Minimum Wage
 

I would support $15.00 per hour plus there should be a provision that no amount of hours worked should effect that amount. Hiring for less than 40 hours per week to get around minimum wage needs to be seen for the terible thing it is. These tactics are turning this great nation into a third world for millions of us. If you cannot run a business and pay a living wage, then you should shut the doors and try something else.

We own a small ice cream store in another state. Over the years that we have owned our business we have hired and trained over 125 teenagers. We've given them the opportunity to have their first job ever in a clean and safe environment. We teach them how to answer a phone, work with money, but most importantly how to treat a customer with excellent customer service skills. They learn so many life lessons from us so when they finally leave us after a couple of years then they are highly successful young people ready for the next position in life. This is a personal mission in our lives to try to make a difference.

If we had to pay $15.00 per hour, we could never afford to own our own business. To tell someone to" close your doors and try something else ", does not know a typical mom and pop operation.

I would enjoy meeting you at the next Crisper's meeting where I will be going to for the first time. I would be happy to share what we do with you if you would like to hear.

Thank you Missypie.

I am glad you put a face on economics. When we pass laws to try to do better for all we do better for some.

I think about why a lot of small businesses are cutting back on hours. Not because they are mean spirited, but because they are trying to survive. And big businesses too. Big businesses are jobs for many and security.

Sometimes you just can't legislate morality.

If we had held insurance coverage and hospital bills to the same standard for all we might have begun to solve the root problem of this particular issue.

I think most people are very worried about health insurance costs and most are worried for the right reasons. Very worried.

And on minimum wage..I know three of my neighbors who ended up financially secure that held two jobs early in life. It is not that I am unfeeling, I am realistic.

If in trying to help all people, we enable a lot of people to become lazy and unscrupulous, that isn't a good thing. We will turn the economy upside down if we don't proceed cautiously.

I understand the OP wants only good for all. He has a very kind heart. All of us need to learn the basics again, to cook and save money and to do without until we can afford. I speak about those who can work and care for themselves and not those who legitimately cannot. Not all who have more than they need to survive didn't get more than they need to survive overnight. It does take restraint when we are young and learning to save and sacrifice too.

I could go along with exempting teenagers trying to establish a work history, but NEVER for an adult. Helping youngsters get a start is commendable, taking advantage of adults is my concern.

I understand this way of thinking, and it certainly is applicable in a few circumstances, but overall, it is a habitual thought we have been trained to believe by big business, but has little to do with actual truth.

Clearly the OP has never run a business and could not. $15 an hour would cause an inflation issue and price much of American life out of reach for the same people he thinks he is helping. There are many ways to help low wage people but EDUCATION/TRAINING is the best way. Raise the skill level and the wage will follow. Common sense.

The law states nothing about being able to pay less than minimum wage based on hours. Also the Federal rate is paid if it is higher than the current state rate:

http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm#Florida

United States Federal Minimum Wage - 2013

You are a person who has walked the walk and talked the talk.

That is just talking points. If you could pay someone more without hurting your business JUST BECAUSE they had more education don't make sense. Before you respond, keep in mind that we already have collage grads working for minimum wage because of the job market.

You can raise labor rates all you want because it will all be relative. The cost of all will rise accordingly. A dishwasher income will always only be able to afford what a dishwasher makes. See Detroit.

If one has not ever run a business they have no practical insight into what it takes to make it a profitable entity.

Treating the subject of of making a maximum wage out of a minimum wage is an intellectual exercise disconnected from the reality of actual practice.

Small businesses that constitute the largest employers in the aggrigate would have a large number of them "closing their doors" if the minimum wage becomes $15.00 per hour. Some small business owners aspire to reach $15 per hour for their time.

How about a standard per hour rate of $5 per hour with the federal government subsidizing ANY amount over $5......only after putting it on a ballot and having it approved by the voters who will be voting to pay more taxes to make it work.
Pretty much like many of the programs in place already!!!

btk

I believe the point was "if you are educated you will have the opportunity to make more than minimum wage". The current job market is slowly improving, but I don't see how forcing a small business to pay $15./hour will do anything but destroy this unstable job market.

Yea, I was wondering about that as well. Where is it that you can pay less than minimum wage if you hire for less than 40 hours?

As far as raising the minimum wage to $15.00, why not raise it to $50.00?

The problem with both of those scenarios of course is that the cost of every thing would rise tremendously. Another thing that many people that advocate this kind of thing don't realize is that raising the minimum wage would raise all wages. If MacDonalds begins paying their counter people $15.00, how much would they pay their shift managers that are now making $12.00 who oversee those $15.00 an hour employees? Certainly their salaries would have to be over $15.00 per hour. Based on the current ratio, they would need to be paid about $20.00. The the store manager who is making $18.00 per hour would need to be paid $26.00 per hour.

In another scenario, an employee that has been with a company for over a year and has been give a COLA and a merit increase from $7.79 per hour and is now making $9.00 per hour should not be making the same $15.00 per hour as the new employee hired yesterday.

Raising the minimum wage would have a huge detrimental effect on the cost of living so that the person now getting paid $7.79 per hour would have less buying power than that same person making $15.00.

Raising the minimum wage would hurt everyone and probably hurt the poorest among us the most. But, it would garner a lot of votes for politicians who vote for it.

On the other hand, eliminating the minimum wage and allowing people to take jobs for whatever they and an employer decide is fair would put more people, especially young people working part time summer jobs etc to work.

An excellent point - if the minimum wage was raised to $15/hour all other wages would be raised to follow suit and then prices would be raised to cover these increases and we are back where we started from. A dishwasher making $15/hour being able to afford the same stuff he could making the current minimum wage!

Who knows, but I think it has more to do with owner greed than hurting the economy. The poor folks will spend the extra pay and that would help the economy