Rasing the minimum wage could cost jobs

[Revoltingest]

This drives the point of raising minimum wage. Everybody but the elite is going to be working minimum wage jobs because of technology advances. Without the poor able to buy the economy will stagenate or collaspe all together. If you pay them just more than they need, then they will be able to give there extra money to the elite.

This is a very real looming problem, but raising the min wage won't fix it....or perhaps even mitigate it.

 

[Alceste]

Are you saying that it is impossible for a machine to fry hamburgers? Better take a closer look at the new world. Oh, that's right you are a Canadian

I don't want to go off on a silly tangent about whether robots could hypothetically operate a fast food joint more cheaply and effectively than teenagers. I'll just point out that if they could, they would be doing it already regardless of the minimum wage.

I only wanted to address the fact that the industries affected by technology that your article refers to, manufacturing and clerical work, have no relation to the minimum wage level.

 

[idav]

This OP is a lie, name one time it has done so.

How can it be a lie when it comes from a rich person that employs so many people? If it hurts his checkbook they will reach for alternatives like sending jobs overseas or just replacing people with machines.

 

[Alceste]

How can it be a lie when it comes from a rich person that employs so many people? If it hurts his checkbook they will reach for alternatives like sending jobs overseas or just replacing people with machines.

I think it's just a mistake, not a lie. He's just as likely to come across garbage from the Heritage Foundation out the Fraser Institute as anyone else. What does Bill Gates know about minimum wage? I'd be amazed if there is even one employee at Microsoft working for minimum wage.

 

[idav]

I don't want to go off on a silly tangent about whether robots could hypothetically operate a fast food joint more cheaply and effectively than teenagers.

Technology helps with quantity. If it is quality we want then we can request a 8 dollar burger but they will still make minimum.

 

[idav]

I'd be amazed if there is even one employee at Microsoft working for minimum wage.

Maybe but they would make even less if they send it overseas. Despite how big Microsoft is they still do have minimum wage jobs, not everyone is an engineer, some would just be on the manufacturing line if it isn't in China.

 

[Alceste]

Maybe but they would make even less if they send it overseas. Despite how big Microsoft is they still do have minimum wage jobs, not everyone is an engineer, some would just be on the manufacturing line if it isn't in China.

Manufacturing jobs pay significantly higher than minimum wage. Even in China, depressing as that is to think about.

 

[metis]

Not only would raising minimum wage not at all likely have a negative effect on employment as studies have indicated, it actually has a positive effect of putting more money into peoples' hands and having them spend it at the local level where economic growth mostly occurs.

Also, you would think that those on the right would welcome an increase in minimum wage because it would have an effect of removing more and more people from having to rely on "big government" to help them.

Finally, most companies probably keep only the personnel that they need to get the work done, so paying their workers a bit more is not likely to have an effect with most. Someone a while back figured out that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which I'm not suggesting btw, would raise the price of an average hamburger by less than 5 cents.

 

[esmith]

Technology helps with quantity. If it is quality we want then we can request a 8 dollar burger but they will still make minimum.

It seems that you really do not understand modern technology. Technology improves quality as well as quantity. When you program a machine to do something it does it exactly the same way every time; that is unless it malfunctions. However, the good ones have means of checking the product. It is usually a human that is the cause of the problem, not the machine.
If you are going to want to work in the modern area as what once considered "blue-collar" you had better have a better education than a high school degree. The fluff degrees from college and universities will no longer guarantee you employment in the upper middle class and above career fields either.

 

[Dirty Penguin]

How can it be a lie when it comes from a rich person that employs so many people? If it hurts his checkbook they will reach for alternatives like sending jobs overseas or just replacing people with machines.

And I can't imagine anyone that is working at Micro$oft is making minimum wage....so I don't see the raise in minimum wage being a problem for his conglomerate.

 

[esmith]

Not only would raising minimum wage not at all likely have a negative effect on employment as studies have indicated, it actually has a positive effect of putting more money into peoples' hands and having them spend it at the local level where economic growth mostly occurs.

Also, you would think that those on the right would welcome an increase in minimum wage because it would have an effect of removing more and more people from having to rely on "big government" to help them.

Finally, most companies probably keep only the personnel that they need to get the work done, so paying their workers a bit more is not likely to have an effect with most. Someone a while back figured out that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which I'm not suggesting btw, would raise the price of an average hamburger by less than 5 cents.

So you want a country filled with fast food workers. Where would be the motivation to get a better job. Once you make it easy for the unmotivated to live comfortably they will not attempt to better themselves. What would the future look like if those working at minimum wage jobs all their life look like when they become to old to work. I don't know, do you?

 

[gzusfrk]

Manufacturing jobs pay significantly higher than minimum wage. Even in China, depressing as that is to think about.

Not so sure about that, Fords new factory in china that kicks out 15,000 truck engines a week, pays 50.00 a month thats around 30 cents an hour. America should have started pushing the wage up .25 cents every 3 months, until we can get to a decent wage. Adding 4 or 5 dollars all at once could cause problems.

 

[esmith]

I agree that the minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, just as COLA is applied. The only problem with this is the way the government computes the cost-of-living. An interesting article is: How is the cost-of-living index calculated?

Now ask yourself this question. Why should you mandate a federal minimum wage when different locations within the US have different cost-of-living. Would it not be better if the minimum-wage was left to each individual state. Then of course different locations within each state have different cost-of-living. Take the state of California and two different cities; say San Francisco and Bakersfield. Which has the higher cost-of-living. So, how can the federal government mandate a "minimum wage" when the cost-of-living is different in every region, state, and community. Again it is the federal government attempting to regulate something that they have no idea of what they are doing.

 

[Alceste]

Not so sure about that, Fords new factory in china that kicks out 15,000 truck engines a week, pays 50.00 a month thats around 30 cents an hour. America should have started pushing the wage up .25 cents every 3 months, until we can get to a decent wage. Adding 4 or 5 dollars all at once could cause problems.

Sure, but minimum wage in China is basically zero. Why do you think people are lining up for those jobs?

 

[Dirty Penguin]

I agree that the minimum wage should be pegged to inflation, just as COLA is applied. The only problem with this is the way the government computes the cost-of-living. An interesting article is: How is the cost-of-living index calculated?

Now ask yourself this question. Why should you mandate a federal minimum wage when different locations within the US have different cost-of-living. Would it not be better if the minimum-wage was left to each individual state. Then of course different locations within each state have different cost-of-living. Take the state of California and two different cities; say San Francisco and Bakersfield. Which has the higher cost-of-living. So, how can the federal government mandate a "minimum wage" when the cost-of-living is different in every region, state, and community. Again it is the federal government attempting to regulate something that they have no idea of what they are doing.

Question is..what would each state look like if they pegged the minimum wage to inflation....(hmmm)...

I wonder if the minimum wage in each state would still be at or above $10 per hour...

I was looking for a website that breaks the hypothetical down like that but so far no luck....

 

[Dirty Penguin]

Here's a really good article that benchmarks various scenarios. From what I can tell the minimum wage would still come in way higher than it's current rate...ranging from $9 plus an hour up near $20/$25....depending on which formula is being used. In the article it appears that pegging it to inflation brings it to around $9.25.

Benchmarking the Minimum Wage

 

[dust1n]

I think if we are arriving at the point where machines will effectively eliminate the need for as many workers needed for the amount of work needed to be done, then we better hope that the robots have a capability of caring for 7-20 unemployed people.

 

[Revoltingest]

I think if we are arriving at the point where machines will effectively eliminate the need for as many workers needed for the amount of work needed to be done, then we better hope that the robots have a capability of caring for 7-20 unemployed people.

No kidding. That's the problem I see.
I'd love to lecture you with my wonderful solutions but I don't have any.

 

[metis]

So you want a country filled with fast food workers. Where would be the motivation to get a better job. Once you make it easy for the unmotivated to live comfortably they will not attempt to better themselves. What would the future look like if those working at minimum wage jobs all their life look like when they become to old to work. I don't know, do you?

Wow, nice batch of stereotypes all wrapped up in four sentences. Congratulations, I think you might just have set a new record.

First of all, I used fast food workers as just an example. Secondly, who says they're "unmotivated" and not trying to "better themselves"? Thirdly, why would you think that they would want to stay at minimum wage jobs with no benefits even if they were to paid $15 an hour?

And finally, next time you go to a fast-food restaurant, make sure you tell them that they're "unmotivated", don't want to "better themselves", and that they would flip burgers for the rest of their lives even at $15 an hour, so they should be paid less than that. Should be an "interesting" conversation.

 

[metis]

Not so sure about that, Fords new factory in china that kicks out 15,000 truck engines a week, pays 50.00 a month thats around 30 cents an hour. America should have started pushing the wage up .25 cents every 3 months, until we can get to a decent wage. Adding 4 or 5 dollars all at once could cause problems.

The unfortunate reality is that China and all too many CEO's are playing us for dummies, and all too often we have let them because of the greed factor. By keeping their currency and wages artificially low, they have made it all but impossible for us to compete with the manufacture of many products. Instead of telling them where they could put their products (think nasty), we play Chicken Little because we don't want to lose business opportunities.

Who wins? They do, as well as American investors. Who loses? Guess.