Minimum wage, good or bad?

[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Companies can want to do that if they want...

Just as I suspected.

Thank you.

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[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

VJW, here are examples of unsubstantiated posts:

That’s hysterical.

You’re the one that made the unsubstantiated assertions. I merely took the position that they’re hooey. The ball is your court to support your own ridiculous claims.

Good luck.

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[debtfreeme]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

how about a livng wage? Or being able to use more services on the barter system? I have a friend who is in horribel straights financially and can't seem to keep her books clean and would love to find someone to teach her more for her business but can't find an accountant to work with. She is a trained massage therapist, but i can't afford to work with her each day and still work both my jobs and she can not aford to pay me.

Little things add up. She is doing better than she was a year or so ago but really. A livng wage in each state is different but how can some one survive in CA on 6.75 per hour?

[jmjj215]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

how about a livng wage? Or being able to use more services on the barter system? I have a friend who is in horribel straights financially and can't seem to keep her books clean and would love to find someone to teach her more for her business but can't find an accountant to work with. She is a trained massage therapist, but i can't afford to work with her each day and still work both my jobs and she can not aford to pay me.

Little things add up. She is doing better than she was a year or so ago but really. A livng wage in each state is different but how can some one survive in CA on 6.75 per hour?

If she lived in UT I'd do her bookkeeping for massage therapy - that's a no-brainer

[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Good point.

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[brandondrury]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Get a flat tire on the way to work and have your car towed + purchase of new tire (cause u cant really afford AAA) minus -400

so now u're $320 in the minus..
thats gonna take you 6 weeks to earn and save, well 7 cause the credit card will gain interest.



in the meantime your cell phone gets shut off. And your car insurance gets cancelled.. In MA its illegal to drive without insurance, so now every day u're praying u wont get pulled over, and be charged with a criminal offense and a $400 ticket.
and xmas is coming up.. and you are a 65 year old grandma, who has 10 grandchildren.

than ofcourse you need to fill your prescription, and think u might lose your job, cause the boss is getting fed of your outside the work problems, and is telling you, you have to focus more on the job LOL he has a couple of high schoolers lined up.

and than ofcourse u get pulled over, and they tow your car, another $100 plus give u that $400 ticeket.. on top of that you cant drive until u pay insurance the $90 a month they want, but u really owen them $180 for 3 months.. and they want u pay the policy in full so they want $800 suddenly $1300 in the minus..

Grandma found dead? suicide?

This is a sad story. I'd like to think that for every grandma who is barely getting by, there is a 25 year old busting his tail working 2.5 jobs, saving like crazy, investing like crazy, and educating himself/herself like crazy because they don't want the same thing to happen to them.

On that same note, what was grandma doing when she was 25? Maybe she was busting her tail and had some bad luck. Maybe she wasn't focusing on the things that improve her life at 65.

I'm not interested in bashing grandma. I'm interested in making sure that my kids aren't in grandma's situation (when I eventually have kids). Looking toward the future, there is a real easy way to ensure that you don't have a minimum wage job. Make sure you are worth more than $5 an hour. I know of no doctor, lawyer, or engineer who works for minimum wage. People's life decisions effect where they end up. The tools are out there for success. I think most people are more interested in complaining about their situation than improving it.


Brandon

[brandondrury]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

One last thing ....From the business perspective

I run a crappy little internet company (that should be growing significantly this year) that has 2 owners and 2 employees. Everytime the government raises minimum wage, unemployment taxes, or increases any other bill we stand that much greater chance of going broke and out of business.

The government has made life very tough for the business and it's practices are constantly making it harder and harder to keep the employees that we have. I always joke when the unemployment insurance bill comes in because all it's doing is increasing the chances of our employees becoming unemployed.

From time to time I pay a family friend $5 an hour to do computer work for me. I'd love to pay him more, but he doesn't know how to do anything!!! I always tell him that if he could use this program or that program (which are readily available) I could pay him more. He doesn't care.

In fact, it sucks that I have to pay him $5 an hour. We pay our 2 employees around $8 an hour or so and they are extremely skilled and are certainly worth more than 1.6 times the minimum wage guy.

It's easy to get caught up in this notion that ever corporation is making billions screwing every employee into poverty, but that's doesn't describe my situation. What about the small businesses trying to succeed and having to jump through all sorts of hurdles that hurt the business and the employees?

Brandon

[Ima saver]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Brandon, I have never made more than minimum wage. I started working a job at age 12. I knew I needed to save something out of every pay check. (which at that time was $3 a day for 8 hours) When I turned $20, I got married and I had a job paying $1 an hour. Between us, my husband and I made about $90 a week, before taxes. I saved $15 of that in the bank every week.
By the time I was 21, I bought my first house. I sold it 8 years later for a profit and bought a bigger house. By the time I was 32, I paid my house off and have never had another mortgage. Did I have to sacrifice, sure! I did not buy clothes or anything that I did not need. I pinched pennies.
I always saved 10% out of every paycheck. So even thought my husband and I have never made much money, I am now a 61 year old grandma who is getting by just fine. Starting to save from an early age has made a real difference. I tried to get that thru to my best friend years ago, but she would not listen. Now, she is like the grandma in the story above with no money.

[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

This is a sad story. I'd like to think that for every grandma who is barely getting by, there is a 25 year old busting his tail working 2.5 jobs, saving like crazy, investing like crazy, and educating himself/herself like crazy because they don't want the same thing to happen to them.

Too bad that’s not an indicator that it wouldn’t happen to him.

If it was 30 years later, and he had been “busting his tail working 2.5 jobs, saving like crazy, investing like crazy, and educating himself”, and ended up working at ENRON at age 55, he not only would have lost his job, as well as his entire pension, but also most if not all of his 401K which held mostly worthless ENRON stock.

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[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Everytime the government raises minimum wage, unemployment taxes, or increases any other bill we stand that much greater chance of going broke and out of business.

That’s anecdotal, as “Everytime the government raises minimum wage” the national economy has improved and jobs have increased, as more than 90% of any increase in wages at that level is spent right back into the economy, which expands the entire economic pie.

From time to time I pay a family friend $5 an hour to do computer work for me. I'd love to pay him more, but he doesn't know how to do anything!!!

Why would you hire someone to do a job he does not know how to perform ? Perhaps if you paid people more you would get better quality employees who are more productive.

It’s been my experience that when an employer constantly complains about what crappy workers he has, it is usually because he doesn’t want to pay them anything.

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[Ima saver]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

No one should put all their savings in their job pension plan. You should never have more than 10% of your money there.

[brandondrury]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

“Everytime the government raises minimum wage” the national economy has improved and jobs have increased, as more than 90% of any increase in wages at that level is spent right back into the economy, which expands the entire economic pie.

Please show your numbers/sources once again. You should really consider breaking this habit. You may have something valid to say, but when it appears that you are just making up numbers, it's hard to put any stock into what you are saying.

If it was 30 years later, and he had been “busting his tail working 2.5 jobs, saving like crazy, investing like crazy, and educating himself”, and ended up working at ENRON at age 55, he not only would have lost his job, as well as his entire pension, but also most if not all of his 401K which held mostly worthless ENRON stock.

Are you serious? Again, the tragedy of ENRON is terrible. You can't base your logic on one disgusting incident. If you are trying to rid the world everything negative, you have quite a job on your hands. A guy who worked his tail off, saved, and invested could be struck by lightning. He could wake up and found that his daughter was raped and murdered. He could have a heart attack. All those things happen everyday and have nothing to do with taking responsibility for your own financial actions. If sounds like you are trying to use the ENRON problem to justify the fact that a grandma didn't plan ahead. That doesn't make sense to me.

Why would a person put all their eggs into one basket? I'm pretty sure that there were ENRON people (who weren't involved with the scandal) who aren't starving.

Brandon

[lrjohnson]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

I believe in the minimum wage. I believe that it is possible if serious frugality is practiced that a person can have a very satisying life making minimum wage-I have done so, working part-time even. I believe it is possible for a combination of circumstances to make minimum wage untenable; illness, lack of health insurance, divorce, inordinantly high rents, bad public transportation/long commutes, injury, disaster-even a "little" house fire, no time off with pay (attending a funeral, no sick leave, let alone vacation). I believe that sometimes people are poorer than they "need" to be because they have an idea of certain items as needs not luxuries -cable tv, name brands, all new clothing, electronics, cell phones, meals out, fast food (I am *not* saying these items are bad, I am saying that when the belt needs to be tightened these can be temporarily eliminated).

Instead of an increase in the dollar amount I would like to see more money "spent" on employees by offering more health coverage, though this is pie-in-the-sky as our structure needs major modifications. I work at a County that administers Medi-Cal (California's medicaid), Cash Aid-TANF "Welfare", and food stamps. Too often I see people who have an illness or injury in the family bring them to the financial brink and the need for public assistance.

(Yes, some people are on aid due to the choices they have made. Yes, it can be argued that for some of these people they may have had fewer options to learn coping skills, frugality, life skills, etc. due to less or poor parenting, less or poor education, abuse, etc. Yes, some seem to have blinders on and will remain on aid regardless of opportunities presented to them. In working with these people my gratitude increases, my compassion increases, and any idea I had of any "answers" diminishes.)

[VJW]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

Please show your numbers/sources once again.

Why ? Facts don’t seem to register with you.

You should really consider breaking this habit.

You mean countering beliefs with facts ? You'll have to learn to cope.

You may have something valid to say, but when it appears that you are just making up numbers, it's hard to put any stock into what you are saying.

It’s difficult to take you seriously.

You can't base your logic on one disgusting incident.

I didn’t.

You don’t seem to grasp the point of an EXAMPLE.

If sounds like you are trying to use the ENRON problem to justify the fact that a grandma didn't plan ahead.

Then you may need to get your hearing checked. Or, you are once again leaping to unsubstantiated conclusions. (Gee, I wonder which it is ?)

That doesn't make sense to me.

Your posts don't "make sense" to me.

Why would a person put all their eggs into one basket?

Ah, because that is the way that the ENRON plan was structured. You don’t seem to very knowledgeable with the circumstances of Corporate America’s pension systems.

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[PrincessPerky]

Re: Minimum wage, good or bad?

I just wanted to say I would love more sources too.