The Minimum Wage Cannot Be Raised....

"The White House budget office released a five-page letter to House and Senate appropriators on the spending package and repeated its opposition to the proposed raise in the letter's fourth paragraph.

The proposed 3.5 percent raise exceeds President Bush's request by $2.2 billion "and provides a percentage increase that exceeds inflation, the statutory base pay increase and the average increase in private sector pay," wrote Joshua Bolton, director of the Office of Management and Budget. "

Go figure!!! My guess is 15% of those workers could be let go with zero impact on services.

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Bi- I think that there are two separate issues here. Apparently the problem with the proposed government raises is that it is out of whack with inflation, and the private sector. At this time in history, the government cannot afford to give generous raises.

As far as the minimum wage is concerned, that is a totally different issue. A minimum wage job is supposed to be a jumping off point, a place from which a worker can achieve some work experience, and then go on to better paying jobs. Raising the minimum wage will simply add higher costs of products and services to consumers.

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Raise the minimum wage to that which our elected representatives receive, I think.

Why should our elected representatives make more than the least of those they represent?

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Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage, righty's find a defense for everything anti-masses.
The minimum wage should be raised as the cost of living is raised. The cost of living contantly goes up, so should the minimum wage.
The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.
How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

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dare2think wrote:

Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage, righty's find a defense for everything anti-masses.
The minimum wage should be raised as the cost of living is raised. The cost of living consistently goes up, so the cost of living should to.
The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.
How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

That is why my proposal is the most fair...our representatives make the same as the least of us.

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dare2think wrote:

Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage, righty's find a defense for everything anti-masses.
The minimum wage should be raised as the cost of living is raised. The cost of living contantly goes up, so should the minimum wage.
The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.
How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

If you raise the minimum wage, you lower the ceiling wage. Do you really want the primary breadwinner of a family making the same amount as a 16 year old kid who had to get a job so they could buy dope and cd's?

That's what would happen. Employers would not be able to pay a mid-range wage because they will now need to increase the low-end wage.

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Raising minimum wage also has the negative side effect of lowering employment reates.

IMO, if you really want to help those on the lower end of the pay scale do it through tax breaks, this was the system can differentiate between the 16-year old McGentrix talks about and the "breadwinner".

Minimum wage should upset floating market value for labor or there will be negative side effects to our economy.

Incidentally, setting minimum wage to be the same as the wages of our elected representatives will have the net effect of reducing the quality of our elected representatives (for those who are about to quip just append "even more" to that) to the level of minimum wage labor.

When people in power are not paid well government corruption increases significantly (do you ever wonder why police officers in third world countries will take bribes so easily?). When government positions don't pay well, they fail to attract bright stars who will head to the private sector.

As much as it is a feel good sentiment to complain about the government salaries it ultimately represents a negligible change to our bottom line and has the benefit of raising the market value of the position (which can, in theory, reduce corruption and attract brighter stars to public service).

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Dareto think wrote:

How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

Where did I say that? What I DID say was:

Phoenix32890 wrote:

Apparently the problem with the proposed government raises is that it is out of whack with inflation, and the private sector. At this time in history, the government cannot afford to give generous raises.

It would be nice if people drew conclusions about what I actually wrote!

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dare2think wrote:

The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.

Here's an interesting tidbit for dare2think and Larry: Congressional raises cannot "take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened." See the 27th Amendment. In other words, there are structural mechanisms for preventing our representatives from enriching themselves without facing scrutiny from the electorate. As fun aside, the 27th Amendment was the original First Amendment, but it wasn't passed until 1992. Alright, that's my random factoid for the day.

<leaving the thread, but echoing Craven's sentiments on the main issue>

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McGentrix wrote:

dare2think wrote:
Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage, righty's find a defense for everything anti-masses.
The minimum wage should be raised as the cost of living is raised. The cost of living contantly goes up, so should the minimum wage.
The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.
How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

If you raise the minimum wage, you lower the ceiling wage. Do you really want the primary breadwinner of a family making the same amount as a 16 year old kid who had to get a job so they could buy dope and cd's?

That's what would happen. Employers would not be able to pay a mid-range wage because they will now need to increase the low-end wage.

Interesting that the immediate jump is to the 16 year old who wants a job to buy cd's and dope.....my cubs hustle jobs and money to save for college, and put away a little all year for Christmas to buy for their friends, sibs, and me and squinney....and a few cd's. My cubs are more of the typical teenagers I'd say, than the 16 year old hustling for dope. Rolling Eyes

The point of my post wasn't so much the minimum wage isue as the selfish c*#ts in Washington issue......who probably invented the primary breadwinner versus crack head 16 year old argument.....

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McGentrix wrote:

dare2think wrote:
Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage, righty's find a defense for everything anti-masses.
The minimum wage should be raised as the cost of living is raised. The cost of living contantly goes up, so should the minimum wage.
The Republican Congress gives themselves raises, when they are already paid well.
How can you defend rich people giving themselves raises and not giving people barely making a living raises?

If you raise the minimum wage, you lower the ceiling wage. Do you really want the primary breadwinner of a family making the same amount as a 16 year old kid who had to get a job so they could buy dope and cd's?

That's what would happen. Employers would not be able to pay a mid-range wage because they will now need to increase the low-end wage.

Interesting that the immediate jump is to the 16 year old who wants a job to buy cd's and dope.....my cubs hustle jobs and money to save for college, and put away a little all year for Christmas to buy for their friends, sibs, and me and squinney....and a few cd's. My cubs are more of the typical teenagers I'd say, than the 16 year old hustling for dope. Rolling Eyes

The point of my post wasn't so much the minimum wage isue as the selfish c*#ts in Washington issue......who probably invented the primary breadwinner versus crack head 16 year old argument.....

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dare2think wrote:

Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage

I did, when I had my first job. At that point in time I was not worth any more to an employer than minimum wage. Got some experience, more education, and went on to bigger and better things.

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

dare2think wrote:

Phoenix, how would you like to work for minimum wage

I did, when I had my first job. At that point in time I was not worth any more to an employer than minimum wage. Got some experience, more education, and went on to bigger and better things.

Me too.

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I never worked for minimum wage but once in my life...and I'm teaching my cubs how to negotiate for more money out of the box......

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Bi- I think that is great. What you are teaching the cubs are negotiating skills, which will stand them in good stead, for whatever they do in the future!

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Some are in circumstances where minimum wage is their sole income..not for any faults of their own...I lost my parents and was working for 3.25 and hour at texas tom's and trying to finish high school...

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the only minimum wage job I ever worked paid 1.43 an hour....at Burger Chef....third day on the job I put a piece of rubber vomit in a lady's cheeseburger and sort of got fired.... wasn't all that hot on the job as you may imagine......manager smacked me one too.....it was worth it for the look on everyones face....especially the lady......

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One of the best summer jobs for teens is life-guarding. I started at 15 and always made more than minimum wage. (You have to pay a few bucks for the Red Cross certification, but sometimes can get the employer to reimburse).

Almost always morphs into private swim lessons and jobs for private swim parties. I cleaned up, not to mention all that fresh air and sunshine Smile

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JustWonders wrote:

One of the best summer jobs for teens is life-guarding. I started at 15 and always made more than minimum wage. (You have to pay a few bucks for the Red Cross certification, but sometimes can get the employer to reimburse).

Almost always morphs into private swim lessons and jobs for private swim parties. I cleaned up, not to mention all that fresh air and sunshine

and the skin cancer....don't forget the skin cancer..... Laughing

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The Minimum Wage Cannot Be Raised....

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