What do you think about minimum wage?

The free market should set wages. Regardless, companies that pay minimum wage deserve to get the minimum from their employees.
 
I agree with you 100%. I had a heated debated with a classmate a while back about the subject. They claimed if there was no minimum wage that people would be getting paid $1 an hour which would not be the cause because the company would simply go out of business because they could not get any "bottom" workers. If people don't like what a company does or what they pay they can simply not work there. They are not obligated to accept a ridiculously low paying salary like stated above.

Also another downfall of a MW is when they raise the MW it hurts EVERYONE above the MW level (and those unemployed for that matter).
 
Well, if there was no MW, would it not entice a lot more mexicans to cross the boarder knowing they can get work no American will take?
 
It's supply and demand. If there is a greater demand for workers, then companies will pay more for them. If there is a surplus of workers, then companies will pay less for them. There's nothing wrong with that. A free market will always pay people what they're worth.

Minimum wage is like price-fixing, which historically has always created shortages. Minimum wage creates a shortage of jobs available.

Bottom line: The more government gets involved, the more problems they create.
 
The government set a minimum wage because it allows them to calculate an estimated amount of revenue. Or look good to the general populace.

Minimum wages once denoted an entry level position. Now it is the norm.

I pay twice the wages of the competition. The crew works hand in hand on my level. 100%

It is win/win for me. Less paper work, unemployment taxes etc. for me.

More gain for the crew!
 
Increase in Minimum wage are used as a pay off to the Unions. Starting Union pay is contracted and based off of MW. (ex. Starting salaries ar 4x MW). And it scales up from there.
 
The reason the minimum wage is full of shit is because this is supposed to be a free market economy. Nobody is forced to hold any job. They are free to work or leave as they please. Because of this, if somebody is being paid $1/hour, then it is because 1: they agreed to that payment, and 2: they are better off with the job than without.

Not only does the minimum wage distort the supply and demand of employment, but it, like other government interventions, is another form of wealth transfer. Everybody pays through taxes or inflation in order to make the low level workers more wealthy than they should be. Instead, they, like everyone else, should become wealthy solely through hard work and productivity.
 
It's supply and demand. If there is a greater demand for workers, then companies will pay more for them. If there is a surplus of workers, then companies will pay less for them. There's nothing wrong with that. A free market will always pay people what they're worth.

Minimum wage is like price-fixing, which historically has always created shortages. Minimum wage creates a shortage of jobs available.

Bottom line: The more government gets involved, the more problems they create.


Many businesses here in Cali liked the surplus of workers from Mexico. It kept wages lower at American's expense. The Republicans are all for supply and demand, until businesses must cough up more money. Then those same Republicans are for open borders, to increase the supply of workers, and lower wages.

It's already a fact. Even with minimum wage increases, people are getting farther and farther behind, due to inflation. A gold standard would help keep prices in check. That's certainly much better than what we have now, steady inflation that's destroying everyone's wealth, except those that can vote themselves higher pay (politicians, BODs, etc.).

The same problem happens in housing. A shortage of housing causes higher prices. When it comes to a single family home, historically, you weren't going to qualify if the mortgage payment was higher than 30% of your salary (gross or net??). This actually has the effect of keeping prices lower, but if you've got to live in an apartment, there is NO limit as to what property owners can charge. Because you must live somewhere, you might be forced into paying 40-50% of your salary. As long as there are people willing to pay, with a better job than you, they can drive out the poor people. To get around the high prices, many people are forced into living conditions they normally wouldn't tolerate. This in turn keeps prices high as people try and cope with the existing high prices. Some places have rent control, but the property owner's say it hurts them, so in conservative areas you won't find any rent control.

Sorry for the tangent, but all of this seemed somehow relevant.


FF
 
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Mandating a minimum wage is a great way to send big business overseas while suffocating any potential incoming American competition.
 
Huh I think as long as the governments gonna fuck with and inflate our money supply, they kinda have an obligation to set one. I mean they are changing the economic conditions and your ability to live. Atleast they could post a guideline so you know about the level of income you'll get screwed. Also unions don't earn minimum wage for sure. Why would you have them if this was all the wonder they could provide? I kinda think minimum wage should be like doubled and the unions given a total shaft. Seriously it's ridiculously low looking at the mass of inflation coming down your back.
 
increasing the minimum wage does one of two things (well both usually):

-increasing unemployment...especially amongst those with little to no skills and especially amongst teenagers.
-companies that can't cut employment will pass on the costs to the consumers in the form of higher prices, which will negate the effects of the minimum wage to begin with.


it goes deeper than this...generally it benefits big businesses (Walmart supported a higher minimum wage in a particular State for the reason it'd put ma and pop shops out of business because they couldn't afford the wage increase, where was walmart was already paying higher than the minimum wage).....but those are your basic arguments.

that said, it's one of those topics where most people will fight against you on...sometimes from the left and the right....and teenagers? Oh boy, most of the time they're glad when it goes up because "I get payed more now!"....yeah...obviously they're not thinking things through.
 
Right, it's not a teenager attitude for sure. It doesn't technically deprive jobs either. Union workers often earn many times minimum. Manufacturing no excuse either. By the time you add labor costs on mass industrial process, it's as little of the cost as can be. Companies have screwed themselves over going overseas for a slim profit now that our dollar is so cheap. You have to pay to ship the goods back too, it's expensive actually. Walmart has put many companies out of business for many reasons other than actually being willing to hire. It does deny some from hiring employees, they couldn't really support anyway. Seriously if you can't cough enough to support a person under minimum wage don't hire a illegal(which shouldn't be an option) it's time to simply rethink the business. Until it becomes a truly free market this argument against having it is kinda silly.
 
nobody owes you anything, you work because you need to and want to, so that's all that a wage should be determined by, you like it or you don't, nobody else's business.
 
It must be immediately eliminated. It does not make economic sense and it is immoral. A minimum wage creates unemployment, especially in the class that most needs employment, low skilled workers (and this has been proven many times over with empirical evidence). Some low skilled workers become impossible to employ because the economic value they create for a company is less than the minimum wage mandate. A minimum wage acts as a price floor and creates a surplus of labor, or unemployment. A minimum wage is not like a magic wand that can make it so everybody just receives higher pay. If it was, why not raise it to $20 an hour, or $100, or $1,000? People receive compensation based on the value they create and some words on paper cannot change how productive a person is. Not only does this hurt businesses, but it hurts people who would otherwise be employed and receiving at least some money and skills.

It is immoral because it goes against ones right to contract and their property rights. If both an employer and employee agree on a certain wage, what gives government the right to step in and say no?
 
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I agree with you 100%. I had a heated debated with a classmate a while back about the subject. They claimed if there was no minimum wage that people would be getting paid $1 an hour which would not be the cause because the company would simply go out of business because they could not get any "bottom" workers.

This is the dumbest argument although it is presented almost every single time by people in favor of a minimum wage. If it held true, than why is it that the VAST majority of people receive HIGHER than the minimum wage (the figure is about 98% of the population - http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2004.htm)? Companies are not obligated to do this, so why are they? Well, competition between businesses for labor ensures that employees who can create significant value for a company are compensated proportionally. If this race to the bottom argument were true, everybody (or at least a large number of people) would be receiving the minimum wage.
 
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