$15.00 Minimum Wage

[mark46th]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...402-story.html

Apparently, everyone should be paid for merely existing. One of the problems with illegal immigrants coming from socialist countries is the expectation that the government will provide for them, either directly or indirectly. They don't seem to understand the idea that if you want to make a better life, you had better have an education or a talent in demand. If you don't like your job or the pay, leave, find something better. Self-responsibility is a principle that is rapidly fading.

[Lionshare]

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[blacksmoke]

I firmly believe in a "living wage" but I don't know that $15 an hour for anything is the correct number. Dont know what the cost of living in Seattle is compared with the rest of America but if its as expensive as LA or NYC maybe thats not very much.

[MR2]

Originally Posted by blacksmoke

I firmly believe in a "living wage" but I don't know that $15 an hour for anything is the correct number. Dont know what the cost of living in Seattle is compared with the rest of America but if its as expensive as LA or NYC maybe thats not very much.

Maybe the bar for the definition of what's a "Living Wage" has been set too high.

Sould living wage provide the ability to clothe, feed, educate a squad sized family and a SUV to transport them to Las Vegas or Disney World? Will $15/hr still give the them free food stamps, marajuana, and health care? How many big screen TVs and cell phones should a living wage buy?

[The Reaper]

As has been noted, an entry wage should not be your lifetime goal.

It is a temporary measure which should increase as your duties and responsibilities do.

Most people who take entry level jobs are applying for their first job.

Subsequent jobs should build upon that experience and be for higher wages.

Unemployment in Seattle is headed up, and automation to replace workers is going to be booming.

TR

[blacksmoke]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

A couple points here

Seattle is very expensive to live in.

Where they got the $15 an hour is not random. In 1968 minimum wage had the highest buying power ever. If minimum wage had kept up with inflation it would now be $15 an hour.

This is a symptom of a larger problem. We have exported our high paying industrial jobs out of this country to China while encouraging illegal worked to come in and cut wages for everyone. Raising the minimum wage is treating the symptom not the disease.

I agree. Wages have been affected by forces at an aggregate level outside the average person's power. TR's comments are also correct, for the most part people shouldn't be working "entry" level jobs well into family hood, but the lack of otherwise higher paying jobs is another symptom of our economy. Though still in college my part time job is as a security guard which fortunately for me pays pretty well. I am finishing college while applying for area for the fourth time. Not that a police job is an entitlement, but for every position available there is roughly 10-20 applicants, most of whom in my position either in school or some lower paying security type job. There is simply a lack of higher paying jobs available. One could start their own business, work overtime, etc. but even that is not always available. I see MOST of the people I work with as decent people, fairly competent and hard working. Should their job pay more money so that they can afford a family and the basics? As in raising wages? That to me is the main question. Earners on the high end of the pay scale and corporations will pay tax dollars for benefits for the poor anyhow. Should we cut most or all benefits for a purely classical economy? Or should we continue to prop up the portion of our society that is consistently underperforming?

[DIYPatriot]

And then there's this:

After hearing about a study that claimed income-- to a certain level-- directly affects one's emotional well-being, the founder of a Seattle-based credit card processing company announced Monday that he will take a large salary cut so he can increase the pay for each employee to at least $70,000 a year.

The New York Times reported that Dan Price, the head of Gravity Payments, told his 120-person staff about the plan after talking to friends about the difficulties of making $40,000 a year.

"As much as I'm a capitalist, there is nothing in the market that is making me do it," he told the paper.

Price said he will cut his nearly $1 million salary to $70,000 and use about 80 percent of the business’ anticipated profit to increase the salary of about 70 employees. About 30 employees, including the lowest-paid clerk, will see their salaries increase to the $70,000 threshold.

Full Article

[sinjefe]

Originally Posted by blacksmoke

I agree. Wages have been affected by forces at an aggregate level outside the average person's power. TR's comments are also correct, for the most part people shouldn't be working "entry" level jobs well into family hood, but the lack of otherwise higher paying jobs is another symptom of our economy. Though still in college my part time job is as a security guard which fortunately for me pays pretty well. I am finishing college while applying for area for the fourth time. Not that a police job is an entitlement, but for every position available there is roughly 10-20 applicants, most of whom in my position either in school or some lower paying security type job. There is simply a lack of higher paying jobs available. One could start their own business, work overtime, etc. but even that is not always available. I see MOST of the people I work with as decent people, fairly competent and hard working. Should their job pay more money so that they can afford a family and the basics? As in raising wages? That to me is the main question. Earners on the high end of the pay scale and corporations will pay tax dollars for benefits for the poor anyhow. Should we cut most or all benefits for a purely classical economy? Or should we continue to prop up the portion of our society that is consistently underperforming?

Take an economics class before you buy into the "living wage" nonsense.

Economics 101: The price of something increases, the demand decreases. Waving a magic wand and telling businesses to pay more doesn't mean that the business suddenly has the extra money to pay the new wage. One of two things happens. The price of his goods increase to pay the new wage or he hires less workers. The most likely outcome, as many studies have shown, is the later since a business raising prices has to then compete with other businesses who may not raise their prices.

That is why mandating minimum wages has a net result of fewer jobs.

[Hand]

These fast food employees who are out striking and demanding "living wages" might want to shut their entitled mouths and get back to work.

ROBOT CHEF THAT CAN COOK ANY OF 2,000 MEALS AT TAP OF A BUTTON TO GO ON SALE IN 2017
APRIL 14, 2015 MATT BURGESS
Stirring, adjusting the temperature, pouring and adding ingredients are all basic skills for a chef but they’re slightly harder to achieve for a robot.

However, that’s not the case for this pair of robotic hands, which could be set to revolutionise cooking and kitchen operations.

At present it’s able to knock up a crab bisque, which it creates by replicating the exact movements of a professional chef.

Creator Moley Robotics says that when the commercial version launches in 2017 users will be able to select one of 2,000 dishes from their phone and the robotic hands in the automated kitchen will make it.

If the robot is successful, it could mean we can simply tap a button on our phone to have a meal prepared in time for us coming home from work.

Everything in the automated kitchen has been designed and built from scratch. This allows the hands to be able to pick up and put down utensils, stir food a pan, and then safely turn a hob to the correct temperature.

Source

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by mark46th

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...402-story.html

Apparently, everyone should be paid for merely existing. One of the problems with illegal immigrants coming from socialist countries is the expectation that the government will provide for them, either directly or indirectly. They don't seem to understand the idea that if you want to make a better life, you had better have an education or a talent in demand. If you don't like your job or the pay, leave, find something better. Self-responsibility is a principle that is rapidly fading.

LOL you called them "immigrants". Used to be wetbacks, offensive and made the criminals sound bad. Then it was "illegal aliens", offensive and made the criminals sound bad.

Now they are illegal "immigrants"....

How about we call them exactly what they are, criminals that cross our borders.

Criminals works for me.

Put a bounty on them and send them all home on a bus.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by DIYPatriot

And then there's this:



Full Article

It's a VERY bold move.

I pay my staff to the very best of my ability, but we're not in a position to pay the small number of unskilled/semi-skilled staff that much, but the majority of my staff would earn more.

I strongly believe that by my taking a risk and tightening my belt to gain and retain(retention of the right attitude/SME is the key I reckon) helps lead to a key competitive advantage over my competitors to outmaneuver and out perform them.

We've got a pretty egalitarian team, but someone with time and money intensive acquired skills deserves a higher level of compensation for a higher level of measurable contribution to company performance.

I reckon the kind gesture in the article is a bit short sighted in that it could put increasing pressure on wages for skilled work due to the lack of internal wage differential.

Kind hearted distortion, is still distortion.

With that huge increase, I wouldn't tolerate a single second of idle time from those who benefit the most.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

As has been noted, an entry wage should not be your lifetime goal.

It is a temporary measure which should increase as your duties and responsibilities do.

Most people who take entry level jobs are applying for their first job.

Subsequent jobs should build upon that experience and be for higher wages.

Unemployment in Seattle is headed up, and automation to replace workers is going to be booming.

TR

One of the things I think is clearly lacking in the 99%/"living wage" narrative is how the fast food brands are being heavily targeted.

Right now we just had a attempted strike on branded franchises down here(McDonald's locally owned by local New Zealanders).

When I was a kid, McDonalds was where high school kids got part-time jobs(often their first employment), and a few adults worked their way up the food chain to management and franchise ownership(for the hard chargers).

*High school kids got pocket money
*College kids worked summers to make money for school
*Some adults had decent full time jobs
*A few adults achieved the American Dream through effort in their own franchise

Now the poor fiscal/monetary/trade mismanagement by government over a number of years has led those mostly temporary jobs to be arbitrarily deemed the new blue collar jobs to fully support individuals and families.

What was designed(or maybe shaped) as filling a void(small number of adults, large number of young students) is now resulting in a square peg being smashed into a round hole.....and being blamed for the problem.

It's like blaming a sustenance farmer(times thousands) for not producing enough food when the government has diverted the river upon which you are reliant for irrigation.

Minimum wage employers aren't the cause, but they are being made somehow responsible for the effect.

[MR2]

The reason that Unions are interested in raising the Minimum Wage is not so much out of altruistic concern, but rather the fact that most union contracts are tied to the minimum wage...

Minimum Wage goes up, Union Wages goes up... along with the Cost of Living, putting the Minimum Wage Earners back to Square One. Oh, but what about those on a Fixed Income?

[Box]

I'm going to need WAY more than 15 an hour before I can live on it...
...I have some things I'm quite accustomed to and 15 an hour is NOT enough to cover my over head. I am going to need closer to six figures a year to live comfortably.

In fact, if my job forces me to move to Colorado or Washington then I am going to need an additional stipend to pay for recreational marijuana.
This 15 dollar figure seems quite arbitrary to me; I think maybe they meant "50" and hour and it just sounded like 15 an hour because they were busy uodating Facebook instead of paying attention to salary arbitration.

...make it 50 and I'm all in.

[Last hard class]

I am going to stay out of the economics argument. But I will add this:
The real drivers and organizers of the $15.00 per hour movement consider this a civil rights issue. You can take from that what you will.

Don’t want to become the local Walmart Greeter before the age of 70? Educate yourself!
A lot of people on this board have recently been lamenting the time they have wasted learning to read and write. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself on the dole 10 years from now.

Or you can live by this mantra:
“The world needs ditch diggers too”


My advice:

Don’t be complacent. The world will change, and the skills required to succeed will change with it. I know a few people my age that lost their factory jobs. After watching the news for 30 years they just didn't see it coming.



http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...90790515,d.aWw
George Thoroughly Bad

The landlady said, "You got the rent money yet?",
I said, "No, can't find no job"
Therefore I ain't got no money to pay the rent
She said "I don't believe you're tryin' to find no job"
Said "I seen you today you was standin' on a corner,
leaning up against a post"
I said "But I'm tired, I've been walkin' all day"
She said "That don't confront me,
long as I get my money next Friday"
Now next Friday come I didn't have the rent,
and out the door I went



LHC