With inflation the way it is, I feel our current US minimum wage is too low. I am thinking about starting a petition, an American right mind you, that will put the minimum wage on the ballot. Do you think that this would get any support at all?
What state do you live in? Plus, the way inflation is? Inflation has been very low for a while. Even when the Fed was all concerned about it a few years ago, it wasn't showing up in consumer prices to any great degree. We've been teetering on the brink of deflation at some points recently. Now, over time, even small inflation rates will catch up to a set minimum wage, but I don't think you can say that inflation is anything approaching a real issue right now. And, raising wages in a time of inflation would technically be inflationary, potentially making inflation worse. And many economists believe that minimum wage laws cause higher unemployment, especially among teenagers. And that teenage unemployment leads to higher teenage crime rates, which increases the costs on society. But if you just want to circulate a petition calling for the minimum wage to be raised or to be indexed to inflation, you'll get a lot of people to sign up. But if you're from Texas, I don't think we can petition to get stuff on the ballot.
I'd absolutely support it. It's a travesty that tens of millions of Americans support their families on $5.15/hour, or $10,712 a year (!). Combine that with Bush's new "overtime" policy that basically forces workers to work overtime for free, and $5.15 becomes even more appalling.
You're basing inflation on the cost of a soda from a soda machine? Here is a chart showing the minimum wage (inflation adjusted). It shows that currently we are at the average of where it has been since 1938. http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/minwg.htm
Over what time period? I can't even remember when a soda was 35 cents for a 12 oz. can. When I was in junior high school (in the mid 1980s), the 12 oz. can was 75 cents at the local convenience store. I don't know how much it is now, as I tend to buy the bottles when I go now. Interestingly, fountain prices have gone down at my local convenience store. Maybe there's deflation and the minimum wage needs to be lowered.
Ya know, ever since a Hershey's candy bar went from a nickel to 99 cents at the Piggly Wiggly, I have been asking my wife to raise my allowance, but to no avail.
Well, you were underpaying in 1999. None of the machines I went by had 35 cent sodas in 1999. I guarantee the average price of a 12 oz can of Coke was higher than 35 cents in 1999 even though your machines were dragging down the average.
Utterly perposterous. The minimum wage, which is supposed to allow people to raise families on awful jobs, actually keep teens, the ones who do that sort of work such as flipping burgers, mopping floors, etc out of work. For example, since I'm college educated, a good deadline sportswriter with several years of experience and a rare commodity, I command an appropriate salary. A burger flipper on the other hand, is not a rare commodity, yet companies are forced to pay these workers, most of whom are NOT raising families, more than the market demands. As a result, they can hire less folks and pass the costs onto the consumer. Check this column by Thomas Sowell, which explains this issue quite well. Jewish World Review Nov. 5, 2003 / 10 Mar-Cheshvan, 5764 Thomas Sowell "Living wage" kills jobs Give credit where credit is due. The political left is great with words. Conservatives have never been able to come up with such seductive phrases as the left mass produces. While conservatives may talk about a need for "judicial restraint," liberals cry out for "social justice." If someone asks you why they should be in favor of judicial restraint, you have got to sit them down and go into a long explanation about constitutional government and its implications and prerequisites. But "social justice"? No explanation needed. No definition. No facts. Everybody is for it. Do you want social injustice? The latest verbal coup of the left is the phrase "a living wage." Who is so hard-hearted or mean-spirited that they do not want people to be able to make enough money to live on? Unfortunately, the effort and talent that the left puts into coining great phrases is seldom put into facts or analysis. The living wage campaign shows that as well. Just what is a living wage? It usually means enough income to support a family of four on one paycheck. This idea has swept through various communities, churches and academic institutions. Facts have never yet caught up with this idea and analysis is lagging even farther behind. First of all, do most low-wage workers actually have a family of four to support on one paycheck? According to a recent study by the Cato Institute, fewer than one out of five minimum wage workers has a family to support. These are usually young people just starting out. So the premise is false from the beginning. But it is still a great phrase, and that is apparently what matters, considering all the politicians, academics and church groups who are stampeding all and sundry toward the living wage concept. What the so-called living wage really amounts to is simply a local minimum wage policy requiring much higher pay rates than the federal minimum wage law. It's a new minimum wage. Since there have been minimum wage laws for generations, not only in the United States, but in other countries around the world, you might think that we would want to look at what actually happens when such laws are enacted, as distinguished from what was hoped would happen. Neither the advocates of this new minimum wage policy nor the media — much less politicians — show any interest whatsoever in facts about the consequences of minimum wage laws. Most studies of minimum wage laws in countries around the world show that fewer people are employed at artificially higher wage rates. Moreover, unemployment falls disproportionately on lower skilled workers, younger and inexperienced workers, and workers from minority groups. The new Cato Institute study cites data showing job losses in places where living wage laws have been imposed. This should not be the least bit surprising. Making anything more expensive almost invariably leads to fewer purchases. That includes labor. While trying to solve a non-problem — supporting families that don't exist, in most cases — the living wage crusade creates a very real problem of low-skilled workers having trouble finding a job at all. People in minimum wage jobs do not stay at the minimum wage permanently. Their pay increases as they accumulate experience and develop skills. It increases an average of 30 percent in just their first year of employment, according to the Cato Institute study. Other studies show that low-income people become average-income people in a few years and high-income people later in life. All of this depends on their having a job in the first place, however. But the living wage kills jobs. As imposed wage rates rise, so do job qualifications, so that less skilled or less experienced workers become "unemployable." Think about it. Every one of us would be "unemployable" if our pay rates were raised high enough. I would love to believe that the Hoover Institution would continue to hire me if I demanded double my current salary. But you notice that I don't make any such demand. Third parties need to stop making such demands for other people. It is more important for people to have jobs than for busybodies to feel noble. link
For example, since I'm college educated, a good deadline sportswriter with several years of experience and a rare commodity, I command an appropriate salary. Seeing what some reporters I know get paid, I often wonder if experienced reporters are a rare commodity.
Yes, we do start out on the bottom of the income bracket. My first job in Georgia before I moved on (after six months), I made a puny 17 grand a year. 17 grand! So a lot of folks in this biz leave because the pay sucks, but it's like I told some of the students at the journalism school at UA when I did a guest speaker bit to a reporting class, you either need to love doing the job or get out, because the pay is awful. My wife, who is a buyer for one of the huge dept. store chains in ATL, makes a lot more money than I do. And we both have batchelor's degrees! But what price is doing a job you love?
I have a friend who's a reporter. He's never been able to advance beyond the small community papers (partly because he doesn't have a degree), and it's often depressing to see the amount of experience he has vs the amount of money he makes. After eight years in the business, he's barely cracked $20K per year. He could probably do better with a degree, though (and I have encouraged him to go finish. He's got an associates, so he's not exactly starting at the beginning, and he makes so little money, he qualifies for financial aid). I did some time on the college paper and have worked for a couple of newspapers, but reporting wasn't for me. I didn't like the covering stuff I didn't care about. But having been there led to my working in baseball (as a Media Relations Director), which was fun and was probably the only job that pays less than most reporters get (I started at $800 per month, full-time.. and that was 1996).
That's why I write about sports . I tried my hand at hard news, but after having to do a series on new city council people, writing a story on the new UA trolley and a riverboat, I figured that I'd either write sports or not at all. He really needs to have a degree to get anywhere in this business, despite his connections. My friend who got me into the biz did not have a journalism degree and he had to work part time until they finally decided to hire him full time. It's not a business for the faint of heart or those who seek great riches.
You can't put a price on it. If your motivation is doing something you love vs. making a pile of cash, you should be happy with whatever amount of money you make. That's the trade-off.
