Mitt Romney backs minimum wage hike

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Maybe, if the economy was robust enough so that people felt safe in expanding their businesses and hiring, the minimum wage issue would be far less of an issue.

 

[MisterChester]

Maybe, if the economy was robust enough so that people felt safe in expanding their businesses and hiring, the minimum wage issue would be far less of an issue.

It is a dangerous cycle. Larger companies are sitting on piles of cash, and justify it by saying they don't feel confident enough to expand and hire because their profits are down, costs are up, blah blah. Profits are down because unemployment is too high (smaller pool of people to buy goods and services) and many others are underemployed or don't make enough to buy stuff that isn't a necessity. If they, as a whole, expanded their companies and hired people at decent wages the pool of people to buy their products and services would expand. It's a cycle only they can break, government can't force them to hire anybody.

 

[steveh_131]

Notably, if we adjust for inflation based on what minimum wage was in, say 1975 when I bought my first vehicle, 1975 gasoline prices, etc., in 2014 minimum wage should already be $15 / hr. That would be just to stay equivalent to 1975.

This intentional failure of business owners to keep minimum wage on pace with inflation most assuredly has benefited the business owners for 40 years. Even if it was raised to $15 / hr. tomorrow, the business owners would still be ahead, having 4 decades of wage savings.

So, raise it to $15 / hr. now, where it should be, and raise other pay rates a like amount to where they should be, as well.

Exactly. From each according to his ability and to each according to his need amirite??

 

[jamil]

It is a dangerous cycle. Larger companies are sitting on piles of cash, and justify it by saying they don't feel confident enough to expand and hire because their profits are down, costs are up, blah blah. Profits are down because unemployment is too high (smaller pool of people to buy goods and services) and many others are underemployed or don't make enough to buy stuff that isn't a necessity. If they, as a whole, expanded their companies and hired people at decent wages the pool of people to buy their products and services would expand. It's a cycle only they can break, government can't force them to hire anybody.

Seems like you got your cart/horse switched around.

 

[Leadeye]

Maybe the country should do an experiment, have california raise the minimum for everybody in the state to $20 per hour and check the results after a few years.

 

[jamil]

Notably, if we adjust for inflation based on what minimum wage was in, say 1975 when I bought my first vehicle, 1975 gasoline prices, etc., in 2014 minimum wage should already be $15 / hr. That would be just to stay equivalent to 1975.

This intentional failure of business owners to keep minimum wage on pace with inflation most assuredly has benefited the business owners for 40 years. Even if it was raised to $15 / hr. tomorrow, the business owners would still be ahead, having 4 decades of wage savings.

So, raise it to $15 / hr. now, where it should be, and raise other pay rates a like amount to where they should be, as well.

Yeah. Damn straight. Those gol dern companies owe us. They should be forced ta pay us our due. B'cause, 'merica.

That about sum it up?

 

[MisterChester]

Seems like you got your cart/horse switched around.

How so?

 

[jamil]

It didn't start because companies ar just sitting on piles of cash.

 

[NorthLiberty]

Many people are not worth the minimum wage.

 

[NorthLiberty]

Since when is it acceptable to play games on an iphone at work and provide the worst customer service in the history of the world?

 

[Bunnykid68]

The market should dictate wages. What if I make 15$ an hour based on my work ethic? If you bring it up to 15 you are penalizing people like me. You think my employer will raise my salary if minimum wage is raised? I don't think so.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Happened to me with one of my first jobs. I was making 50 cents more than minimum wage when it went up 50 cents, I didnt get an increase, had to train the new people that were making minimum wage with me and the union didnt give 2 squats about it.

 

[Bunnykid68]

You do not start a business to make other people money, you start it to make you and/or any investors money. The people working for you should be happy to have a job and if they are not they are free to seek work elsewhere.

 

[zippy23]

oh i know romney would be way better than obama, thats why i voted for him, i'm just saying many conservatives stayed home cuz romney is liberal light.

And raising the minimum wage means LESS jobs. If Mcdonalds(everyone actually but lets just use them as an example) is forced to raise their wages, they will either raise the cost of the product, or cut employees to offer the product at the same price. If they raise the price of their product, less people will buy it, stores will close, less product is purchased from the farmer, less is sold, it hurts the economy. Obviously if they cut employees to keep the price the same then jobs are lost. either way its bad.

And dont forget that most union contracts are based on minimum wage. They get a certain percentage over minimum wage, so raising that, raises the cost for their products or services as well. its all bad. let the market work and its fine.

 

[zippy23]

It is a dangerous cycle. Larger companies are sitting on piles of cash, and justify it by saying they don't feel confident enough to expand and hire because their profits are down, costs are up, blah blah. Profits are down because unemployment is too high (smaller pool of people to buy goods and services) and many others are underemployed or don't make enough to buy stuff that isn't a necessity. If they, as a whole, expanded their companies and hired people at decent wages the pool of people to buy their products and services would expand. It's a cycle only they can break, government can't force them to hire anybody.

#1 there is no fault in a company doing anything concerning hording their money and not hiring people. Would you hire anyone right now seeing that health care costs are exploding? The economy is awful, a business would be stupid to expand, unless you are a gun manufacturer right now
#2 the economy is awful BECAUSE of gov't. They cant hire and expand because so many people have lost their jobs thanks to gov't. Every business wants to grow, no one wants to sit around and make less, every business will grow if they can, do you want more money??? and profits ARE down, and costs ARE WAY UP, its not blah blah, its exactly whats happening, again thanks to gov't. How can a company just go POOF and hire people just cuz? They need the demand to sell their product and service in order to PAY the employee. The demand aint there.
#3 i work in health care, a medium sized hospital in kokomo is down millions already this year, and so is every other hospital system in the state, they have laid of thousands of people statewide, the solution is to just hire people cuz they have all this money? That is a talking point taken directly from the liberals in gov't. Business people are smart, gov't workers are idiots. guess who makes the policy in our country today? Career idiots.

 

[EvilElmo]

And raising the minimum wage means LESS jobs. If Mcdonalds(everyone actually but lets just use them as an example) is forced to raise their wages, they will either raise the cost of the product, or cut employees to offer the product at the same price. If they raise the price of their product, less people will buy it, stores will close, less product is purchased from the farmer, less is sold, it hurts the economy. Obviously if they cut employees to keep the price the same then jobs are lost. either way its bad.

Just to underscore the point...

The problem we're facing is the rampant printing of fiat currency that devalues the existing money supply, leading to inflation. Raising the minimum wage to keep pace with inflation is treating the symptom, not the disease.

 

[Lucas156]

The problem were facing is also a technology problem.technology is replacing workers at a higher rate. It's understandable that this stresses the system because resources are distributed differently. The rich really are getting richer and the poor poorer. The bigger question is what do we do about it and the big disagreement is whether government intervention is the right or wrong answer. Just telling someone to get more education and get a better job is a cop out. The bottom line is there are not very many good jobs out there.

 

[Henry]

Another reason he lost, he aint no conservative, no wonder millions of republicans stayed home during the election. I found out today that most union contracts are based upon the minimum wage, meaning they get paid a certain percentage higher than the minimum wage, no wonder the liberals want it so bad, regardless of how it hurts the country.

Mitt Romney wants to raise the minimum wage- MSN Money

but if you didn't vote for Willard you voted for Barry. Haven't you heard?

 

[printcraft]

Higher wages and lower prices. I'm a stoopid liberal so this is possible.....ask me how. Don't expect a cogent* answer.

* who says cogent? (att: printcraft)

 

[Dean C.]

Heck I would be happy with a $9 minimum wage let alone a $10.10. That being said an hourly manager at BK makes $8.75 an hour. On the flip side everyone making fast food comments let me educate you since it is my job to know this stuff. A large french fry costs us on average 2 cents the cardboard holder for the fries costs more that the fries by a little over one cent. So it costs us 5 cents for something we charge you $2.14 for or so. That is a 4200% profit so the prices of food would not need to go up in order to continue to make a profit. Heck they increased the price of an ice cream cone to $1.07 up from $.95 just because and the cost of the ice cream mix didnt go up at all. Oh and another fun number our allowance for labor is only 6% total costs but when my BK was bought out it went from 11% to 6% just because.

But a high school educated nobody can earn $15 an hour to do basically nothing all day, plus benefits dont make me laugh. One of the EX managers at BK got a job at Chrysler and he has flat out told me working at Chrysler is five times easier than working at BK. So when people say the workers at places like BK and McDonalds can be replaced by machines so can union workers.

I am going to use the Costco example for higher wages, so yes wages can be increased without price increases and honestly it would really help with worker productivity since more money would be at stake workers would be less likely to call off, and they would be more motivated to work harder. Because I cannot tell you how many times I have heard F this I only make $7.15 an hour. Companies like costco use their higher wages to attract better employees because they get the pick of the litter per say due to their higher wages. But that is a different topic for another thread I guess.

 

[JS1911]

Maybe the country should do an experiment, have california raise the minimum for everybody in the state to $20 per hour and check the results after a few years.

They certainly have the legislative majority to do something like this. Funny how they haven't done so yet. Could it be that they actually understand that raising the minimum wage without an equal gain in productivity is a net economic loss?