Push for $10.10 minimum wage would create winners, losers in Ohio

[Tod]

There is a sort of "poll" in the article that is currently leaning "No", don't raise the minimum wage. Quite a number of the comments make good sense, which is encouraging!

Push for $10.10 minimum wage would create winners, losers in Ohio


Amy Zickefoose’s husband works long, difficult hours with machines in Tennessee, hundreds of miles from their Mansfield home. For this dangerous work, he receives $11 an hour.

State and federal politicians have proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016, but Zickefoose said fast-food employees shouldn’t be paid that much.
“I definitely don’t feel (they) should make almost as much as my husband,” said, Zickefoose, adding that she doesn’t believe an increase would help her family. “I know his boss wouldn’t give him another dollar.”

An increase in the minimum wage, which is $7.95 an hour in Ohio, would mean layoffs and potentially higher food prices, but also better-paid workers and potentially lower costs for social services. Whether that sounds like a great or horrible idea depends largely on where you fit into the workforce.
“From the employees’ perspective, a wage increase is always appreciated,” said Randy Davies, president and CEO of the Chillicothe-Ross Chamber of Commerce. “There are many aspects a small business owner would have to adjust.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated 500,000 workers, or 0.3 percent of the American workforce, would lose their jobs by 2016 if Congress raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. However, another 16.5 million would see their wage increase, the report stated.

much more at....
http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com...minimum-wage-would-create-winners-losers-Ohio

A few comments on the article...

Greg

This right wing argument about picking winners and losers is strictly bogus. If your business model requires your workers to live in poverty, you need to be out of business and go get a real job yourself.

• Tod
  There are two sides to that coin, Greg. If your low to non-existent job skills require you to be paid more than you are worth (because of some arbitrary law), you need to get an education and/or skills or at least be willing to do work that others aren't but are in high(er) demand.
  Why $10.10? Why not $100.10? That way we could all be wealthy! Bogus leftist argument for the minimum wage is strictly bogus.
• Colleen
  Although some jobs don't require highly skilled workers, they still need to pay enough to be an incentive to get people off of our welfare rolls and back to work. And Tod Mills comment about getting an education...unfortunately,<wbr> graduates of today go into the job market looking at starting wages that are equal to starting wages for graduates back in the 2000's decade. Wages are not keeping up with inflation at all...and many of us middle class, former middle management are now "under employed" or settling for less money than we made 5 or 10 years ago. I'm not sure I can implore anyone to get an education now, except to tell them that they may get (maybe) $2/hr more than the non-college graduate (meaning they'll start out at about $12/hr, maybe)
  Greg
  I, personally am an old retiree and I made enough while working, to live comfortably. I'm also old enough to remember a time when a man could go get a job and earn enough to support his family while his wife stayed home and cared for the family. Even the low skill workers were able to do this. After a series of foreign trade deals starting in the late 1960's and early 1970's, changes in the tax laws, changes in banking regulations and labor laws, the standard of living of working people in this country has steadily declined. The rise of the multi-national corporations and their influence on the political process has contributed to the decline in worker living standards. Insofar as the $100.00/hr min wage portion of the argument, that is a debate tactic referred to as "reducing the argument to the absurd", and is generally used when one's argument falls apart. Nobody is considering changing the min wage from 8 bucks to 100 bucks. If there were any fairness, the min wage would be inflation adjusted back to around 1975 levels adjusted to 2014 dollars.
• Tod
  Certainly in many, if not most, cases it would be foolish to go into debt to get an education. Government guaranteed student loans have gone a long way to reduce the market value of an education and that policy is widening the wealth gap (http://finance.yahoo.com/<wbr>news/<wbr>1-trillion-student-loan-deb<wbr>t-141440433.html).
  
  College is not the only way to gain skills. Just a couple weeks ago I drove past a local company who was advertising for welders. That is something one can pick up with some reading, a bunch of practice, and maybe some pointers from someone who already has the skills. Certification can follow skill acquisition if desired or the position requires it. And the pay is considerably better than many jobs, in part because it requires a level of skill and in part because a lot of people just aren't willing to do the work.
  
  Historically, apprenticeships played an important part in many people's vocational development by providing a path for growth, but over the years that valuable institution has fallen out of favor.
  
  The current mess is due to primarily a couple of things: 1. Government policies (just two examples are: poor monetary and trade policies that make foreign markets artificially attractive to employers). 2. A society that places reduced emphasis on the value of education and hard work and instead is often caught up in diversions.

 

[gwax23]

Tell them why bother stopping at 10? Why not 20, 30, 40, 50 ?

Its basic economics you raise the price of something (labor) higher than equilibrium (market wage) you get a surplus (unemployment)

 

[angelatc]

One of the local Detroit stations did a poll. Unofficial of course, it was just an internet poll, but their base is pretty liberal. Something like 85% of the respondents indicated that a higher minimum wage would cost jobs.

 

[Tod]

ugh.....the "poll" is now leaning towards "yes, raise the minimum wage".