How's the economy in your neck of the woods?    

Do  employers in your area find suitable employees that will work and produce for minimum wage ?  
   I worked for minimum wage in  my early teens, by the time I was sixteen I was  earning more than double the minimum wage.  
 
  Most places in the area  where  I'm living  start entry level employees a few dollars more than minimum wage, at least  that's what  signs on their store front claim.

   I was reading  the  chart below,  minimum wages that stuck out the most, California at $ 11.00 New York at  
$ 10.40, DC at $ 12.50 and West Virginia at $ 8.75.  
http://www.thebalance.com/2017-federal-state-minimum-wage-rates-2061043

 A single person  making minimum wage could easily survive on their own and have occasional good times  in West Va. making minimum wage 8.75.  
   I don't believe  they'd any left over funds for  fun if their job transferred them  to D.C, New York or California.  
http://www.thebalance.com/2017-federal-state-minimum-wage-rates-2061043

  I'm wondering if MAGA President Trump should push Congress for changes in Federal minimum wage law  and add a 50%  minimum wage increase in California, New York and D.C.  since there's an abundance of mega  money there and a majority of  adamant supporters of raising minimum wage live in  those areas?  
    Your thoughts....

  Do you believe drastically raising the minimum wage could cause rapid inflation in the USA ?
 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy/venezuela-raises-minimum-wage-40-percent-stoking-worlds-fastest-inflation-idUSKBN1EP0K3

And there certainly isn't a need to do so now.

 
The one thing Trump understands very clearly is that there is NOT a need to MANDATE higher wages on businesses from the feds. The much, much better thing to do is to INCENTIVIZE it.

 
There are now dozens of large corporations on record that have given out larger than expected bonuses, invested back into their company, and/or have raised wages in anticipation of a large windfall by reducing the corporate tax rate down to 21% from 35%.

 
Liberals have misunderstood the mimmim wage for decades. When Kerry ran against Bush, he said "these people (min wage earners) haven't had a raise in 17 years!" and campaigned on that slogan many times.

 
Any person who gave that statement even two seconds of thought knew what Kerry was saying was bullshit. Three things happen to min wage earners eventually; they get fired, they move up or they quit.  

 
Those things happen in short order for almost all of them. Most min wage earners will get a pay bump in 6 months or less. The ones that don't, either leave for a higher paying job since they now have experience, albeit limited, in the workforce or they are terrible at handling even the most basic of employer needs and are let go.

 
I have never seen economic optimism, as we are seeing now, in my entire life. Both the business community and the public at large are feeling energized as the holiday retail sales number were through the roof.

 
Even the NY Times is forced to acknowledge the obvious:

 
"A wave of optimism has swept over American business leaders, and it is beginning to translate into the sort of investment in new plants, equipment and factory upgrades that bolsters economic growth, spurs job creation — and may finally raise wages significantly."

...where I differ from most left thinking individuals, the federal & state governments should not try to control it, minimum wage control should be left to cities & counties, only they have the information to assess what the best economic fit is for their own area.

Now I hope we can stipulate we are talking about workers who show up on time, are sober, work hard etc.  
 

Many min wage earners are reviewed at 3 or 6 months. If they are doing an adequate job, they will usually get a bump in pay. If they are doing terribly, they will get fired.
 

Workers can also leave and go elsewhere to work at a higher wage, now that they have tangible, yet rudimentary, business skills.  

 
And remember Mina, most min wage earners work for smaller businesses and not the large, Fortune 500 corporations that you name.

There is a McDonalds commerical currently airing that says they are committed to being America's "best" first job. Obviously McDonalds and "best" are subjective, but nevertheless, the issue is that a minimum wage job should be your first job. Not your second job. Not your career job. Not your job to raise a family. It's a job to gain some some experience and skills, and then move on.

The Left uses the term "living wage" to describe a minimum wage job. What is the definition of living wage? Is it a wage where an individual, or an individual with a family makes enough to provide a basic standard of living. Are we asking the fast food and retail industry to redefine the role and compensation of a minimum wage job? Should a 16 year old working a summer job at McDonalds be paid a living wage, or the same wage as someone who is 35 and raising two children?  

Unfortunately, we now have a large segment of society without the necessary education and/or skills to perform something more than the basic tasks.  

Since we do a horrific job with our public education, specifically in the large cities, why would we expect anything different than a large segment of society ill-prepared to compete in today's world. Are we throwing our hands in the air, and saying there is nothing we can do as a society except give them a living wage, along with other benefits, and hope they are happy?

-- Modified on 1/1/2018 8:34:16 PM

And how many liberals are willing to pitch in? They LOVE the idea of a $15 minimum wage as long as THEY don't have to pay for it. Ever notice that? LOL

 
Funny how no Left wing proponent of a higher min wage ever steps up and says they are willing to defray the costs to businesses by passing a tax increase.  

 
And they not only don't want to differentiate between the 16 year old and the 35 year old parent of two, they also don't want to differentiate between a Fortune 500 behemoth and a mom and pop shop.

 
With their "one size fits all" mentality, are you even a little surprised Croix?

...I would concede it is far better to do it only at the local level where the politicians would directly have to face and listen to the businesses concerns where they live.

...A necessity at the local municipal level, without some wage advocacy for workers business has no incentive to pay fair wages, & business can take higher profits made on the backs of the workers. It also allows areas with higher unemployment rates to attract more labor intensive business by maintaining lower wage controls.

Yes, even a cold hearted righty like me believes that there have to be certain minimums in place, and I further agree that these decisions should NOT be made at the federal level. Don't your fellow lefties see how absurd it is to have the minimum wage in Bumfuck Kansas at the same level as in San Francisco or NYC?  

 
Let me use my own business as an example, I currently pay right about $15 hour for oilfield hands, and this goes up a bit depending on their qualifications, This is a decent, "living wage" for the area I am in. Now let's say the minimum wage goes up to $15 hr. That means a teenager flipping hamburgers at McD's is going to make the same amount as my hard working, skilled hands. No way can I keep my employees at the new minimum wage so I am going to have to go to $20-25 hr to keep my employees, but here's the rub. I can't pass along my new cost of labor to anyone, I produce a commodity where I have ZERO control on pricing. I'll put it this way, if the minimum wage was $15 hr last year, I would have closed my doors. I barely survived $30 oil as it was, a 30-50% increase in my labor cost would have put me and virtually every other small operator out of business. Is that what the liberals really want, small businesses without pricing power to go out of business?

 
OTOH, without at least some kind of minimum wage, yes companies like Wal Mart would be paying $2 hr if they could get away with it, but just like with this board, reasonable people on both sides are shouted down by the idiots on their own side of the aisle and the idiots on the other side to boot. I guess that is one of the reasons I don't mind "split power" it keeps the lunatics on both sides at bay. When the GOP controls everything we get the Patriot Act, when the Dems are in control we get Obamacare. If the Dems were in charge now, we would be looking "free college" and  $15 minimum wage, if the GOP were more firmly in charge we'd already be building some stupid wall along our southern border.

...Not at all GaG but your business example represents a very small percentage of average American workers because it is a business controlled by a very volatile price market, would that argument be valid when oil was over $100.00 a barrel, how much did you pay your field labors back than ? Seven years ago I sold a labor intensive business that that I had built for many years & seven years ago $15.00 was the labor's starting wage, the idea that the lower skilled workers like food preparation help & service providers don't deserve a living wage is archaic and in these healthy financial times the greed of cheep ass business owners is shameful.

When oil prices were high, good hands could name their price and they got it.  The market set the rate for oil field workers, not the government. The market has always been more efficient than government and always will be.  

 
The Socialists want people like me to pay through the nose during good times and no amount of taxes is enough for them, but when times are tough they would be more than happy to see us go out of business.  

 
I also find it hugely ironic that the same people clamoring for a higher minimum wage are also the ones calling for open borders as well, not realizing they are voting against their own interests. Illegal immigration is actually great for people like me as the added competition for jobs tends to drive down the cost of labor, while people with jobs are the ones who should be calling for tighter borders as all these extra people in the labor pool is one of the main reasons these people haven't had a meaningful raise in years.  I LIKE illegal immigrants. especially K-girls and Latina putas lol

...It seams like you have tightened up your right gazing blinders, how in the world do illegal workers drive down the cost of labor ? The answer is business that illegally hires them, without a soc. sec. # how do you pay their federal with-holding tax ? The answer is the business pays them cash to side-step the tax also illegal. So who is it that is actually attracting illegal workers to cross our borders ? Certainly not responsible business that require a soc. sec. # or a green card. The K-girls & Latina putas are a cute diversion but hardly germane to your case, do you ask for their soc. sec. # when you pay them ?

Sometimes, market "efficiency" is ruthless. Laws were passed to change some of that from the days of laissez-faire capitalism, robber-barons, and other Big Schmucks.  Labor unions had to fight to even come into existence in the 1800s and get protection under the law.  (Unions have gone WAY too far, IMO. But that's another story.)  
.
Ruthless efficiency will drive millions of people deeper into poverty and despair.

  When a criminal  illegal wants to work for a large legal company that pays with a check or direct deposit only, like 99.999 % of large Corporations, the illegal criminal obtains a US citizen fake ID and fake Social Security number.
   
   On top of his illegal ID the criminal illegal will often claim 8 dependents when he has none.
   
   Have no fear, busting illegals with Fake US Citizen ID's is on MAGA President Trump's To Do List.  

Just make the fines for higher illegals high enough to be an actual deterrent and the problem would be solved overnight.  

 
This is hardly a new idea, but no one from EITHER side of the aisle wants to embrace it.  

 
News flash, illegals don't only get jobs, but they are also eligible for all sorts of social welfare benefits. And do you REALLY believe that the millions and millions of illegals are all getting paid in cash? Give me a fucking break, I think it's your left gazing blinders that are tightening up if you really expect anyone to buy that load of crap.

...stumped by the hoards of illegal falsely documented workers taking jobs from American workers, never mind that the unemployment rate is so low that many employers are unable to find qualified workers to do the available jobs & never mind that it is the responsibility of the employer to check the documents of everyone that they hire. Of course because there is no enforcement or because the fines are so low & they need the workers anyway employers take that chance, all your posts do is to blame our porous border with Mexico & the ineffectiveness of hiring enforcement & tell us that Trump will fix that, THAT my friends is the real load of crap Trump will never do anything to hold employers responsible, after all he would probably loose half of his housekeeping help at his hotels.

In my business sector, 80% of the employees are making min wage. They're factory or assembly line workers, warehouse laborer and basic all around laborers.
Now in all fairness some of the assembly line worker are incentive based, basically piece work but the plant is engineered against them.
And they don't get reviewed in 6 month for a pay hike, whoever said that really isn't living in the real world of manufacturing.
But the min wage should be a state issue and not up to the  federal government.

Reduce the supply of laborers willing to work for low wages (ie illegal immigrants) and employers may have to raise wages to attract employees.  This of course might have other effects - but the first order effect would be to tend to support higher wages at the low end of the pay scale.

...I agree DUANE but how do you propose to do this ? With the current enforcement formula in place business has no incentive to report illegal workers & as a mater of fact quite the opposite. Until the rules change & business is truly held financially responsible this condition will continue. I would not hold your breath waiting for the change, with a hotel owner in the White House he would be afraid of loosing all of his housekeeping help.

Well, I was replying to your response to this statement by GaG "I also find it hugely ironic that the same people clamoring for a higher minimum wage are also the ones calling for open borders as well, not realizing they are voting against their own interests. " which you seemed to question.  That is the issue with I see - the D's keep saying we need to raise wages for the lowest income people, but they openly encourage illegal immigration.  
As far as the "how" a good first step is better control of the border to help reduce the influx.  After that, yes it gets tricky as it would involve businesses refusing to hire people without documentation, and as a result likely having to pay more.

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That is not true and a myopic view of the economy in the United States. To believe small business is a small percentage of the workforce is a mistaken belief. Restaurants, for example, are also price sensitive. The federal government requires a wage of at least $2.13 per hour be paid to employees that receive at least $30 per month in tips. Let's raise that to $15 an hour, is the restaurant customer at Denny's or McDonald's going to eat that cost?  The answer is simply no. That is why you have ordering by iPads at restaurants, fewer staff doing more work, and industry looking at automating as many jobs as possible (driverless trucks, fewer wait staff, etc.).

Also, whether union job (base tied to the minimum wage, so when minimum wage goes up, everbody's wage goes up), or other salary. If the base goes up to $15 for your lowest paid worker, your wages will increase across the board. Because now your workers making more than the old minimum wage will not be happy getting paid the same rate as those new employees receiving their old 'higher' wage.

Minimum wage is a complicated issue. Yes, I do believe there should be a floor. If you raise the floor too far out of line with market driven forces, then it really does nothing because then everything becomes more expensive. That's an over simplification but basic premise holds. Similarly, you're seeing that with college degrees. If "everybody' has one, it loses its value. Lefties think if everybody has a college education then everybody will have a good job - when everyone is special, then everybody is average.

Many good points noted above, no need to reiterate. I don't oppose a minimum wage, but $15 is way out of line and set by people who have never run a business.

...Well Tippi this type of discussion with a fair representation of beliefs on both sides certainly DOESN"T piss me off, my passionate representation for my beliefs should not be mistaken for anger. As for the topic at hand I may see your ardent defense for the status quo as your own my-o-pia, the real issue here is do we continue to take unfair financial advantage of semi-skilled workers because we believe in free-market starvation wages for them ? Certainly the price of restaurant & other lower level labor services will go up, but do you believe that the public will stop using those services, I think you are smarter than that. The idea of fair livable wages for everyone will result in the effected services costing what they should & no longer allowing the general public to steal those bargains from the pockets of lower paid workers. As far as automation (I-pads & driverless trucks) that's called progress & it's inevitable higher wage costs may speed that up. In the areas where our free market economy takes unfair advantage of lower wage workers there will always be people of good conscience who continue to ask for that change.

but to propose an 18 year old dishwasher living in Cream Cheese Kentucky should be paid $15 hr, the very same wage that a semi skilled worker in San Francisco or NYC would be making is ludicrous.

 
You said yourself, and now you seem to be retreating from your own words, "The Federal Government should NOT be setting the minimum wage levels"

...Well GaG I don't know where you got the idea that I support federal minimum wage controls, I still believe minimum wages should be controlled by local governing authorities, & I was unable to find Cream Cheese Kentucky on the map.