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10 States to Boost Minimum Wage.....

You know all those self-checkout counters they have at supermarkets now?

It would seem obvious they add more to our economy (design, manufacturing, shipping, installation, education) than the low skilled labor these machines replace.
 
Yeah I was just giving you ****.

Perhaps they should do that for the nasty scab on the country called West Texas.

they should do it for west texas,ive seen many land deals for 5k dolars for 50 acres,yet no one moves there,it could be that west texas is the center of the mexican cartels war,or maybe its because outside te hunting grounds and elpaso,its a barren desert with no signs oflive.
 
they should do it for west texas,ive seen many land deals for 5k dolars for 50 acres,yet no one moves there,it could be that west texas is the center of the mexican cartels war,or maybe its because outside te hunting grounds and elpaso,its a barren desert with no signs oflive.

I've driven across Texas twice now. Once I-20 and the other I-10. What a wasteland of nothingness.
 
I've driven across Texas twice now. Once I-20 and the other I-10. What a wasteland of nothingness.

the vast majority of texas isnt wasteland or desert,its the smallminority of west texas thats barren desert,problem is texas is such a large state that itstinyminority can fit 2 northeastern states or more intoit.

of coure again drug cartels using elpaso and warrez make west texas unviable due to its closeness to the drug war headquaryers and center of all violence,whereas the rest of texas doesnt suffer the baron wastelands and randomkidnappings blackmail andmurder southwest texas does.
 
Average ? What States are you using. Washington States economy is horrible right now.

I guess I find it hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel when Houston, Tx is and Texas in general is the primary source for economic activity in North America.

All averages compared to us equals a list of failing States.

I agree that average right now is horrible and Wash state is about average.
 
So they raise minimum wage.

That forces two options...either the employer resigns themselves to being less profitable, or they cut costs/increase prices. In other words, supposing that the typical employer decides NOT to get a pay decrease every time minimum wage goes up...two things typically happen. Employment will shrink, and the ones who ARE still employed will encounter a greater workload...or, in some cases, the workload stays the same, and they welcome a new coworker...self checkout unit 196. And, the costs increase for the products those minimum wage workers produce or sell.

I think it's clear that employers are NOT taking pay cuts as a result of increases to minimum wage. This is evidenced by the fact that, as a general rule, employers are still FAR better off, financially, than their minimum wage earning employees. I think it's also quite clear that the costs of goods and services are increasing in direct relation to the increases in minimum wage. How much is a loaf of bread these days? More than it was in 1973, right? How much was minimum wage in 1973? How much of percentage increase has the cost of that loaf of bread gone up from then, till now, and does the percentage increase in minimum wage correlate?
 
So we have established that Washington State, and Santa Fe, NM
have some of the highest minimum wage rates in the country, and yet the burger places are still in business.
Since it is unlikely they can reduce their cost of goods sold, I suspect they have raised their prices.
Maybe the question should be how much does a Big Mac meal with fries, drink,and taxes cost,
in those places?
I think the higher cost of goods sold prices resulting from the higher minimum wage, would increase the
prices of the menu. The extra money has to come from somewhere.
 
121221084651-map-minimum-wage-monster.jpg


Nearly 1 million minimum-wage workers in 10 states will get a pay boost come New Year's Day.


Workers in Rhode Island will see their paychecks grow the most -- by an average of $510 a year for the average worker, according to the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group. The state enacted a law in June raising its minimum wage 35 cents to $7.75 an hour.

In nine other states -- Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington -- the minimum wage will jump between 10 and 15 cents an hour, translating to an extra $190 to $410 per year on average, according to NELP. The increases in these states are the result of state "indexing" laws that require automatic annual adjustments to keep pace with rising living costs.

An estimated 855,000 workers will be directly affected by the wage changes, while another 140,000 are projected to beindirectly affected by the changes as employers readjust their pay scales to accommodate the new minimum,according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

The new hourly rates will range between $7.35 in Missouri and $9.19 in Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the nation.

States must pay at least the same as the federal minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 an hour since 2009 and is not indexed to inflation. That works out to an annual income of about $15,000-- thousands of dollars below the poverty level for a family of four.

In 2013, 19 states and the District of Columbia will have rates above the federal level.

10 states to boost minimum wage - Dec. 31, 2012

Do you think this will make it easier to get a job or harder? 19 States above the Federal level. Thoughts?

Blacks will be hardest hit
 
121221084651-map-minimum-wage-monster.jpg


Nearly 1 million minimum-wage workers in 10 states will get a pay boost come New Year's Day.


Workers in Rhode Island will see their paychecks grow the most -- by an average of $510 a year for the average worker, according to the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group. The state enacted a law in June raising its minimum wage 35 cents to $7.75 an hour.

In nine other states -- Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington -- the minimum wage will jump between 10 and 15 cents an hour, translating to an extra $190 to $410 per year on average, according to NELP. The increases in these states are the result of state "indexing" laws that require automatic annual adjustments to keep pace with rising living costs.

An estimated 855,000 workers will be directly affected by the wage changes, while another 140,000 are projected to beindirectly affected by the changes as employers readjust their pay scales to accommodate the new minimum,according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

The new hourly rates will range between $7.35 in Missouri and $9.19 in Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the nation.

States must pay at least the same as the federal minimum wage, which has been set at $7.25 an hour since 2009 and is not indexed to inflation. That works out to an annual income of about $15,000-- thousands of dollars below the poverty level for a family of four.

In 2013, 19 states and the District of Columbia will have rates above the federal level.

10 states to boost minimum wage - Dec. 31, 2012

Do you think this will make it easier to get a job or harder? 19 States above the Federal level. Thoughts?

Good for them
 
Full-time work should always be livable at least at a basic level. If the "market" decides this isn't the case, the market is wrong. If someone's wage is not livable, they have to supplement it somehow because the only alternative is... well, not living. Being on the street, starving, etc. So they supplement it with our various social safety nets. Millions of people have full-time jobs and still collect TANF or SNAP. In effect, the taxpayers are subsidizing your ****ty company and its ****ty pay. Is that really free market economic?

The other potential supplement is to resort to criminal activity.
 
The minimum wage needs to be raised. The reason we have so many people on food stamps and other government help is because wages are not going up with the cost of living. Raising it will make prices go up, but you're already paying those prices now through food stamps and other such programs. If conservatives were really for people helping themselves they should be for wages that allow people to do so. It's not possible to support your own self on minimum wage without help or working slave hours.
 
The minimum wage needs to be raised. The reason we have so many people on food stamps and other government help is because wages are not going up with the cost of living. Raising it will make prices go up, but you're already paying those prices now through food stamps and other such programs. If conservatives were really for people helping themselves they should be for wages that allow people to do so. It's not possible to support your own self on minimum wage without help or working slave hours.
So you raise the minimum wage, The labor cost at the Grocery store, Gas station,
apartments, ect.. all go up.
The owners of these establishments, raise prices to cover the new cost.
The higher costs eat up all the new dollars, the minimum wage worker earns.
The worker may even be worse off, because he may creep into a tax bracket.
Some small Business owners may not be able to cover the new cost, and have to let workers go.
The path to improving one's self is raising above minimum wage.
Simple things like showing up for work on time, and personal integrity,
will make a person stand out enough to advance.
 
So you raise the minimum wage, The labor cost at the Grocery store, Gas station,
apartments, ect.. all go up.
The owners of these establishments, raise prices to cover the new cost.
The higher costs eat up all the new dollars, the minimum wage worker earns.
The worker may even be worse off, because he may creep into a tax bracket.
Some small Business owners may not be able to cover the new cost, and have to let workers go.
The path to improving one's self is raising above minimum wage.
Simple things like showing up for work on time, and personal integrity,
will make a person stand out enough to advance.

You keep it indexed to inflation. Prices go up, wages go up to match it. There's not going to be a mass layoff. Employers are already working with bare bones staffing.

And the path to "improving one's self" is an extremely crowded path. Those simple things are often overlooked and even abused by many employers. They take advantage of their good employees and then make that the new standard for everyone and now everyone has to work twice as hard for the same pay rate.

One thing you'll notice in the real world is that there isn't necessarily a lack of jobs. There are a lack of decent paying jobs. I work at a place that has many vacancies that they can't fill because people just flat out refuse to work there for the pitiful wages that don't pay the bills. Now the capitalist philosophy says that they should raise wages to get people to work there, but reality says no. They make the people that are there work harder and longer until they find people desperate enough to work there. Now you say, well then if it's that bad then quit. But people can't just simply quit. They have to find a new job first to keep paying their bills which isn't easy when there are a lack of jobs and even when they do find a new one, often they end up back in this same situation. The few lucky ones find a good new place to work and that's great, but there just aren't enough of them for everyone. And there will always be people desperate enough to keep the place staffed just well enough to keep it running because this is the system we're running on. Keep the people desperate so they'll accept slave wages and keep the door revolving.

If jobs payed a real wage you'd see a rapid decrease in unemployment.
 
Some of these figures are way too low to live on. They should raise the minimum wage to $100/hour. Imagine how much happier everyone would be.
 
You keep it indexed to inflation. Prices go up, wages go up to match it. There's not going to be a mass layoff. Employers are already working with bare bones staffing.

And the path to "improving one's self" is an extremely crowded path. Those simple things are often overlooked and even abused by many employers. They take advantage of their good employees and then make that the new standard for everyone and now everyone has to work twice as hard for the same pay rate.

One thing you'll notice in the real world is that there isn't necessarily a lack of jobs. There are a lack of decent paying jobs. I work at a place that has many vacancies that they can't fill because people just flat out refuse to work there for the pitiful wages that don't pay the bills. Now the capitalist philosophy says that they should raise wages to get people to work there, but reality says no. They make the people that are there work harder and longer until they find people desperate enough to work there. Now you say, well then if it's that bad then quit. But people can't just simply quit. They have to find a new job first to keep paying their bills which isn't easy when there are a lack of jobs and even when they do find a new one, often they end up back in this same situation. The few lucky ones find a good new place to work and that's great, but there just aren't enough of them for everyone. And there will always be people desperate enough to keep the place staffed just well enough to keep it running because this is the system we're running on. Keep the people desperate so they'll accept slave wages and keep the door revolving.

If jobs payed a real wage you'd see a rapid decrease in unemployment.

If the government didn't pay so well there would be a rapid decrease of unemployment as well. I know a lady that owns a small gas station outside of town that was told by a worker she hired that she wasn't about to work there anymore and put up with customers when she made more sitting at the house and quit after 2 days. When the Nissan plant opened there were 100s in the first few years that quit after the first or second day because they didn't want to work.
 
Wow! look at all of those "conservative states" that are for an increase in M. wage!
 
Just going by what I see around here, it is anecdotal evidence. One thing I will say though is I don't see the quality of the min wage work force improving as the wage rises, it seems to be the same culls doing the same crappy jobs.

Who are these "culls" that you speak of? Are you talking about those Mexicans?

/sarcasm
 
Some of these figures are way too low to live on. They should raise the minimum wage to $100/hour. Imagine how much happier everyone would be.

Yes, because anything proposed must be expanded to extremes. Kinda like how libertarians literally favor dissolution of the United States, because no government is the smallest government, right? It's just logically extending their beliefs, right?
 
Yes, because anything proposed must be expanded to extremes. Kinda like how libertarians literally favor dissolution of the United States, because no government is the smallest government, right? It's just logically extending their beliefs, right?

Not sure why you don't think people would be happier making $100/hour. Imagine how many more things people could by if that was the minimum any worker could make.

Since you asked two questions, No and No.
 
Not sure why you don't think people would be happier making $100/hour. Imagine how many more things people could by if that was the minimum any worker could make.

Since you asked two questions, No and No.

Having minimum wage keep up with inflation versus having minimum wage drive inflation... I guess you hadnt realized there was a distinction.
 
The one question I will never understand is why is someone making minimum wage trying to raise four kids by themselves?

Some possibilities:
  • Laid off from a previous job that paid better
  • Abandoned by spouse, can't collect child support
  • Rescued a relative's kids from foster care
  • Is against birth control due to religious beliefs
  • Child care duties prevent taking a full-time job
  • The spouse brought step-kids into the family
  • Old work skills are no longer valuable

However, to keep from having to feel uncomfortable compassion, it is more convenient to assume that they are just stupid and lazy.
 
Some possibilities:
  • Laid off from a previous job that paid better
  • Abandoned by spouse, can't collect child support
  • Rescued a relative's kids from foster care
  • Is against birth control due to religious beliefs
  • Child care duties prevent taking a full-time job
  • The spouse brought step-kids into the family
  • Old work skills are no longer valuable

However, to keep from having to feel uncomfortable compassion, it is more convenient to assume that they are just stupid and lazy.

I never assume all of them are stupid and lazy. I just see those reasons as being obstacles that one can and should be overcome. Its not like life is so easy for the rest of us either.
 
Alternate headline: 10 States to see their unemployment rise, and small businesses dwindle.
 
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