Aug 13, 2015 I was never notified of this response. I edited 50 to 30 shortly after posting btw. Yes, please parrot an anonymous source that confirms your views.
Aug 13, 2015 Just saw the edit. Here's the link: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/23/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/ Never said it confirmed my views, nor was I parroting. I said that states should handle minimum wage and that fast food workers should pursue higher education in a previous post. I just agreed with the example he used. I also quoted him because of his story about working minimum wage, going bankrupt, going to college, and becoming successful.
Aug 13, 2015 I typed average hourly pay for a plumber on google and got 23.62 in 2012, so who's the ignorant one now? and FYI, I put that sentence in the OP because a job as a plumber is something I can definitely see someone ripping on as well as a janitor. They're not professions I would want to partake in but I have respect for the people that do.
Aug 13, 2015 I work at mechanical contracting company, a pipefitters rate is roughly $40 or so, more or less depending on if they're a journeymen (5 years in the union), foreman, or super. With insurance included they are around $100/hour. Plumbers are a bit lower, but not by much.
Aug 13, 2015 Please explain why you think minimum wage would increase the cost of living.. The cost of living is determined by inflation and the value of the dollar, irregardless of what people are making as a wage. They are independent of each other, from what I gather, but I'm open to be proved wrong. But they are, So since you agree with this, then you are basically saying that if someone works fast food full time in this country, and are okay with it, then they need to stop complaining. To this I agree, but there is a difference between a "minimum wage" and a "living wage", a minimum wage should BE a living wage at the absolute floor, so that if that person is okay with doing the minimum wage jobs they should be able to LIVE (maybe not comfortably, but WITHOUT government assistance). In the richest country in the world it is crazy to think people have to work 2+ jobs to afford a place to live. Or tell me more about how raising the minimum wage will do this or that... when over 200 economists around the nation stand behind an increase to $15 an hour. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/15-minimum-wage-petition?inline=file Or explain how an increase in minimum wage would lead to a loss in jobs, because data is showing it doesn't. http://www.integrityflorida.org/wp-...the-Resulting-Effect-on-Employment-final-.pdf At the end of the day, two points are indisputable. Raising the minimum wage would put more money into the hands of low-income individuals, and low-income individuals SPEND the money that they get (after necessities), thus, stimulating the economy. Also, it would seriously decrease the amount of people needing some form of government assistance, and at the end of the day. Nobody can dispute that being a good thing. EDIT: I think THIS is the problem.
Aug 13, 2015 I've worked around UA pipefitters for a decade in 3 states and that is how it was everywhere I've been... Except in Hawaii where it was more.
Aug 13, 2015 Raising the minimum wage means that businesses will have to pay their employees more. Now, before you say that big "evil" corporations with "greedy" multi-billionaire CEOs can afford to do this, remember, this won't hardly effect big corporations. Small businesses make up 99.7% of employer firms (https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/FAQ_Sept_2012.pdf, http://www.sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/). Small businesses don't have multi-billionaire CEOs, nor do they have profit margins in the billions. So for them, a more than double increase of the minimum wage would mean that they would have to increase the cost of their product(s) in order to sustain the rising cost of employment. With the inflation that would ensue from this, the newly raised minimum wage would still have the same value of the old one. Now, rent and housing costs, while determined by inflation and the value of the dollar, are also heavily determined by what the market can sustain. If the earnings of everybody are increased, then apartment companies will charge more for rent, and the value of houses will go up. Thus once again, making the newly raised minimum wage have the same value as the old one. Union salaries are also tied to the minimum wage, so any increase in the minimum wage would also lead to an increase in union salaries and this would have a far wider impact on the cost of goods and services. No, they are not being robbed. Do you know why CEOs are paid more than entry-level employees? They have more responsibilities, higher education, more work experience, and are more of a value to the company. I'll say it again, if you are working a minimum wage job at a certain age, you need to better yourself, or accept the choices you made to end up where you are. Stop blaming those wealthier than you for your problems. People keep bringing up "living wage". The thing is, these are entry level positions, or positions that require little to no skill, and are mostly worked by teenagers and college students. They are never meant to be a permanent career. Here are some statistics: A quote from http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2013.pdf Here is a quote from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/08/who-makes-minimum-wage/ In regards to having to work 2+ jobs to afford a place to live, the government offers plenty of subsidized for people in those situations. Of course they won't be able to afford normal housing, because they are working jobs that aren't meant to serve as permanent careers If you want to throw out numbers, over 500 economists are against increasing the minimum wage: http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/13/over-500-economists-against-federal-minimum-wage-increase/ And second, I NEVER said that I believed that it would lead to a loss in jobs. http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2014/11/26/the-facts-on-the-minimum-wage-increase/
Aug 13, 2015 Its standard for union fitters. Obviously they have yearly raises but it's usually not more than a $1 or 2.
Aug 13, 2015 I've worked construction since I was a little kid... I'm a member of the teamsters and Laborers International unions... I have wide range of craft skills... I mostly work in remote areas of Alaska and also Anchorage... Where I'm a banquet bartender as well.
Aug 14, 2015 Good reply. However I'm not sure it is that simple in regards to inflation. I think you are referring to cost-push inflation, but even cost-push inflation is a lot more complicated than that and depends on a LOT more factors than just employee wages. There are many ways a business could keep that extra cost off of customers.. tax breaks could be implemented to help ease the pressure on small businesses, and that's just off the top of my head. I mean, people said that same thing last time the minimum wage was increased, and the time before that.. but businesses adjusted and found a way to compensate. You kind of contradict yourself with the small-business argument because 3 out of 4 small-businesses don't even employ minimum wage workers, so that point is almost irrelevant. The minimum wage workers are employed by the the national corporations whose CEO's make almost 300 times that of it's employees, the people on the ground who now make the business go. I'm not arguing that the CEO's don't deserve to be paid the most because they do. Like you said... they took the risk, they put in the work, they built it from the ground up.. they deserve to be compensated accordingly but 300 times isn't insane to you? I understand you are looking at this from your "holier-than-thou", "i make more than minimum wage so f--- the bums who do" lens, but at some point there has to be a breaking point, no? The cost of milk, gas, food all continue to raise. So at what point, in your opinion, do these "low-skill", "low-intelligent" workers deserve to buy groceries and get the f--- off food stamps and welfare? Because whether you like it or not, they exist, and you complaining that they choose to live their life this way doesn't change the reality of the situation. And the reality is that is that they are there, they don't have the drive to better themselves, and that they are not making a "living wage"... so they depend on EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY to help shoulder the load through social assistance to survive.. all because the economy has long-passed the minimum wage and the laws did not keep up. This is completely true, I'm not debating that, but it is how these minimum wage jobs affect the jobs 'above it'. The floor is so low on wages, that the jobs that actually do require some set of skill or education are still wages that qualify you for food stamps. For example, Did you know that in my home city of Lansing, that if you want to be an EMT and help save lives in ambulances that you would make 8.50 an hour.. guess that's another person depending on the State for food stamps, huh? Again, the floor is so low on wages that the people with jobs above it that actually do require some skill are also not being paid livable wages. 500 > 200. I concede that, lol. But those are all based on the CBO report that came to the conclusion that raising the wage would lead to a loss of 500,000 jobs. Want to know the real conclusion? It would cost between 0 and 1,000,000 jobs, they chose the middle number and published their findings. It is a very common argument against a minimum wage increase, my mistake. Okay, so.... In this persons mind the 3.5 million people will get pay increases but the tens of millions of other people who makes less than $15/hr won't? lmao. Come on man. Okay, here. 42% of workers in this country make less than $15 an hour. Want to know what that equates to? 31.7 million workers. The math involved with that is a lot trickier because there is no way to quantify what they are ALL making now, but i can promise you, it is A LOT more than 1% of GDP. C'mon.
