Minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $9.00 per hour

[opebo]

What do you all think about this survival issue?

[opebo]

Please, include a post about 'why' you support or oppose the proposed increase.  I see at this moment we have one 'don't support' vote, so I'd love to hear what is your intention:  is it that you believe various capitalist pipe-dreams or that you wish to see the poor eliminated by starvation?

[Franzl]

Somewhere between Option 1 and Option 2.

If we raised it to 9 and tied it to cost of living from then on, it would be a good solution, but I imagine Democrats want to keep the issue in their hands for strategic reasons.

[Donerail]

you wish see the poor eliminated by starvation?

Well, if they're all going to be replaced by robots pretty soon...

Don't you have a Hajime Robot Restaurant in Bangkok or something?

[Maxwell]

None of these options fill my views, but nevertheless I'll try to explain.

I think there should be a yearly increase on the minimum wage based on the level of inflation. I think that could be agreed on in a bi-partisan consensus. My personal feelings are that price floors and price ceilings do not work, and I am backed up by basic economics in 95% of cases, but the minimum wage is something that, frankly, is ingrained and is needed in a society to prevent true poverty from hitting people that are already working.

However, going from 7.25 to 9.00, a 24% increase, is going to be too drastic for those employing people right now for one thing. They aren't going to be as willing to employ people who aren't as experienced. This effects things in a number of ways: its going to be harder for younger and less experienced people to GET the experience they need because employers are less willing, and I think that lowers the work force too much.

[opebo]

you wish see the poor eliminated by starvation?

Well, if they're all going to be replaced by robots pretty soon...

Don't you have a Hajime Robot Restaurant in Bangkok or something?

Never heard of any robots in Bangkok.

And after all American workers are most definitely not being replaced by robots, but rather by even-more-powerless humans in China and other slave-countries.  The whole robot thing is a myth.

[TNF]

Yes, but $9 is not enough.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Somewhere between Option 1 and Option 2.

If we raised it to 9 and tied it to cost of living from then on, it would be a good solution, but I imagine Democrats want to keep the issue in their hands for strategic reasons.

This pretty much fits my view.

[Roemerista]

I would prefer some sort of negative consumption tax scheme--guaranteeing at least some basic level of consumption.

As for the minimum wage, I do believe in the capitalistic pipe-dream that this will crowd out certain opportunities that people would take if offered.

[opebo]

Yes, but $9 is not enough.

Great link!  I have personally always advocated $15/hour, but $21 sounds that much better. 

[Antonio the Sixth]

Somewhere between Option 1 and Option 2.

If we raised it to 9 and tied it to cost of living from then on, it would be a good solution, but I imagine Democrats want to keep the issue in their hands for strategic reasons.

This pretty much fits my view.

[Dave from Michigan]

Support raising the minimum wage to 9 an hour. Something needs to be done to help the very poor in this country but Won't if all the places that pay minimum wage have to pay 9 an hour just raise prices to cover this?, are they really going to eat higher labor costs? I have worked low wage jobs. Heck I'm currently applying for a job that would be considered low wage, but not below 9 an hour.  how many companies will just give less hours and make the remaining 8 employees do the work of 10. 9 dollars an hour would be great but It is less great if I get less hours, do more work and pay more for stuff.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Somewhere between Option 1 and Option 2.

If we raised it to 9 and tied it to cost of living from then on, it would be a good solution, but I imagine Democrats want to keep the issue in their hands for strategic reasons.

This pretty much fits my view.

[Napoleon]

Yes its about right- for now.

[Dave from Michigan]

Wait so the last minimum wage increase was signed under the Bush administration? Why didn't the Democrats pass another when they had the house and 60 senators. I had thought they did, but the 2009 increase was part of the 2007 law.

[Lambsbread]

That's about right for now.

As someone who has begun searching for employment, $7.25 an hour seems okay to me. However, as I will eventually need to pay for my own house, car, etc. $7.25 is not enough to survive.

[Franzl]

That's about right for now.

As someone who has begun searching for employment, $7.25 an hour seems okay to me. However, as I will eventually need to pay for my own house, car, etc. $7.25 is not enough to survive.

Sure, $7.25 is enough for a teenager looking to make some extra cash.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Somewhere between Option 1 and Option 2.

If we raised it to 9 and tied it to cost of living from then on, it would be a good solution, but I imagine Democrats want to keep the issue in their hands for strategic reasons.

This pretty much fits my view.

[opebo]

I'm very disappointed that the $9 isn't enough option has dropped below 50%.

[Lambsbread]

But it's not nearly enough for a teenager looking to save for college.

Exactly. And this ties into the fact that it costs tens of thousands of dollars to attend just one year of college (which is really time consuming) and kids are expected to get jobs that only pay about a quarter of that in a year.

[Miles]

Somewhere between options 2 and 3.

[opebo]

I'm very disappointed that the $9 isn't enough option has dropped below 50%.

I highly doubt that most uselectionatlas.org members have ever had significant contact with adults who earn anything near the current minimum wage, so I'm not surprised.

Well, they have whenever they eat in restaurants.  So yeah, not 'significant' contact, but frequent.  The poor are everywhere - like the servile apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

[memphis]

None of these options fill my views, but nevertheless I'll try to explain.

I think there should be a yearly increase on the minimum wage based on the level of inflation. I think that could be agreed on in a bi-partisan consensus.

This is deluge material. The GOP is never going to agree to an automatic increase in the minimum wage. They're about as likely to support that as mandatory gay marriage for all Americans.

[opebo]

Bump and goodnight.

[DC Al Fine]

A guaranteed minimum income (a basic subsistence level one)+no minimum wage would be far more effective.