It's $7.25 nationwide, with the highest state level being $9.32 in Washington.

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100
2 votes
Jun 16, 2015

Could people explain why they feel it shouldn't be raised? I don't really understand why people have that opinion.

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100
main reply
2 votes,
Jun 16, 2015

The general concept is that if you are willing to put in a 40 hour work week at a job you should be able to support yourself but the catch is that it is too expensive to do that at current minimum wage.

The general opposition is that the minimum wage should be terrible to encourage people to want better, the catch here is that it is too hard to escape the bottom tiers of the pay scale, the idea of mobility that America is supposed to represent is fading away. The counterpoint here is that unemployment should be low but minimum wage should be a living wage (on average this would be close to 12/hr in many places).

The usual way this discussion goes is the rich people want to demonize the poor people as being lazy as a reason to justify not raising the minimum wage, however this argument doesn't hold water when we are talking about people putting in a full work week already. The other opposition point is that it will be bad for businesses, and reduce hiring. History has proven that this is not true, but it is still used as an argument somehow.

The people who are for a raise want to demonize the rich people because they aren't willing to share the wealth that labor creates. Minimum wage has been stagnant while productivity has risen, resulting in a huge disparity between the laborers and the owners and the owners reap significant benefits without giving back to the community via better wages (which is what the economy needs to work properly) even though we get more "stuff" produced.

The heart of the argument is the failure of trickle down economics, nothing trickles down. The fact is the businesses that make the money have the choice of keeping the all of the profits or giving some extra to employees so they have a living wage. They aren't taking money from people (so it isn't literally a zero-sum game), but they are taking away opportunity for growth and claiming that the mere fact that they bother to employee people should make society worship the greatness of the gesture and promptly shut up.

The real solution is not just raising minimum wage, but also fighting to bring down costs so that more people can afford to survive AND buy stuff AND save to get ahead in life. Right now people can't afford to buy things, can't afford to save and can barely afford to survive, if even that all the while being told that they are worthless, lazy people who should praise their highly profitable employers for allowing them the pleasure of struggling to not be able to survive.

If we want a country with a real middle class, we have to make the middle class possible again, instead we see companies laying off and re-hiring at wages that are much lower and keeping many positions below a living wage yet above the minimum wage in order to reap greater profits.

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100
1 vote,
Jun 16, 2015

I never really got how giving money to people with money so people without money would have more money made sense. So you're basically saying that people who don't want minimum wage raised are either misinformed about the state of the poor or actively spreading disinformation about the poor for their own benefit?

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100
2 votes,
Jun 16, 2015

It isn't so much as disinformation as it is a mantra among the already wealthy. They view poor people as lazy, undeserving slobs who didn't work hard enough to be a millionaire because doing so was easy for the already wealthy in many cases.

The already wealthy have no concept of what it is like to be poor and how difficult escaping that corner of the world is.

As far as prices raising due to minimum wage increases, this is caused by corporate greed. The businesses want X profit margin or higher so if the cost of making goods goes up then the price to sell it for goes up to keep profits where they want them. In this way the already wealthy take opportunity for growth away from the not wealthy, which reduces economic mobility.

The whole point is that the already wealthy can handle not making 5000% profit and instead they can do pretty well at 4000% profit while sharing that 1000% profit with their workers. This would create a robust economy, but the already wealthy don't need a robust economy since they already have their money no one else matters.

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0
0 votes,
Jun 16, 2015

Ok, thanks! This has been very enlightening. I really think it's a shame people don''t work together to improve the world more.

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0
0 votes,
Jun 16, 2015

No This is why every time the wage is raised those working for that wage loose jobs, 2nd Prices raise in order to compensate for the higher cost of labor so all that really occurs is prices go up so the minimum wage worker really gets no benefit they make a few dollars more but that money is spent on the raise in the cost of good consumed.

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0
User voted No.
main reply
0 votes,
Feb 21, 2016

Let's say we raise the min wage to $15 an hour, what will happen. Well, assuming the business don't automate their job, (fast food is already looking at burger making machines and they are close to building them) the guy that is already making $15 and hour will expect a raise by at least that same amount the person above him will expect the same. Of course this will drive up prices, which means in a short time those making min wage will be in the same boat they are in now.

The easy way to look at this is to take minimum wage to the extreme and see what would happen, say $50 and hour or about $100,000 a year. If a person is already making 2X min wage wouldn't they want 2X the new min or $100 or are you saying that experience and knowledge doesn't count? And if you pay them less than that aren't you just cutting their wages?

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100
1 vote
Jun 16, 2015

Would like to hear some reasonable arguments for a minimum wage increase since 2012 Census results tell us that:

91% of those 16 and older who are living in poverty either do not work or do not work full time.

Of the 91% and again according to Census results; 66% do not work at all and 25% work less than full time.

A secondary issue with minimum wage increases has to do with cost of living.

Recently there was a piece posted showing how the US minimum wage was lower than a dozen other countries; I will compare two of them and with luck, spur additional discussion regarding any benefit of minimum wage increases.

Canada which is #10 on this list and our nearest neighbor has an average 17.54% less disposable monthly income after taxes. Local purchasing power in the US is 26.28% greater than in Canada – meaning we have the ability to purchase 26.28% more goods and services than our Canadian counterparts.

France which is #2 on the list has an average of 18.03% less disposable monthly income after taxes. Local purchasing power in the US is 44.76% greater than in France – meaning we have the ability to purchase 44.76% more goods and services than our French counterparts.

Yes dollar-wise these countries may give you more for minimum wage, but at what cost are these minimum wage increases afforded?

The Canadian minimum wage is roughly 21% greater than our minimum wage, yet we have 17.54% more disposable income and the ability to purchase 26.28% more goods and services. The French breakdown is even worse since their minimum wage is roughly 29% greater, yet we have 18.03% more disposable income and the ability to purchase a whopping 44.76% more goods and services.

One last comment; Of the last 17 minimum wage increases, 9 were followed by a minor increase in poverty rates and 8 were followed by a minor decrease which would tend to substantiate economists assertion that minimum wage increases neither improve or worsen poverty levels.

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100
main reply
2 votes,
Jun 16, 2015

I don't think that comparing the disposable incomes between the US and Canada and the US and France is fair. You don't take into account that while both Canada and France have higher minimum wages, they also have higher taxes and different social programs which offset that tax. When analyzing personal finances, the tax structure has a strong effect on disposable income and must be controlled for to analyze the data fairly. Ultimately, it's not fair to analyze disposable income when income is treated so differently among those countries.

A more fair comparison is between states. Individuals in different states are under exactly the same federal tax laws and individual state taxes are mostly uniform. This controls for the extreme variable of tax structure in analyzing the effect of the minimum wage on disposable income.

Looking at disposable income as a function of minimum wage laws, using per capita disposible income by state and minimum wage laws by state we see the exact opposite effect from what you describe:

Average difference in disposable income versus the national average:
States with higher minimum wage than federal: +4.5%
States with same minimum wage as federal: -0.5%
States with lower minimum wage than federal: -2%
States with no minimum wage laws: -13%

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100
opinion
1 vote
Oct 16, 2015

I am not an American. In fact I'm an European living and working in Asia right now. I believe I have a pretty broad perspective on a variety of things, so let me explain my choice here.

I believe that it should NOT be increased. US education system is not the best, only a fraction of undergrads find a job after the studies and the rest are forced to get a graduate degree.

Increasing the minimum wage allows the graduates to get a job that can be easily taken away from them by automating the system or in various different ways.

Instead of the increase of minimum wage some things should be fixed first, like the education, and various taxation, as well as legalization of various things that could lead to a bigger income for the economy.

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0
User voted Yes.
0 votes
Oct 8, 2015

Yes.

The minimum wage has not tracked productivity for decades. People struggle to make ends meet due to rising living standards. That has increased inequality, increased credit, led to market shocks, and harmed consumer confidence.

A reasonable, but rapid, raising of the minimum wage must occur in order to reduce inequality, spur growth, increase consumer confidence, and reduce American debt.

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0
0 votes
Oct 17, 2015

I feel like it should, so that more minimum wage workers trying to keep their families alive can do this.

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