didn't say that part timers were "costing too much". I'm talking about non-profit budgets and how part time, low wage jobs/hours may be jeopardized with a minimum wage hike.

Our non-profits appear to be doing fine to those who aren't privy to the budget and how it is divided per department. We rely a lot on volunteers now and will probably have to rely on them more in the future. Volunteers are vital but recognize that their contribution essentially takes away work that would be a paying job for someone else. Pretty sure they have volunteers in Oregon and Washington, too.

I didn't speak about top earners salaries as they don't make minimum wage and that's what this thread is about.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. But your claim was that your budge is very tight, no room for any extra pay for some....

but again you simply refuse to share how much the top earners are being paid. Of course it is not minimum wage, that is the entire point. You say ''what will happen is that we will cut back part-time worker hours" as if the idea of a full timer taking a cut is absolutely impossible.
You say you can not survive paying what we already pay. But you don't say, even when asked, how much of the budget the top earners are paid. Those salaries are also part of the budget, perhaps why they are so tight.
If I don't know how much the top people make, then I don't know how tight the budget is. You are against a better minimum wage for those at the bottom, a wage we out west already pay on the basis of tight budget.