Minimum Wage

Mensch1351

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I'm a little stunned that no-one has mentioned the new Republican attacks on doing away with the Federal minimum wage. I've always been fascinated by business leaders making hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary "begrudging" their employees a better wage standard --- because it will eat into their bottom line profits???? Just who do they think actually RUN their businesses??? I think a national strike is not too far off where the American worker finally finds his voice and just shuts down the whole damn country for a few days until "we" are finally appreciated FINANCIALLY for what we do. $7.25 per hour is a joke! (And don't give me the BS that companies only hire "young" people at these starting wages.............I've personally experienced a lot of employers who used the minimum wage as an excuse to say they COULD only pay that)!!
I find it ludicrous that the average Joe actually believes the Republicans are going to create good paying jobs to lower the current unemployment rate!! While they may TALK about "paycheck" jobs -- rarely do you hear the words, "GOOD PAYING" jobs come out of Republican mouths!
 

unabear09

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I've seen and read a few bits and pieces on the news and the net. I, for one, am disgusted at the minimum being $7.25. I've been working my current job for 2 years now. I was hired on at $7.25 (min wage was $6.25 or .50), was promoted and hired permanently full time within 2 months, and received a .50 raise. I got a whopping .08 raise for my annual evaluation for my 1st year, and the same for this years eval. A couple of months ago, I again got a raise, which now brings my current wage to $8.42/hour. Guess what? Its still not enough. I work full time, and by the time state/federal/medicare/SS and insurance comes out of my paycheck, I'm left with (on averge) around $800-$900 a month. How the hell I make it on what I make...Idk. Minimum wage should be raised to an absolute minimum of $10 an hour. If companies can't afford it, guess what? Piss on 'em
 

MrToolhung

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Minimum wage should be raised to an absolute minimum of $10 an hour. If companies can't afford it, guess what? Piss on 'em

The minimum wage here in Ontario is $10.25 however there are exceptions to this wage. Students get $9.60 and Liquor Servers get $8.90 an hour.
 

StormfrontFL

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they can make you a salaried employee at $300.00 week and work you 60 hours a week.

And just as in so many of your posts you seem to have missed the point. Many companies don't want to see the minimum wage increased because it affects their bottom line. I work for a company that brags about having made it through the tough economy without any losses however they still cut the annual performance increases for their store employees but those at the top still received their fat bonuses. I'm a manager and refuse to go for a promotion to a salaried position because the increase would only amount to .08 per hour more than I currently make.
The point is that those who complain about the minimum wage would change their tunes if they had to work for that wage.
 

B_VinylBoy

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I will be broke working at Minimum Wage.

So wouldn't anyone else trying to maintain any standard of self-sustainable, livable life.

Since the minimum wage for Federal and State don't come anywhere close to matching the rising costs of current, everyday human necessities (rent, food, electric, etc), the fact that some politicians (mostly Republican) would try to propose eliminating one of those factions and making the chances of everyday people looking for work or any sort of financial stability worse is beyond laughable. But yeah, Obama is a socialist Muslim from Kenya who goes to a Christian church and hates America. So something as mundane as establishing more means for financial stability for our nation's citizens don't matter. Voting old bums out and electing new bums who will essentially do the exact same thing (if not much worse) is far more important. :rolleyes:
 

vince

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I work full time, and by the time state/federal/medicare/SS and insurance comes out of my paycheck, I'm left with (on averge) around $800-$900 a month. How the hell..
This is getting down to third world territory. In Turkey, which is "second world", the national starting take home monthly pay is about 450 dollars. But living costs are half or less than half of what it is in the USA. The deductions include full state-run health insurance btw. This is what a 18 y.o. kid will get for sweeping the floor for 45 hours a week.
 
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Penis Aficionado

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I read an essay recently (wish I could remember where) that made an impression on me: the writer said that in terms of income gap, America is a third-world country right now. We just don't know it because of our country's enormous square-mileage. If we were the size of Chile, the beggars would be at the gates of the mansions. But thanks to our size, they're still on the other side of town.
 
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Minimum wage is essential. It was only introduced in the UK in 97-ish. It currently stands at around £5.75 an hour. It's helped to a small extent by the fact there's around £6,475 allowable annual pay before you have to pay tax.

Maybe the minimum wage it makes it harder to hire/fire casual workers - and makes less of those jobs available - but it is absolutely essential for ppl doing low paid jobs who need at least some guarantee of wages that will support them to some degree or other.
 

Drifterwood

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Minimum wage is essential, Joll's figures are for up to 21 year olds. But don't kid yourself that people on minimum wage are running multi-nationals or any business for that matter.

I think that we have about 4000 civil servants earning more than our Prime Minister. I would guess that that amount is also double someone running an average SME in the UK and they won't have any pension benefits either.

The Fat Cat headline figures that you hear are pretty irrelevant in terms of redistribution to the 100,000 employees that these companies have. Though, again in the UK, the gap between the highest paid person and the lowest paid person in a company has grown substantially since we introduced the minimum wage.
 
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Minimum wage is essential, Joll's figures are for up to 21 year olds.
They're actually for over 21 yr olds, dude. The current min wage is £5.80 per hour for those aged 22 and above. :redface:

(18-21 yr olds earn £4.83, and under 18s £3.57).
 
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joseph_hung

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The minimum wage here in Ontario is $10.25 however there are exceptions to this wage. Students get $9.60 and Liquor Servers get $8.90 an hour.
It WOULD seem fair for students to expect lower wages, but doesn't that just lead to businesses favoring student employees over non-student employees?
 

FuzzyKen

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This whole thing in the United States is so incredibly "flawed", that it defies description. For example: In New Mexico or Texas a person doing a given an office job at a Newspaper earns $7.50 per hour. That same exact position with a newspaper under the same ownership in California pays $25 per hour. Start to work as a manager for a major home improvement chain in California and you get $125,000 per year. Start to work for that same chain in New Mexico or Oklahoma and again the exact same position pays about $80,000. Both jobs are identical with identical responsibilities and the employer is the same. What is the difference? The inequality between wage standards in the various states.

Massive wage law reform is necessary. It needs to go from minumums all the way up the line. Though, in some cases, the lower wages may save jobs, what is amazing is that management in the most successful retail stores often are the ones earning less.

There is more to the minimum wage game than that one. There are various different laws in different places as to what constitutes "overtime", and the other major game is never to hire for full time positions. Some employers not only pay low wages, but, they hire part time with promises of full time and benefits. The problem is that many of the corporations have found that having 20 employees at greatly reduced benefits doing 5 jobs is far more profitable than five people doing them well.

In some States another one with "students" is that they screw around with the hours of the "full timers" in order to both cater to and give preference to the low wage/low benefit part timers. This is again corporate greed at it's worst.
 
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bendigoboi

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So guys:

Australia has a skilled labour shortage
Minimum wage for an adult worker is probably around $15 (and our $ is just about to reach parity with the $US)
We have a national government provided health service that works fairly well
We have government provided unemployment benefits and aged care pensions
We got through the GFC with hardly a tremor, and have a national unemployment rate of 5.1%, which is regarded as close to "full employment"

Education system is good - including public education!

We have a democratic system of government that works

The weather is great
Beaches are sensational
Standard of living is one of the highest in the world

There's only 22 million of us down here

Why don't y'all come on down?
 

Jason

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Fuck - I'm paying too much :tongue:

I don't think UK employers, Drifterwood included, are too bothered by the minimum wage legislation. Decent employers will be paying something at or above the minimum wage anyway.

But UK employers are bothered about the hidden costs. Things like sickness benefit and (especially) maternity benefit. Employers are concerned that they take someone on and risk getting clobbered. I've recently stumbled across an example at a care home. The care home is (illegally) employing staff cash in hand. The motivation is not for the employer to avoid National Insurance or the employee to avoid income tax and NI (these are all low costs) but to avoid the possibility of getting into the position of supporting carers if they go on maternity leave. I'm told the costs to the care home are staggering - basically 6 months full time pay, six months half time pay plus 5 weeks accrued holiday either taken or paid at full salary, plus schemes to support phased return to work.

What the care home is doing is wrong. But we have created a silly situation which criminalises people. Minimum wage legislation needs to be looked at alongside issues such as this. Perhaps minimum wages need to go up, but at the same time the hidden costs of employing someone need a more realistic cap.
 

D_Sir Fitzwilly Wankheimer III

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I'm a little stunned that no-one has mentioned the new Republican attacks on doing away with the Federal minimum wage. I've always been fascinated by business leaders making hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary "begrudging" their employees a better wage standard --- because it will eat into their bottom line profits???? Just who do they think actually RUN their businesses??? I think a national strike is not too far off where the American worker finally finds his voice and just shuts down the whole damn country for a few days until "we" are finally appreciated FINANCIALLY for what we do. $7.25 per hour is a joke! (And don't give me the BS that companies only hire "young" people at these starting wages.............I've personally experienced a lot of employers who used the minimum wage as an excuse to say they COULD only pay that)!!
I find it ludicrous that the average Joe actually believes the Republicans are going to create good paying jobs to lower the current unemployment rate!! While they may TALK about "paycheck" jobs -- rarely do you hear the words, "GOOD PAYING" jobs come out of Republican mouths!


i think it's a great idea. I've seen tlo many intances where people sitting around doing nothing with a stupid look on their face and get paid just because they showed up.


You sound like one of the many that thiink that they are irreplaceable. news flash no matter how good you are or think you are buisiness goes on with out you.