So because we can't decide what is fair, we should not even try. It is called a "living wage" which exactly what is not paid to minimum wage. Congress votes themselves raises, CEO's get raises, but minimum wage stays where it is. I know, I know, let them eat pancakes....
Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly by Walter E. Williams Posted Apr 26, 2006 About a fortnight ago, Mrs. Williams alerted me to an episode of Oprah Winfrey's show titled "Inside the Lives of People Living on Minimum Wage." After a few minutes of watching, I turned it off, not because of the heartrending tales but because most of what was being said was dead wrong. Let's look at it. The show claims that 30 million Americans earn the minimum wage of $5 an hour. Actually, the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, and 17 states mandate a higher minimum wage that approaches $7 an hour. At one point, Oprah did manage to clear up this aspect of the show's errors. The U.S. Department of Labor reports: "According to Current Population Survey estimates for 2004, some 73.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.8 percent of all wage and salary workers. Of those paid by the hour, 520,000 were reported as earning exactly $5.15." (http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2004.htm#2) Workers earning the minimum wage or less tend to be young, single workers between the ages of 16 and 25. Only about two percent of workers over 25 years of age earn minimum wages. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Sixty-three percent of minimum wage workers receive raises within one year of employment, and only 15 percent still earn the minimum wage after three years. Furthermore, only 5.3 percent of minimum wage earners are from households below the official poverty line; forty percent of minimum wage earners live in households with incomes $60,000 and higher; and, over 82 percent of minimum wage earners do not have dependents. The U.S. Department of Labor also reports that the "proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less has trended downward since 1979." Another issue that's not often taken into consideration is there's a difference between what a worker takes home in pay and his total compensation. Employers must pay for legally required worker benefits that include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, health and disability insurance benefits, and whatever paid leave benefits they offer, such as vacations, holidays and sick leave. It's tempting to think of higher minimum wages as an anti-poverty weapon, but such an idea doesn't even pass the smell test. After all, if higher minimum wages could cure poverty, we could easily end worldwide poverty simply by telling poor nations to legislate higher minimum wages. Poor people are not poor because of low wages. For the most part, they're poor because of low productivity, and wages are connected to productivity. The effect of minimum wages is that of causing unemployment among low-skilled workers. If an employer must pay $5.15 an hour, plus mandated fringes that might bring the employment cost of a worker to $7 an hour, does it pay him to hire a person who is so unfortunate as to have skills that permit him to produce only $4 worth of value per hour? Most employers would view hiring such a person as a losing economic proposition. Two important surveys of academic economists were reported in two issues of the American Economic Review, May 1979 and May 1992. In one survey, 90 percent, and in the other 80 percent, of economists agreed that increasing the minimum wage causes unemployment among youth and low-skilled workers. Minimum wages can have a more insidious effect. In research for my book "South Africa's War Against Capitalism" (1989), I found that during South Africa's apartheid era, racist unions, who'd never admit blacks, were the major supporters of higher minimum wages for blacks. Gert Beetge, secretary of South Africa's avowedly racist Building Worker's Union, in response to contractors hiring black workers, said, "There is no job reservation left in the building industry, and in the circumstances I support the rate-for-the-job [minimum wages] as the second best way of protecting our white artisans." Racists recognized the discriminatory effects of mandated minimum wages. I'm trying to figure whether ineptitude explains the errors in Oprah's show or a deliberate attempt to mislead. Dr. Williams is a nationally syndicated columnist, former chairman of the economics department at George Mason University, and author of More Liberty Means Less Government
The minimum wage is (or should be) based on the poverty level, not on economic principles. That's why it should be $7-$9 and not $100-$500. The economic effect of the minimum wage is secondary to its social significance in civilized societies, yet it's nice to know that it does not hurt but rather helps the economy.
Many agree that the greatest period of real productivity, real growth, and real accumulation of peace of mind in this country came following the end of WWII through the beginning of the 70's. That period saw labor unions flourishing, pension programs developing and people investing, minimum wages sufficient for living, etc. What do we see now? Productivity to this administration means cutting health care benefits, cutting pension plans, cutting jobs and exporting them overseas, etc. We used to measure productivity not in terms of the corporations and their profits, but in the lives of Americans improving..... Since then we have seen the weakening of labor unions, wages for the common man, more use of drugs to cope with mental illness (yes, the wealthy take a lot of drugs to help them sleep, keep them sane, etc.), increase in divorce rates, etc. America is better off now? Just one time, let the people vote their real life situation, and not their bogus fear of terrorism.... The bottom line is that having corporations run the show, via the lobby money, is not good for the people as a whole, that's the facts....
So, the fact that 20 million illegal immigrants are in this country with more wanting to come over everyday doesn't prove the point? Okay.
No, it doesn't prove your point at all. Just as many people who are willing to become legal want to come here. Doh!
You know what, you're right. Just as many people want to come here legally, but I believe most would likely work for $5.15 an hour. Probably less. I think I would rather pay $7.00 an hour to an illegal than pay a U.S. citizen $5.15 an hour because illegals have a better work ethic. They understand what it is like to live in a country where money and jobs are scarce. They will do whatever it takes to keep their job. In most of the jobs that I worked at, the biggest complainers about their salary were the worst workers in the office. Nobody was making minimum wage where I was at either. If you're in a minimum wage job, or any job for that matter, there are two ways to look at it. You can sit there and say if they are only going to pay me $5.15 an hour, then I'm going to give them $5.15 worth of work. Or you can say I'm going to work hard to keep my $5.15 an hour job. Guess who is getting the pay raise.
$5.15 and hour is not sufficient to live on. So you would rather violate the law paying an illegal than be law abiding and paying a legal higher wages. No surprise to me, that's how the right wing rationalizes unlawful behavior all the time.... No doubt 125 years ago you would have had no problem chaining a child to a machine to keep them working either, or cracking a whip on the back of a slave to get the most out of your property....
Obviously you don't understand the point I am making, and have to resort to calling me a racist. I told you I would rather pay somebody with a better work ethic more money and now I'm a slave master. Truly pathetic.
Where does it say racist? I am calling you a heartless self absorbed regressive capitalist pig.... Your brand of capitalism will exploit any race, gender, age, ethnicity if there is a buck in it for you personally....even if it is illegal to do so.... Folks like you have no morality, only lust for money....