My thoughts in the minimum wage...

[jjrjsa]

I think it's a joke right now. The MW should be able to keep people above the poverty line, I say raise it to at least 10 bucks an hour. NOW, what about the poor small businesses that will go bankrupt if this happens? Well, you know those billions of dollars we gave in subsidies to big corporations (Like oil)? Give it to small businesses as "Minimum wage relief" or something of the sort!

End corporate welfare and lift up the working poor without fucking over mom/pop stores in a single bound. Sounds good to me!

Good plan or am I missing something? I just think a slow raise from 5 and change to 7 and change ain't going to matter much to the working poor. Or at the very least it is a lot less than what we could/should be doing.

[bluestateguy]

1. Any business that goes under because of an increase in the min. wage

is probably a business that is on the verge of failure anyway; a business that is going to fail soon anyway.

The minimum wage was raised in 1996 and unemplpoyment went down.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Bingo! n/t

[bleedingheart]

4. thank you!

if your business success hinges solely on paying your employees squat..then you aren't much of a business person....every company I have ever encountered that paid poorly had high turnover and poor customer satisfaction...

[jjrjsa]

5. Very good point. I am talking about a significant increase though...

I think employment stats are worth SHIT until you eliminate the "working poor". What good is it to have X number of new jobs, if Y number of the people who get them will still live in poverty?

[bluethruandthru]

3. Not a bad idea!

and welcome to DU! :hi:

[Sammy Pepys]

6. I am admittedly ambivalent on the minimum wage...

I think raising it is a good thing, but it's not going to change the station of people making it very much. Furthermore, I don't think anyone making minimum wage is going to wait around for it to go up.

I think if you raise it to something like $10 an hour, then you're going to cause some problems. I think you will see the layoffs or hiring freezes that people say will happen if you raise it a nickel or whatever. "Minimum wage relief" is probably not going to convince businesses to hire people they think are too expensive to employ to begin with.

I agree with you on ending corporate welfare though....right on.

[kentuck]

7. The whole argument is a joke, imo...

Because any arguement about tying the cost of living to a minimum wage is a false argument and unworkable. If a person makes minimum wage and the cost of food goes up $10 a week or his gas prices go up by $10 a week, then an small adjustment can bring that person back to a place where he is no longer losing ground. However, if his heating bill goes up by a $100 a month or his rent goes up by $200 a month, a small COLA adjustment does little to counter such a huge increase in standard of living expenses. And that is what has happened. If a person's total expenses go up by $300 a month and he has gone for 9 years without any assistance, then he or she is in a terrible hole. And that is where a lot of people are nowadays...