Why are people on ET so against a decent minimum wage

Discussion in 'Economics' started by jwecme, Dec 4, 2007.

  1. I understand the emotions about minimum wages...different discussion

    but let's say you are a business that has 25% minimum wage workers and the rest are above that with the best employees way above it...

    if the gov. mandates a hike in the minimum... the rest of the pay scale will expect a similar hike which can devastate your P$L for future work...

    so a radical hike in the minimum wage can really screw up a business model....
     
    #41     Dec 4, 2007
  2. nealvan

    nealvan

    Yeah that makes alot of sense. Pay people 10 dollars an hour on minium plus social benifits. Hum how long will that last realistically? If anything that would cause an economic collapse in the United States. The sad thing is you could pay some of these idiots 10 dollars an hour and they may be 2 dollars productive and if you were real lucky they would sometimes earn that amount but the employer is stuck with the other cost. Add in the cost for benifits and no company or corporation is going to stay afloat. Hell you'll be abusing them by telling them to get to work to earn it. Crap if your not forcing starving slaves to work, cracking whips at there back, sexually harassing them, there's no abuse. Society is falling apart all over and people are sitting back collecting social wellfare not pulling there own weight.
     
    #42     Dec 4, 2007
  3. Forcing corporations and company's to go “belly up” is only one step needed to fix the minimum wage problem. Protectionism for LLC's ( in this case any thing that is a fictional entity falls under the LLC umbrella) is the last thing an ailing country needs if it is to begin healing.
     
    #43     Dec 4, 2007
  4. somehow, the US economic "analysts" believe that hoards of middle class pikers buying plasma TVs that they cant afford is the basis of a sound economy...

    the whole thing is a load of crap...
     
    #44     Dec 4, 2007
  5. nevadan

    nevadan

    A non sequitur here. Ron Paul is against a minimum wage:confused:
     
    #45     Dec 4, 2007
  6. Mercor

    Mercor

    There is too much focus on starting wage. The purpose of starting wage is to see is an employee is worth keeping.

    Almost all companies offer raises after 60 or 90 days if the employee is happy and worthwhile keeping.

    The minimum wage if any, should apply not to new hires but those who are retained after the probation time.

    In the white collar world students work for free in internships and part of the benefit is it may lead to a permanent job.

    Is it wrong to offer a program to lower wage workers? Not free work but lower wages to start.

    In my company I am reluctant to hire because of the high costs, yet it is hard to find good employees, if i could hire at $2.00 an hour it would help many young people who have difficult futures.

    There is a chance companies could exploit this arrangement. But the cost of turnover makes good employees more valuable.
     
    #46     Dec 4, 2007
  7. why the hell would someone start a family when they can't afford to? and after they make that terrible decision, they expect the government to raise their wages to bail them out?

    here's an idea for you. if you have no marketable skills and expect to earn too little to raise a family, then don't start a family!!!! that has got to be the most irresponsible thing you can do. it's even worse than buying a home you can't afford. and then to have the nerve to expect your employer to bail you out of it.... sheesh
     
    #47     Dec 4, 2007
  8. Wow, touchy subject. Please excuse the attitudes of some of us Americans, many of us can be so ethnocentric.

    But the best thing would be not to have a minimum wage. Free markets really do work, it is unfortunate that we've never seen one in this or the last century.
     
    #48     Dec 5, 2007
  9. JB3

    JB3

    The problem with a high minimum wage is that it will drive some small business owners out of business. And thus, causing more unemployment. And there's no law from paying more than minimum wage.

    And generally, minimum wage jobs require less skill and education, there is nothing to stop people from going to school and getting a degree so they are more qualified to get higher paying jobs. And then, you make sure your kids get a good education, so they don't need to get minimum wage jobs either.
     
    #49     Dec 5, 2007
  10. nealvan

    nealvan

    That's the heart of the problem.

    Some people expect society to raise their kids. This process is suppose to start at home to get young people ready for the real world. All too often they don't aquire work ethic because of their parents. Some come from broken homes and their parents are just completly out to lunch. They should not have kids this way. The reason is these are the one's that do not want to work because they think society owes them. Nobody owes you jack shit in this world and if someone is good enough to hire you your lucky. That's the way I see it and the way it should be. I remember driving an 18 wheeler and the people who worked in the factories did not want to work. They were on the clock but they were really slow. This is a frequent problem because the employer can't force them to work. People that did those jobs did not deserve the pay that I was earning but that's what they think they should get. Then there are the mechanics and some of them don't want to work and they get paid very well at that compared to the factory laborers. I made sacrifices you don't just give people hand outs because they'll never learn that way. I think we agree on the most part.
     
    #50     Dec 5, 2007