[Snowprint]

Originally Posted by village dreamer

yes it would be nice if everyone could make $15 per hour , but. will you pay $3 for a donut,$20 for pizza. i dont know where this is going to go. can a small shop pay $15?? you all know who pays the $15.... we will. how about all the grass cutters , gate keepers,all the golf course people. all our fees will go up.

You’re worried about golf fees going up? How about, instead of worrying about paying a little more for a worthless leisure activity which, I expect, will not affect you at all, worrying about someone being paid a living wage? How about thinking about someone working a full time job making less than $350 a week before taxes? How does that person pay for shelter, food, clothes, children etc? They aren’t worried about green fees or having their lawn look pretty. Paying someone a living wage isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity for a country that possesses as much wealth as the United States. I, for one, refuse to have any sympathy for someone who’s more worried about the amount they pay for green fees...

[PugMom]

Originally Posted by jammendolia

I am from Taxachusett. High school kids and unskilled labor is not worth $15 an hour.

dittos, same as Corrupticut

[Gulfcoast]

Originally Posted by STLRAY

I was born with no marketable skills. I found out as a teenager that the jobs available to me with no skills were unpleasant and paid very little. With two years in community college and two more in a affordable state college I could earn far more with much less effort. I guess I could have bitched and moaned about how unfair my lot in life was. Getting my butt in gear and getting trained to do something that paid well seems like a more effective strategy. I am sympathetic to the plight of people with no marketable skills. I used to be one of those people. I am not sure demanding that the government force my boss to pay me more than I am worth will be an effective strategy long term.

In Florida kids can get free tuition through Bright Future scholarships which are paid for through lottery sale proceeds. So they can get a free college education AND gain valuable job experience (customer service, cash handling, working under pressure/deadlines) because the entry level restaurant/retail jobs are so plentiful in this state.

[Joe V.]

Originally Posted by Snowprint

You’re worried about golf fees going up? How about, instead of worrying about paying a little more for a worthless leisure activity which, I expect, will not affect you at all, worrying about someone being paid a living wage? How about thinking about someone working a full time job making less than $350 a week before taxes? How does that person pay for shelter, food, clothes, children etc? They aren’t worried about green fees or having their lawn look pretty. Paying someone a living wage isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity for a country that possesses as much wealth as the United States. I, for one, refuse to have any sympathy for someone who’s more worried about the amount they pay for green fees...

And you continue to whine on.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

$15 an hour X 40 hours a week X 50 weeks a year (allowing a two week vacation) = 2000 hours of work per year for $30,000.

$30,000 a year is approximately what I get from Social Security without working. I also have retirement savings. A lot of people in The Villages live on that, or less, but if they do, there’s a good chance they have no mortgage or a small one, and they have Medicare, which is a huge help.

Workers making $30,000 a year pay little to no Federal Income Tax but do pay the Social Security Tax. Workers making $30,000 a year don’t qualify for Medicaid but may qualify for assistance for buying health insurance. They probably no longer qualify for food stamps, or whatever it is called these days. They may no longer qualify for some other government aid that offsets every penny they pay in taxes. They are probably paying a third of their salary in rent. Most of what they don’t spend on rent and utilities goes to buying things. Their buying things keeps the rest of the country producing things to buy. If they make half as much, they buy a lot less.

A family with two workers making $30,000 a year each can afford to buy a house, maybe a small car, be more comfortable. Maybe they get health insurance. They can pay their bills. They pay income tax. They are no longer taking from the government without giving, but are productive, proud, and have a level of freedom from want they don’t have on $30,000 a year, much less less than that. They can do that with high school diplomas, or even without them if they are each earning $15 an hour. Instead of all of us paying, by way of the government, to keep them alive, they too become taxpayers.

I think that is fantastic! What happens sometimes now is that businesses hire people for a wage so low that we the government have to make up the difference. Why should employers get a free ride that way? Wouldn’t you much rather pay for those employees by paying slightly more for products and services than by paying more tax so they can receive more government handouts? A good living wage encourages people to work and lets more people enjoy the fruits of the American Dream we like to talk about. It’s part of making America great for ALL people.

A government program to improve roads and infrastructure would give many people a living wage and be a good long-term investment. I will believe it when I see it. People should push for that.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Maybe retail prices will go up, maybe they won't. The assumptions that all financial relationships are linear and inflexible is not a very good one. First, lets assume that in a P&L or income statement, the minimum wage worker is in COGS, cost of goods sold. so without any changes in revenue or pricing, margins go down. Now margins change all the time for various supply chain and other costs. from margins SG&A costs are spent. Now to maintain the same operating income on a lower margin, some SG&A costs are unaffordable. . . or maybe the owner will accept a lower operating income even after everyone else maintains the same pay.

So every company and owners are different, some may increase prices because they feel entitled to a certain level of income, some may not, however, the business world decisions are never one dimensional and a guarantee. But I will say if you look at the data over the last 50 years, the minimum wage was not indexed to inflation, as a previous poster personally demonstrated.

So everyone on a salary and receiving social security received an inflationary raise, which means that their purchasing power remained the same, didn't increase, didn't decrease. Your ability to increase your wages comes from promotions or increased skills or higher demand for your skill. Minimum wage did not get that increase anfor nually many years, so business and everyone else enjoyed the increased profits or the reduced inflationary effect. . .

However, when the spread gets very wide, there is a reversion to the mean, and this increase is an example of that, bringing the relationship back in line, or closer to in line with the intent of the rate, entry level employment or unskilled labor

But not all jobs can be replaced by machines, there will be some. . . but lets not let schadenfreude be the rule of the forum. its an opportunity for the entry level or for the working class who has no opportunity to increase skills to earn a bit more at the expense of business income margins, and the business will adjust. . . how, not sure, everyone is different. The salaried class and retired class gained while they didn't at different times in the past, the world isn't linear or constantly fair but we aren't all victims all the time either. . .

finance guy

[oldtimes]

Originally Posted by Gulfcoast

The problem is that all wages and the prices for everything (goods/services/housing) will also go up as the minimum wage rises. It's all relative.

This isn't going to make things better for the low wage earners and it's going to be terrible for the retirees in Florida who are already living on a fixed income.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Too often people only see the side that sounds nice and do not understand that there is also a downside. This will be great for minimum wage earners but there will be a price to pay for small business and there will be job losses as well. Also as Kenswing mentioned some minimum wage earners will lose their federal assistance. Also people who now make 15.00 per hour will demand an increase and rightfully so. It’s never that simple.

[Mapuha17]

Agree

[Gulfcoast]

Originally Posted by oldtimes

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Too often people only see the side that sounds nice and do not understand that there is also a downside. This will be great for minimum wage earners but there will be a price to pay for small business and there will be job losses as well. Also as Kenswing mentioned some minimum wage earners will lose their federal assistance. Also people who now make 15.00 per hour will demand an increase and rightfully so. It’s never that simple.

The community will have fewer food and retail options as businesses either shut down or move out. I wish we could at least decide this minimum wage thing based on county rather than enforce this across the entire state.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Yjacket74

Time to STOP this 'tipping' nonsense and pay people a decent wage. In Australia, if you try to tip, the worker says "I work for a living" and refuses the tip.

Got to love Australia!

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by pvetrano1

R u nuts ? I live in NJ and I can tell you , nothing is more expensive in Florida !

Compared to Midwest Florida is my NJ.

[billethkid]

All else being equal...when expenses go up there has to be increased revenue from incremental new business added, or price increase to you and me OR reduction of expenses (get rid of people).

And I am sure that everybody who is for the ongoing increasing of the minimum wage have no problems with prices being increased ().

Let's mark our calendars and see how long it takes before the $15 minimum is just not enough to live on.

A ridiculous concept driven by politicians.

[PatGerrity]

Doesn’t go fully into practice till 2026; by then it will be equivalent to $10 hour

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by Dana1963

$15.00 by 2026

All true points, but the worst of all will be the TRUE minimum wage people (not retired people, teens, and others only working for "extras" in their lives) whose wages will be raised to $15 per hour, they are the real losers in this. Others will some how be able to absorb it, but this will only push that class of workers even further down and out of the lower end of the "middle class". It's a shame, a healthy thriving country is one that EXPANDS the "middle class". It will hurt everyone a little, it will hurt the lowest paid among us the hardest. It's sad. I did notice an extremely wealthy Florida resident, one who has pushed so many "progressive" ideas about drug legalization, and others was a powerful force behind this. It was obviously the desire of the majority of Floridians, so, I guess those of us who think it will do more damage than good will just have to wait and see !

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by Gulfcoast

The problem is that all wages and the prices for everything (goods/services/housing) will also go up as the minimum wage rises. It's all relative.

This isn't going to make things better for the low wage earners and it's going to be terrible for the retirees in Florida who are already living on a fixed income.

I don't really disagree with you, but I believe it is not the retirees who will suffer most, but the working families who work for minimum wage. EVERYTHING will now be further from their grasp, from a new car to a meal out to a simple ice cream cone. I agree it will be hard on fixed income retirees, but most (I am not saying ALL, just most) retirees have SS and some other source of income, and many have TWO SS checks coming in, others have savings, 401K, various pensions, and for some they have their minimum wage job AND a SS check coming in. Again, I AGREE it is tough on retirees, but not as tough as it will be on these poor folks trying to raise a family and have some decent quality of life at a minimum wage job that will now go to $15 an hour and make quality of life even more difficult for them. At $13 an hour perhaps they could treat their children to a $2.50 ice cream cone once in awhile, when those cones go to $3.50 ? Well, figure it out, $1.00 increase is 40%, but the $15 an hour is not going to be a 40% increase in wages for our lowest paid workers. What if a simple hot dog also goes to $3.50, a $1.25 soda goes to $1.50 and so on for every item they have to put in their shopping baskets.