What should the min. wage be and how should we raise it?

[neoteric lefty]

When I ask "how should we raise it", I mean should we bump it up immediately, raise it a small ammount a year until it reaches it goal, or some other method. The minimum wage is a huge issue in America facing millions of workers and I wish we would start doing something about it.

[Cobalt Violet]

1. Raise it fast. Raise it a lot.

Hell heating oil jumped 28% this season. Food is going up. Gasoline.

Plus we have to make up for all the years that it hasn't been raised.

And how much has healtcare costs gone up since the last time it was raised?

[Sugarbleus]

2. Raise it NOW...all at once to at least to $10....

$7.00 is a joke!!

[jonolover]

3. Fast (read more)

I say fast because if we take too much time increasing to a specific goal, inflation might catch up and the slow raise will be worthless. I am not saying raise it in a month. But, it should be raised quickly enough to overcome the inflation effect.

[neoteric lefty]

7. I think we should decide a goal to reach in the next two to three years

and then raise it yealy until we hit the goal. Then we need to keep it there by raising it yealy according to CPI and inflation indexes. I am not an expert about the min. wage, but I would say it would need to be at least $8-9 in this day and age.

[WMliberal]

4. at least $8 an hour immediately.

and 25 cents per hour every six months afterward.

[punpirate]

5. Comparing the inflation-weighted value...

... of the minimum wage today to minimum wage in the late `70s, it needs to be raised to about $8.10/hr.

The idea of incremental increases is to appease economists who say sudden increases are inflationary, but the previous means of doing so didn't bring benefits quickly enough. Of course, the longer we wait, the larger the disparity becomes, and the more inclined legislators are to spread out insufficient increases over several years.

There's no reason why half could not be implemented immediately, and the remainder in one year, say $6.65 a month from passage and raised to $8.10 one year hence.

[deadmessengers]

6. I don't think it should be a national issue.

I agree that the minimum wage should be increased, but the local cost of living needs to be factored in. Consider the differences in the cost of living in rural areas of West Virginia or Mississippi, and cities like New York or Boston. While neither of them could be considered "well off", the minimum-wage earner in WV is a little better able to meet their basic needs on what they earn.

[neoteric lefty]

9. good point about doing it state by state

I haven't thought of it in that way.

[deadmessengers]

15. Even state by state isn't enough.

Take my home state of Georgia for example - someone living in South Georgia and someone living in the city of Atlanta have very different needs. It needs to be mandated at the federal level, but with a local (perhaps on the county or even zip code level) cost-of-living factor.

[6th Borough]

29. Zip code level would be way too small.

Perhaps county...if instituted on a zip code level in population dense areas, you would see businesses moving 1/4th of a mile in order to pay a lower wage.

[Cobalt Violet]

16. It already is done this way.

The states can't go below the federal limit but they can go higher. My state is $6.75. But we have such a high cost of living a single person earning that working full time would be homeless.

[whistle]

8. It's been 12 years since the last minimum wage increase, so it is long...

...overdue. Even with the inflation rate being very low, the cost of living has increased by about 23% before all the oil and energy cost rises. So, my vote is for a $7.80 minimum wage to be phased in over the next 36 months in five increments of $0.30 per hour and four increments of $0.25 per hour. Then the minimum wage should be indexed to the CPI annually for adults 18 years old and older. No more subsidizing fast food businesses and Wal Mart.

[DieboldMustDie]

13. The minimum wage was increased from $4.25 to $4.75 in 1996...

and to $5.15 in 1997, so it's been 7 years since the last increase. Nevertheless, adjusted for inflation, minimum wage is about 40% below its all time high in 1968.

[Cicero]

50. Careful what you wish for...

When the minimum wage was instituted in 1938, it was 25 cents an hour. Factoring in for inflation, in 2003 dollars that would only be $3.25.

Later,

[superblah]

23. My plan

Raise it to $8 an hour now, and increase it $1 an hour every 12 months until we hit 12.

Really, if Kerry could so that he would be reelected in 2008 in a heartbeat.

[DieboldMustDie]

10. It would have to go to $8.71 just to get us back to where we were in 1968.

I'd suggest 10% annual increases for the next 7 or 8 years, which would get it up to about $10 or $11.

[Cicero]

51. To get us back to when it was started in 1938, the min wage would only be

...$3.25 in 2003 dollars (based on the initial rate of 25 cents per hour).

Be careful what you wish for...

Later,

[chookie]

11. Why are high taxes bad but low wages good?

If His Chimperial Highness wishes to put more money into Americans' pockets, how about paying them fairly?

We're talking about a minimum wage, while they're PLANNING a guest worker program. Why? To make wage slavery not only legal, but standard.

"Minimum wage" is not only practiced among the most poorly paid, but many working class and struggling middle class folk will tell you THEY are getting "minimum wage" -- working people don't matter shit these days. The more vulnerable we are, the better for them....

US Air (here in Pittsburgh) just cut its workers pay by 27%! These are the folk who fly you safely to your destination. These are the folk who see that things run smoothly at 35,000 feet. I, for one, appreciate what they do and want them to be paid well. But to hear Rick Santorum talk about it, people who stand up to be paid fairly are destroying our country.

The cornerstone of Bush's "economic plan" is this: American workers better get used to earning and living on a LOT less than they used to, or else. To make up for this loss of income, I guess we are just supposed to sit back and get our thrills vicariously by watching millionaires and daring entrepreneurs on tv.

Fuck that.

Sorry to have not addressed your specific question, but hey, this is politics :-)

Bush? Or Chimp?

[Selwynn]

24. P R O F I T

profit > people

[chookie]

31. Indeed

There is more disparity in wealth in USA than in the third world. This disparity is being shown to be the model of "democracy", and most people "get it" even though many working or middle class Bush supporters do not.

When His Chimperial Highness talks about "freedom", decent Americans think about being able to speak your mind without consequences, or otherwise do what you will. But what HCH means is "wildcat capitalism from America", freedom to run off with the spoils without criticism or comment.

Progress has traditionally involved visionaries devising solutions to future problems -- but alas, the current foreign policy is to use military force to foist impossible agendas on other cultures and blame "terrierists" if they fail.

[TahitiNut]

12. In four 9-month steps ...

... and then indexed for inflation.

March 1, 2005 - from $5.15 to $6.15
January 1, 2006 - from $6.15 to $6.75
October 1, 2006 - from $6.75 to $7.00
July 1, 2007 - from $7.00 to $7.50 and indexed for inflation each year on July 1 from then on.

[kokomo]

26. I worked for $1.25 at McDonald's in 1962 and was "living large!"

Minimum ages have only increased little more than FOUR TIMES since 1962 but the menu items at McDonalds has increased at least EIGHT TIMES. I had more spending power as a poor college student then than I had years later making much more. My cigs were $0.30 and gasoline also $0.30 a gallon. My almost new VW Beetle was $1300, and a date with both of us eating a filet mignon dinner followed by a movie was $12.00

In 1962:
Regular hamburger was $0.15
Cheeseburger 0.19
Small freedom fries 0.12
Small milkshake 0.20
Soft Drink 0.12
Coffee 0.10

Most customers had a whole meal for less than 50 CENTS, and there was no state sales tax then either! Of course McDonald's didn't spend as much on advertising/contests, there were no "Happy Meals" nor playgrounds, no drive-thru window, just a simple menu and food was cooked (fresh not frozen food) only minutes before it was served, no pre-cooking then microwaving later (microwave not invented yet).

Minimum wage really has not kept up with inflation.

[mrbill]

35. my hamburger theory sez $11.25

The Hamburger Formula

In 1965, the minimum wage was $1.25.

Mrbill was a high school student with his first summer job watering the fairways at the local municpal golf course. The following year job got outsourced to a timer.

A tasty cheeseburger at the local mom-and-pop drive-in place was 30-cents and sales tax hadn't been invented yet in Texas.

In todays market, mom-and-pop are gone but a DairyQueen Hunger-Buster with cheese will be used for the comparison cheeseburger.

The 2004 Hunger-Buster with cheese retails for $2.49 plus .21 tax = $2.70.

Thirty cents to $2.70, that's a nine-fold increase.

So $1.25 x 9 = $11.25 to retain the same purchasing power.

[TahitiNut]

36. Fed Min Wage - 1962: $1.15; 1963: $1.25; 1967: $1.40

Remember, there are also state minimum wage laws that can make the minimum wage higher for workers in that state.

In the table below, increases are shown. One Legislative Act was often responsible for 2 or more "increases" in the minimum wage.

See http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/chart.htm

......Nominal.....2000
......Dollars..Dollars
1938 $0.25 $3.05
1939 $0.30 $3.72 <--increase
1940 $0.30 $3.69
1941 $0.30 $3.51
1942 $0.30 $3.17
1943 $0.30 $2.99
1944 $0.30 $2.94
1945 $0.40 $3.83 <--increase
1946 $0.40 $3.53
1947 $0.40 $3.09
1948 $0.40 $2.86
1949 $0.40 $2.89
1950 $0.75 $5.36 <--increase
1951 $0.75 $4.97
1952 $0.75 $4.87
1953 $0.75 $4.84
1954 $0.75 $4.80
1955 $0.75 $4.82
1956 $1.00 $6.33 <--increase
1957 $1.00 $6.13
1958 $1.00 $5.96
1959 $1.00 $5.92
1960 $1.00 $5.82
1961 $1.15 $6.62 <--increase
1962 $1.15 $6.56
1963 $1.25 $7.03 <--increase
1964 $1.25 $6.94
1965 $1.25 $6.83
1966 $1.25 $6.64
1967 $1.40 $7.22 <--increase
1968 $1.60 $7.92 <--increase
1969 $1.60 $7.51
1970 $1.60 $7.10
1971 $1.60 $6.80
1972 $1.60 $6.59
1973 $1.60 $6.21
1974 $2.00 $6.99 <--increase
1975 $2.10 $6.72 <--increase
1976 $2.30 $6.96 <--increase
1977 $2.30 $6.54
1978 $2.65 $7.00 <--increase
1979 $2.90 $6.88 <--increase
1980 $3.10 $6.48 <--increase
1981 $3.35 $6.35 <--increase
1982 $3.35 $5.98
1983 $3.35 $5.79
1984 $3.35 $5.55
1985 $3.35 $5.36
1986 $3.35 $5.26
1987 $3.35 $5.08
1988 $3.35 $4.88
1989 $3.35 $4.65
1990 $3.80 $5.01 <--increase
1991 $4.25 $5.37 <--increase
1992 $4.25 $5.22
1993 $4.25 $5.06
1994 $4.25 $4.94
1995 $4.25 $4.80
1996 $4.75 $5.21 <--increase
1997 $5.15 $5.53 <--increase
1998 $5.15 $5.44
1999 $5.15 $5.32
2000 $5.15 $5.15
2001 $5.15 $5.01
2002 $5.15 $4.93
2003 $5.15 $4.82
2004 $5.15 $4.71

[Zhade]

46. Wow, big jump in 1950. I wonder what caused that?

NT!

[blackcat77]

14. The minimum wage should be....

...what it takes for one person to maintain an acceptable lifestyle (basic food, clothing, and shelter) for working a 40-hour week. It will vary from one place to the next, and so minimum wages should be established locally based on cost of living there.

[MatrixEscape]

17. Don't shoot so low!

The average CEO made 326 times the pay of factory workers last year-up from 209 times factory workers' pay in 1996. Back in 1980, when many more workers were unionized, the CEO-worker wage gap was much smaller: CEOs made 42 times as much as factory workers.

snip ...

If the minimum wage had kept pace with CEO salaries since 1960, reports Executive Excess, the 1997 minimum wage would have been nearly $41 an hour.

Ripoff, huh? Fourty-one bucks an hour sounds about right.

From this article:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/CEO_Greed.html

[pdurod1]

18. Extrapolate the rate against inflation since the last time it was raised.

Then permanently index the rate to the inflation rate. The result, you're prying money from the business and rewarding the worker. Both entities will dump the resulting wealth into the economy. I think busineses would prefer to reward shareholders which pay a different tax rate than labor. A red-rover game is going on here. Which side are you on? I've been on the unrewarded side of this Bush economy --I'm ready for a change. I think this country can do better.

[kokomo]

19. Absenteeism is a major cost to business

Lower wages are not saving money. Each employee cost their companies hundreds of dollars each year, some more than others due to unscheduled absenteeism. Restaurants, and other small businesses often have to over schedule just in case an employee is a "no show". Wouldn't it make more sense to make the job site more attractive with higher wages and benefits to cut down on absenteeism? Are minimum wages REALLY saving an employer money?

Many employees, don't even bother to call in to report they are not showing up knowing they will not be fired, as there is always a shortage of employees in the low-pay service industries even with the flood of illegal aliens. Employers often don't fire employees who are chronic absentees, even. Such a disciplinary measure as threatening to fire an employee often isn't used anymore as the odds are the employer can't replace those workers with other workers with any better work ethic.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_12_47/ai_95679857

[pdurod1]

22. Kokomo: Bullsh*t

I've been to meetings where I was told, along with the rest of the department that: some of you are'nt going to make it. When I got back to my floor, I was informed by other employees that it would be in my best interest not to take any time off --it might raise a flag. Then PTO (personal time off) was off limits. If we were too sick to work, we would still show up and later told to go home and log in and work from home, to avoid infecting the rest of the department.

[kokomo]

27. Not my bullshit, only reporting what CCH, Inc. is reporting.

They are the experts....maybe you are an expert too. I don't make any claims. Just the messenger, so shoot me!

http://www.cch.com/Absenteeism2004/Experts.asp

[LibDemAlways]

20. When asked about the minimum wage

at the debate last week, chimp changed the subject. You'd think that Americans would be fired up about this issue, but the repukes have managed to twist it so that workers wanting to earn a decent wage are considered "greedy" and "harmful to business." Total horseshit.

Another repuke talking point that's been seeping into the American consciousness is the notion that "health care is not a right." The other morning Washington journal asked this as a poll question "Health care: right or privilege?" Repukes were calling in droves to proclaim that no one has a "right" to health care. What kind of total, mindless bs is that? What has happened to this country? When people are willing and even proud to say they don't care whether their fellow citizens live or die, something is very, very rotten at the core of America.

[Zhade]

47. It's worse: without realizing it, they don't care if they themselves die.

They're shooting themselves in the foot, in hopes of getting that golden bandage.

[Centre_Left]

21. $1,000 per hour

nm

[Cobalt Violet]

40. Now we're talking.

At that rate I may be able to afford a dentist and a doctor, education, clothing, and housing.

[camero]

25. One of the Florida Amendments

is to raise it to $6.15 an hour and tie it to inflation so that it automatically rises without asking for a new law.

That one should get a yes vote.

[Selatius]

28. This discussion is missing something, imho

All this talk of raising minimum wage is pointless. While raising it to 8 dollars and change will restore the purchasing power of minimum wage back to the all time high seen in 1968, it is pointless if you also don't talk about pegging the minimum wage to yearly inflation as well. If, for example, inflation is going to be 1.2% for the year, then the minimum wage will automatically be increased 1.2% at the end of the year order to maintain buying power instead of going back to Congress, which may or may not be friendly to workers, to ask for a raise each time.

Does that sound like a good idea?

[camero]

30. See post #25

It's an amendment to the Florida Constitution. Yes, it should also be done at the federal level.

[neoteric lefty]

32. Well, most of us discussing this are including

a provision for inflation and/or CPI numbers for areas. It is idiotic to keep raising it an ammount and forgeting about it because we keep having they stupid battle every few years.

[Selatius]

33. Reply

Has John Kerry said he'll peg minimum wage to yearly inflation if he can get Congress to raise it?

[Zhade]

49. EXCELLENT question.

Hey, Kerry people who know way more about him than I do: has Kerry talked of pegging a MW increase to inflation?

If so, that's awesome. Has he?

[SoCalDem]

34. Living wage...not minimum wage..

and it would have to be tied to community standards.. $10 an hour in Kansas goes a whole lot further than $10 an hour in Southern California..

[sweetheart]

37. Raise it, but have different minimum for teenagers

The minimum wage should be less for kids who don't have to pay
for lodging... (under 18's). IT should be stepped up at 18 as then
the person is having to live on their own and pay rent and stuff.

Given purchasing power parity, the US wage should at least
keep up with the UK minimum:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/nmw/

States should tack on more if the cost of living is higher.

[louis c]

38. It can be raised on a state by state basis

Here in Mass., it is close to $7 and hr.

It was raised in steps.

The Federal min. wage is the floor, but each state can set its own rate higher than that.

Of course, we here in Mass. are very "Liberal". We think that working for the Fed., Min. Wage of $5.25 and hr. ($210 gross pay for 40 hr wk) is just that, gross.

Of course illegal immigrants will take jobs that Americans don't want. How the f**k can anyone afford to live on a gross salary of $210 a week?

[ProfessorGAC]

39. 4% per Year for 10 Years

It would raise it to about $9 per hour (still only a pittance) and the slow rate of change would be virtually unnoticeable in the finances of companies both big and small. It would also be small enough that it would not require any substantial change in the overall salary structure for people being paid above MW now.
The Professor

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

42. Google is your friend

[devilgrrl]

43. as a liberal democrat blaa blaa blaa...

Hey troll boy - You can run but you can't hide!

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[devilgrrl]

48. go back to freeprepugnic

tool

[leftofthedial]

45. minimum wage shold be $14 per hour

maximum wage should be $150K per year.