Should the minimum wage be increased to allow for inflation

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Commentary > The Monitor's View
from the March 09, 2005 edition

Doing the Minimum for Workers

Wednesday, 03/09/05

As an amendment to the bankruptcy bill, a minimum wage of $7.25 was proposed Monday by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts. Sen. Rick Santorum (R) of Pennsylvania countered with $6.25.

Both proposals were defeated, as expected. Senator Kennedy, rebuffed on this issue by the GOP in the past, was trying to make a political point - and spur more states to raise their own minimums.

This issue is hotly partisan. Republicans argue that raising the pay floor costs poor workers their jobs, and isn't targeted very well. For instance, 41 percent of minimum-wage earners live with a parent or relative, including many teenagers whose earnings go to iPods, not bread and butter.

Democrats trot out competing job-loss studies, and emphasize the poor - such as single mothers - who are indeed helped by an increase. Both cases are presented at www.minimumwage.com (by conservatives) and www.epinet.org (by liberals).

It sounds like a draw, but it's not. The overwhelming argument for an increase is inflation. Today's $5.15 equals $4.23 in 1995 (just before the last raise). Many workers get cost-of-living increases, but the minimum wage doesn't change. Mr. Kennedy should keep pushing, and Congress should come to an agreement. It's the minimum they can do.

Should the minimum wage have been increased. What is your opinion and why?

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Absolutely and of course it's because the cost of living continues to rise. Rents go up, food goes up, gas prices go up, etc....

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I can't believe you guys haven't had an increase since 1995. That's ridiculous. I also can't believe anyone would think who you are or what you spend your money on should have any bearing on how much you get payed.

Sometimes the USA just stuns me....

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It's upsetting that they are going to keep the minimum wage the same while everything goes up Mad

I believe that they should raise it to another dollar or more because it is not worth working for that little of amount. People that work for minimum wage will always be in the red, unfortunately.

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Those earning minimum wage are the least able to advocate for themselves. Unless the general publc and our government acts, those earning the least will suffer the most. IMHO, minimum wage should be increased in smaller increments rather than trying to "catch up" which never works.

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Adrian wrote:

I also can't believe anyone would think who you are or what you spend your money on should have any bearing on how much you get payed.

Why shouldn't they be considered? The minimum wage is after all, an artificial wage setting. Ideally the market would set the wage based on demand but then that would be a better argument for eliminating the minimum wage that raising it.

But to the original question - it's a bit of a double edged sword. On it's face it seems like the wage should just be adjusted annually with inflation. I do wonder how much raising the minimum wage would add to inflation though. If it's significant then we'd just be creating our own little inflationary spiral.

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Fishin'

Equal pay for equal work. Simple as that.

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In the imperfect capitalist world, nothing is as simple as "equal pay for equal work." Only robots work at the same speed.

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I'm not talking about that CI. I'm saying that whether someone spends their money on "bread and butter" or "Ipods" should make no difference to the amount they get payed.

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I think we should lower the minimum wage.

People making minimum wage are basically lazy. I mean, if they would just work harder, they'd all be millionaires like the rest of us, enjoying our well deserved tax cuts. Forget about them. They are probably the ones without health care, too, which is not necessarily a bad thing, kind of nature's way of cleaning up society. And besides, if those lazy deadbeats are really worried about health care, high income, and excellent benefits, they can always join the army. Plenty of long term steady work there.

I'm really tired of hearing about the poor and the needy. They're never satisfied. They want better education, better health care, equal opportunity, equal rights, blah, blah, blah. If God had wanted everyone to have money, He wouldn't have created poor people.

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Quote, "I'm really tired of hearing about the poor and the needy. They're never satisfied. They want better education, better health care, equal opportunity, equal rights, blah, blah, blah. If God had wanted everyone to have money, He wouldn't have created poor people." That's an idea I have never considered. You may have something there, angie...

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Adrian wrote:

Fishin'

Equal pay for equal work. Simple as that.

So you'd favor eliminating the minimum wage then? It works in direct opposition to your simple solution.

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C.I. You know me well enough (I hope) to know I was just playing neocon, right?

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Good point fishin' but no, I wouldn't support eliminating it.

Without it the incentive to work at all would disappear for many people, thus driving wages up anyway.

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Just hav'n a little fun too, angie. Wink

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Wouldn't leaving the min wage force people to look for better jobs? I know when I worked min wage jobs, I couldn't wait to leave them behind for better paying jobs. It was a motivator for me to get out and not stay. Being in my early early 20's and making $5.25hr was the worst.

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Quote:

Wouldn't leaving the min wage force people to look for better jobs? I know when I worked min wage jobs, I couldn't wait to leave them behind for better paying jobs. It was a motivator for me to get out and not stay. Being in my early early 20's and making $5.25hr was the worst.

Luckily you are smart enough to have found a better job. What about the large amount of stupid people out there? It's not their fault they are dumb. They still have to work, and we still need 'em, to fill jobs that NEED doing, even though we don't want to pay money for them (such as janatorial work, etc).

Can't we at least give them a wage to where they are above the poverty line when they work 40 hours a week? Right now, they wouldn't be; and that's embarassing as a nation.

Cycloptichorn

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Especially since CEOs who used to earn 40 times the average salary of the company now earns 400 times the average salary. There is no damn reason the minimum wage folks can't be paid more. Yes, it's supply and demand that dictates most salaries, but there's something wrong in a society that doesn't pay decent wages to everybody that works for a living.

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cicerone imposter wrote:

Especially since CEOs who used to earn 40 times the average salary of the company now earns 400 times the average salary. There is no damn reason the minimum wage folks can't be paid more. Yes, it's supply and demand that dictates most salaries, but there's something wrong in a society that doesn't pay decent wages to everybody that works for a living.

What types of things do you think these people spend their money on? I know several people that work jobs close to minimum wage and have better clothes then I do, they drive better cars and SUV's then I do, and then complain that they never have enough money. Could it be that people are trying to live outside their means? That is part of the problem in this country, I used to be the same way and I learned the hard way that you can't keep up with the Jones's and be able to keep the phone on, keep the electricity on, or even buy food. It is a fact of life that cable TV, broadband Internet service and even netflix or not required to survive in this country.

How people in the "poverty" level have you seen walking around with cell phones? Are cell phones required to survive? While I feel bad that they might not be paid enough, if they want to receive the good things in life, they have to get better jobs. I work in a customer support inbound call center and we are always hiring people. I have let people know this and most of them say they don't want to take phone calls for a living. I let them know what it pays, which is well above min wage and they still say no way.

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The issue of "what types of things these people spend their money on" has no relavance. The issue is "minimum wage," and our opinion concering whether it should be raised. In a free market society, we do not dictate how people should spend their money.

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Should the minimum wage be increased to allow for inflation

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