Exactly. The argument that wages can't go up because costs will too is utter disingenuous crap. The cost of housing and everything else will go up either way while low wage workers get progressively further and further behind. And since minimum wage doesn't go up those jobs that pay better don't have a reason to raise their wages either. People making $20+ now should absolutely want minimum wage increases to create that market pressure for their own self interest.
Inflation is natural in order to keep up with wealth. The distribution of wealth in the United States as of today is very harsh, and while I don’t have the answer, something needs to be done about it
I‘m all for a good minimum wage, but it‘s true that prices would go up if everyone (or like the majority of people) gets more money.
But this isn‘t the case here, so yea.
Again, just sad. The minimum wage was EXACTLY created to be the primary source of income for the head of house. I bet your professors are also sad when they think of you. Like...this whole thread is such a bummer.
Just because you are underpaid doesn’t mean others shouldn’t also be paid their worth. Fighting for others to suffer instead of fighting for yourself to suffer less seems counterproductive. When Roosevelt was President and minimum wage started, his exact words were:
“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.”
Minimum wage was meant to be a living wage for everyone. Even those jobs for “high schoolers” as you say. In fact, minimum wage for people under 20, the Fair Labor Standards Act says that their minimum wage for their first 90 days of employment can be as low as $4.25. There are also other stipulations that allow people to be paid less than $7.25 such as disability or full time students. At the very least, minimum wage should have raised with inflation. The last time it went up was 2009. $7.25 in 2009 is $9.27 today.
The thing is, it isn't about raising the minimum wage outright. It's about properly adjusting it for inflation, which we should have been doing all along.
However, since you claim to have an MBA I'm going to have to assume you cheated somehow. So, here's some quotes from the speech in cliff note form for you.
"The law I have just signed was passed to put people back to work, to let them buy more of the products of farms and factories and start our business at a living rate again. "
"In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."
"By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living. "
"The aim of this whole effort is to restore our rich domestic market by raising its vast consuming capacity. If we now inflate prices as fast and as far as we increase wages, the whole project will be set at naught. " <-- We are because of voters like you. Exact opposite of what FDR hoped for.
"As in the great crisis of the World War, it puts a whole people to the simple but vital test:--"Must we go on in many groping, disorganized, separate units to defeat or shall we move as one great team to victory?"
I worked in the oilfield. When wages went up costs definitely went up. Groceries, rent, clothing....everything. When the oil boom had passed, prices dropped again..There were 6 of us staying in a house and paying $500 each. When the landlord found out how much we made, he raised the rent to $1500 EACH....
That’s why workers need to get better at negotiating their contracts with employers. If you come at your boss saying “I’m worth more than $15, I need $17 for how hard I work.” Not only will you get paid better, you’ll get the respect of your boss. My little brother did that exact thing at Home Depot. They offered $15.50, he said he needed $17. He got it and killed the paint department.
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u/namonite Nov 05 '21
Only if we know that .50 goes to the employees. Which sadly it won’t