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10 States to Boost Minimum Wage.....

MMC

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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.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/31/pf/states-minimum-wage/index.html

Do you think this will make it easier to get a job or harder? 19 States above the Federal level. Thoughts?
 
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Nearly 1 million minimum-wage workers in 10 states will get a pay boost come New Year's Day....

...Except For Those Whose Labor Is Not Worth The New Artificial Floor, Who Will Be Fired.

Do you think this will make it easier to get a job or harder

It depends on who you are. If you are a knowledge worker whose worth derives from your ability to leverage information and capital, probably no change, perhaps a bit easier as investment will now be more heavily in capital. If you are a low-income worker who lacks a high school diploma and a solid working history, then this will make getting a job harder. Which, after all, is why we have the minimum wage in the first place.
 
Washington state min wage is over 9 bucks now and their economy seems about average with other states and I have not seen burger joints closing in mass.

I thought Burger King and White Castles were reducing franchises Nationwide? Same with Wendy's.
shrug.gif
 
I thought Burger King and White Castles were reducing franchises Nationwide? Same with Wendy's.
shrug.gif

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.
 
People (mainly liberals, socialists, etc) clamor for higher minimum wage all the time. This is simple math really. Business owners will simply fire one worker and make another work harder to make up for it. It's like the call for socialized medicine. Employers have already figured a way around it. That's the problem with all of these social programs. We're in a capitalist system. The business owners will simply find a way around them everytime.
 
Do you think this will make it easier to get a job or harder? 19 States above the Federal level. Thoughts?

Why isn't the minimum Wage $25.00 an hour?

I mean......THAT would be fair, right?
 
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?

I think if politicians can vote themselves pay raises then they sure as hell shouldn't have a problem raising minimum wage.16-34 extra dollars a month can come in handy for some people.
 
Why isn't the minimum Wage $25.00 an hour?

I mean......THAT would be fair, right?

I am sure some from the left would think so. Here in Chicago they just had a protest and they wanted 15 an hr. Shall we throw in some benefits too?
 
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.
That's not a huge change. If that much is added every single year, it might lead to strain.


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.
Those other 140,000 workers may just be regulated to the minimum wage, guaranteeing that they will have an increase in wage is merely wishful thinking.
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.
The one question I will never understand is why is someone making minimum wage trying to raise four kids by themselves?
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?

I'm not sure it will make a difference. If the increases continue, then I would say it will make a job harder to get for those workers, but we will see.
 
I am sure some from the left would think so. Here in Chicago they just had a protest and they wanted 15 an hr. Shall we throw in some benefits too?

Sure... they can have $15 in hypothetical wages, but that does them no good if they are not worth that and get fired ;). Or prices double as a result.
 
People (mainly liberals, socialists, etc) clamor for higher minimum wage all the time. This is simple math really. Business owners will simply fire one worker and make another work harder to make up for it. It's like the call for socialized medicine. Employers have already figured a way around it. That's the problem with all of these social programs. We're in a capitalist system. The business owners will simply find a way around them everytime.

I'm convinced they would find a way around it in any system that was not an autocracy. Businesses in France try to dodge the labor regulations all the time. Which is why you have so many 49 employee businesses there ;).
 
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?

I don't think it'll make much difference from a "getting a job" perspective. It's good news for minimum-wage earners; that's for sure. Companies don't usually hire people they don't need, so it's not like they're just going to stop hiring because minimum wage went up by $510 a year. If they can't afford it? Best they go out of business and let someone else enter the marketplace with a better business model.
 
Why isn't the minimum Wage $25.00 an hour?

I mean......THAT would be fair, right?


Postulating a hypothetical extreme does not make a middle-of-the-road solution ridiculous. Things don't HAVE to be taken to extremes.
 
Postulating a hypothetical extreme does not make a middle-of-the-road solution ridiculous. Things don't HAVE to be taken to extremes.

The extreme is just another way of proving the point.

What is the reason states don't just raise the wage to $25.00 an hour?
 
The extreme is just another way of proving the point.

What is the reason states don't just raise the wage to $25.00 an hour?

Because no businessman is going to hire somebody for a net loss. If their labor value is less than minimum wage, they will not have a job. It's simple economics.
 
The extreme is just another way of proving the point.

What is the reason states don't just raise the wage to $25.00 an hour?


$25 per hour for all jobs isn't workable; the current rates are workable. That's the difference.
 
Notice that the term "Entry Level Job" has been quietly removed from the American lexicon.

Minimum wage jobs were never meant to be career jobs, they are jobs for the elderly and kids. In the past twenty years, the United States has imported millions of people with the mindset that once they get a minimum wage job, they stay forever, that is their career. Sometimes they move to another minimum wage job.

That "Minimum wage job as career" mindset also includes NEVER doing anything to improve yourself, never learning, never advancing and never getting an education You simply stay in the job, keeping others out and scream because your wages are too low to raise your family of five children. That is the mindset of the non-Western immigrants. These people vote for liberals who condemn employers as "stingy" for not giving them more money and when the minimum wage is raised, the government gets more in taxes from the employer.
 
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Candidate Obama promised to raise the minimum wage every year and has not done it once since being elected, or even tried to, so apparently the liberals who re-elected him gave him a mandate to keep it at $7.25 per hour. These states need to have the heel of federalism crush them for getting out of line. :)
 
Well minimum wage here is at or above 10$ for most provinces while others have just below with the lowest at 9.50$/hour. We still have better unemployment than the U.S. and our calculations are more conservative than yours.
 
The extreme is just another way of proving the point.

What is the reason states don't just raise the wage to $25.00 an hour?

By the time the WH gets around to QE4 & 5 it will end up being that way. We can only print so fast.
 
People (mainly liberals, socialists, etc) clamor for higher minimum wage all the time. This is simple math really. Business owners will simply fire one worker and make another work harder to make up for it. It's like the call for socialized medicine. Employers have already figured a way around it. That's the problem with all of these social programs. We're in a capitalist system. The business owners will simply find a way around them everytime.

Because it makes no sense to compensate any worker beyond their ability to produce. This is the foolishness that causes unions to eventually self distruct. Paying a worker $15/hour to stand in one spot, on an assembly line, and attach the left doors to cars is one thing, pay that same worker, for that same job, $22 per hour, is simply silly. It soon comes to be that a non-union made, competing car is much more affordable (thus popular?) and then reality sets in; production costs are giong up, yet product sales are going down. Does anyone remember Oldsmobile?
 
Washington state min wage is over 9 bucks now and their economy seems about average with other states and I have not seen burger joints closing in mass.

The jobs that would be lost if any are those that could be done in other areas (either through import or exports)

Jobs that provide local services of course would not be lost, provided the other people in the region are still making money and can afford to pay for the services. As Washington does not engage in low wage manufacturing or services (call centers) to any large degree the job loss's would be minimal
 
I don't think it'll make much difference from a "getting a job" perspective. It's good news for minimum-wage earners; that's for sure. Companies don't usually hire people they don't need, so it's not like they're just going to stop hiring because minimum wage went up by $510 a year. If they can't afford it? Best they go out of business and let someone else enter the marketplace with a better business model.

Actually if they can't afford it, they will find a way to purchase capital that will do the job instead. You know all those self-checkout counters they have at supermarkets now? Did you notice how those started to go up three months after the last time Congress raised the national minimum wage? Unemployment started climbing about the same time.


The notion that "well if you can't afford to pay a wage of X then you don't deserve to be in business" is as destructive as the idea that "if you don't have the skill set to make your labor worth X then you don't deserve to work".
 
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