Minimum wage increase?

[jagmagic]

Please explain, and then show, how the minimum wage increase will raise the cost of a gallon of milk to $6.00! The supply chain of milk does not employ minimum wage workers, unless you count the local Dairy Mart employees.

I'm pretty sure that was an exagerated example and not to be taken literally. Actually, almost every grocery store chain employs MANY aprox. 75% of store workers are @ min. wage. I used to be a grocery store manager I know this. The warehouses many grocery store chains use employ MANY, up to 60% min. wage workers. How do you expect those grocery stores to make up the lost wages from an increase of 50% affecting 75% of their staff. Not to mention the increase in price their direct (not the dairy industry) suppliers will have to charge for the same products?

$6.00 may have been a stretch, but it will increase prices across the board, from housing to groceries to gas and cars by an equal ratio to the min. wage increase. Expect a 35% - 45% mark up on EVERYTHING if the min. wage increases by said amount.

[jagmagic]

THE ONLY BENEFACTOR OF A MIN. WAGE INCREASE IS THE FED AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS...

It causes an increase in income tax b/c companies that pay more than min. wage typically give some type of raise based on "cost of living" which WILL increase.

It causes high sales tax, while the tax rate stays the same you are spending more therefore are being taxed more since the amount you are being taxed on increases.

It will cause an increase in land/property tax do to the fact that property will be more expensive to build on b/c the cost of everything from nails, to wood, to the shipment of the products needed in contruction will rise.

The people making the min. wage will not benefit from this action, and could even suffer do to it. The poverty level (the level at which people qualify for assisance ie. food stamps, afdc, and government aid) will not rise in relation to this and could cause many to have to 1) not work as much, or 2) find a way to work under the table and "cheat" the government so they can afford to feed their families.

If the government wants to invest in a nationwide adult education program to give people an affordable way they can better market themselves and educate themselves in needed industries of the future the government would then be doing what is needed to give the hard working underpaid people a chance at improving their quality of life.

THE IDEA OF AN INCREASE IN THE MIN. WAGE SIMPLY CREATES A LOSE/LOSE SITUATION FOR EVERYBODY. EXCEPT THE GOVERNMENT WHO WILL FIND A WAY TO WASTE THE INCREASE IN REVENUES.

[Woody]

Jag, that may well be the case, but it isn't all going to be made up in the price of a gallon of milk. The gallon of milk example sucks, which you have also pointed out. That was my point.

Around here at the supermarket I shop at, there are NO minimum wage employees. None. So my question is... Since THEIR cost of doing business won't be going up, how will the store that has all minimum wage employees compete? Maybe management will finally have to take a cut in pay? Maybe they will have to streamline something somewhere else?

[jagmagic]

Gee Whiz what a broad assumption you are making that a guy is going to be eating a NY Steak?

The point about minimun wage is to make sure that a person can afford to live under a roof and eat hamburger instead of premium dogfood. Some people on minimun wage are actually THE Head of Household. You ASSUME that people who make min wage are lazy, but statisticsally with the unemployment rate hovering around 4%, there isn't alot of choices out there for the new crop of people coming into the work sector. In case you didn't notice, alot of jobs created are in the tech fields and there is alot of retail jobs that only pay min wage. Why do you think alot of people DON'T WANT Wal-Mart in their cities and work hard to keep them out? It isn't because of all the "lazy" people who live there. Its about paying a livable wage!

WOW, you must not be a very good engeneer if you have to supplement with a part time lawn service company to make ends meet? Or is it because you forget your own roots of where you came from?

But its going to take 2 years to go up to $7.25, so you have 2 years to pull your head outa the sand.

Wow man, don't know where to start. 1) why attempt to critisize someone's line of work in a debate about larger issues??? doesn't make your arguement look very educated.

Now about your arguement. I do agree wal-mart is assisting in the decay of modern society. Their are MANY jobs educated people can obtain to prevent them from having to work at min. wage. Taking a min. wage job is a choice. Sometimes that choice is made at the high school level, sometimes later in life when people feel they have no other route.

NO PERSON OR FAMILY CAN SURVIVE IF THE SOUL PROVIDER OF THE HOUSEHOLD IS MAKING $5.15, $6.50, OR $7.50/HR. EVEN A TWO INCOME HOUSEHOLD WITH TWO PEOPLE MAKING MIN. WAGE CAN NOT SURVIVE WITHOUT PUBLIC ASSISTANCE.

Increasing the min. wage is not the solution. Anyone who thinks it is, is either extremely short sided or just not wise enough to understand the ramifications of this to our economy.

[jagmagic]

Jag, that may well be the case, but it isn't all going to be made up in the price of a gallon of milk. The gallon of milk example sucks, which you have also pointed out. That was my point.

Around here at the supermarket I shop at, there are NO minimum wage employees. None. So my question is... Since THEIR cost of doing business won't be going up, how will the store that has all minimum wage employees compete? Maybe management will finally have to take a cut in pay? Maybe they will have to streamline something somewhere else?

It will affect the stores you shop at as well because those employees will (as most good campanies do) give their employees a raise to remain competative in the job industry in relation to the min. wage increase. Grocery stores (I'm only using this as the example b/c it has been previously used in this debate, but this is true in almost every industry) operate on a VERY low profit margin. In most cases they are selling items for less then 1% markup over the price they pay for the products. They don't have a lot of room in their pricing structure to except changes in their costs.

If they stores you are shopping at pay their employees say $8.00/hr now. The employees are happy they are $2.85 above min. wage. If min. wage increases to $7.25, they will only be making $.75 more than the burger king employee down the street with probably far less responsability on his plate. the morale drops unless they (the grocery store) raises their wages by an avg. of at least $1.75/hr. A large store has roughly 50 -80 labor hours/day budgeted for. How are they, at a .5% - 1% margin of profit going to compensate for an increase of $51,100/yr in labor costs without passing that on to the customer?

Ironically enough (and this is what floors me about this subject) the customers are the same people they are paying more to do the same job, just so they can afford to buy the same items at a higher price.

It's just a vicious circle. The problem is, it's not the grocery store chains, or the wall marts or the gas station that this hinders. It's the small business owners just starting out trying to compete with the deep pockets of the nationwide chain retailers that really suffer. It's the people making $15.00 - $25.00/hour in skilled jobs that will also suffer due to an increase in the cost of living.

[jagmagic]

You just proved the points, yet the biggest abuse of workers is in the Gulf Coast. Check out www.dol.gov and stay awhile for some reading if you want to dispute me. The arguements are not bogus and there are poor people who are NOT lazy who are Heads of household earning min wage, but a middle class white boy probably doesn't rub shoulders with THOSE kind of people.

Also, since you don't want government telling you that there are minimum standards on your employees' welfare, then I would have to conclude that if you could get away with it, you would not pay them time and a half for overtime. Would that include not providing a safe workplace? Sure, you can claim that you are "not your brothers keeper" like the Biblical story of Cain vs Able. But then in the long run, you won't be any better than companies who send their coal miners or diamond miners into a dangerous job so the owners can make blood money.

Alot of this minimum wage discussion is whipping a dead horse anyway because most States have a higher minimum wage standard than the Feds. Go to www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm for the chart.

Nebraska and Virginia are the 2 states w/ standards lower than the Feds; 5 States have no min wage; 15 States have a min wage=to the Feds; and 28 States are higher than the Fed min wage.

WOW, That's amazing. That map resembles VERY closesly the last two presidential elections. The Dem. states are higher than the national avg. and the Rep. states are the same as the national avg.

This is obviously a very devisive topic, however, I would be very much in favor of the states having complete control of wages in their state w/o the assistance of a fed. wage law. Each state has it's own set of circumstances that dictate it's cost of living. Here in Oklahoma, the cost of living is not nearly as high as Florida, California, or New York and thus we don't need an increase. If I was single hear I could survive (pay my bills) for about $600.00/mo. Where as that same amount of money would probably not even pay rent on a 1 bdrm in the other states I mentioned. People here are not used to paying much for services and products in relation to other parts of the country and the increase here is not needed. I do however see where in some parts of the country it could be beneficial.

[jagmagic]

1.Okay now, let's do the math and you are paying your employee at the current Federal min wage of $5.15/hr. His tax obligation will be 32 cents in FICA and 8 cents in Medicare for a total net of $4.75/hr.

It will like wise cost you 40 cents per hr for your half of the FICA and Medicare. He won't be paying any Federal income tax and will most likely qualify for an earned income tax credit; neither will he most likely not be paying into a state income tax. Your minimum cost per hour is $5.55. Also add in your cost of workmans comp and unemploment tax and the .008 cents for the FUTA tax after you take your full state tax credit on the gross wages paid.

2.Now take the same married man and pay him $7.25/hr under the new Federal min wage. It will cost him 45 cents in FICA and 11 cents in Medicare. He won't be paying Federal income tax if he is claim 3 or more exemptions. His total tax burden would be 56 cents and his net is $6.69/hr. Again you pay for your half of FICA and Medicare for a total of 56 cents and your minimun is $7.81/hr; and add in your other business labor burdens.

The net gain per hour to the worker is $1.94/ hr. Now the average worker will work 2000 hours/year, so multiply that by $1.94/hr will give him an extra $3880 for the year or $323.33 per month. The worker making $5.15/hr x 2000 hours = $10300/year or $858.33/month. The worker making $7.25/hr x 2000 hours = $14500/year or $1208.33/month.

3. what does mean to you, the employer? Your absolute rock bottom gross income would be:

a.$5.55 x 2000 hrs = $11100.00 x 2.5 = $27750/year per employee
b.$7.81 x 2000 hrs = $15620.00 x 2.5 = $39050/year per employee

now play with the other multipliers I gave above. If you aren't bring that in per worker, then you better quit whinning and rework your pricing structure.

For cry out loud, even my elderly Mother gets a yearly cost of living increase from SSI, but we can't seem to do the same for minimun wage workers.

Ok, wait. I was completely cool with what you were saying all the way up to the last line. Your elderly Mother is the exact person you should be most worried about in this situation. Her increase will not nearly match the cost of living increase caused by a nationwide min. wage hike. Should a hard working person making min. wage get a raise, absolutely, but not b/c the government says so. The employer should make that decision base on the workers job performance not the law. You want employers to be forced to give their employees a raise of $4200.00 across the board weather their perfomance dictates that or not. Can't agree with your mindset of comparing a min. wage worker to your elderly mom, they are unbeleivabley different situations.

[zz4guy]

It's not a done deal yet guys. I keep hearing that Bush will not sign the bill unless there are substantial small business tax credits or incentives.

Also the bill isn't passing by much. It only passed by ONE vote in the house! That isn't very promising for a presidential veto override.

[MASTERMOWER]

It's not a done deal yet guys. I keep hearing that Bush will not sign the bill unless there are substantial small business tax credits or incentives.

Also the bill isn't passing by much. It only passed by ONE vote in the house! That isn't very promising for a presidential veto override.

Has to go before the senate first...........

[GrassMaster]

Here's a few scenarios? Think about it & bla Bla BLA...

OK, you got a couple that is married. They have 3 kids, say 6, 7 & 8. The husband has a average job, the wife doesn't have much education. The husband gets killed or disappears off the face of the earth.

The Mom has now got to support the kids, she's not going on welfare because she's too proud. She gets a job at one of these Multi Million dollar fast food franchises that abuse & take advantage of minimum wage workers. They are known for that & that's why they are rich as hell.

OK, maybe this mom is lucky enough to get a job working from say 8:00AM to 4:00PM 5 days a week... This ain't going to happen first. Maybe 6:30AM to 5:30PM in the real world 6 days a week. How does she get those kids looked after while she's working in the mornings & afternoons right before & after school until she gets off?

Now how's she going to get her an education, where's the time? How is she going to feed her kids on $5.25 an hour? Is she lazy? Is she sorry? Is she worthless? Do you think those kids even know what steak, lobster or shrimp is much less taste like? Who's fault is it that they don't?

She still makes it & struggling like you've never known or heard of in your life. It will help her & the kids if she makes $7.25 an hour? Tell me how many Ipods & X-Boxes you think is in her house? Do you think she could even think of buying a cheap computer & printer so her kids can do their homework? Can you even imagine growing up in those conditions? Do you think these kids even get the proper medical attention they need?

A dream job for her would be working 8:00AM to 5:00PM making $8 or $10 an hour. She could probably get those kids some decent clothes & probably afford cable TV. Should we deny her & her children a barely minimal life style because her husband got killed or left her?

The US is cranking out some of the sorriest young males known to the planet. It's published that the average male stays at home until 25 years old. I had a guy in the shop the other day that was griping about it going up $2 an hour. Let me tell you what I found out about this person.

He lived at home doing the middle class thing with his parents. His life was handed to him on a silver platter. He went all the way through high school, worked a few odd jobs making extra money. Then later he went to college, his sorry parents only gave him a nice car & every once in a while a 100 dollar bill. This poor SOB had to work part time & make it through college... Aw man sounds like a horrible life to me, yeah right LMAO? More like a Gravy Train life full of help all the way?

He thinks he had it rough & some how thinks he did the impossible. Now he looks down on others that are far less fortunate & doesn't think minimum wage should go up? He actually thinks in his own mind he did something that no one else has ever done? As far as I'm concerned he had his life handed to him on a silver platter.

Evidently it doesn't take much sacrifice these days to be a legend in your own mind. That guy sat on his lazy ass going to high school, must have been nice dating the cheerleader & going to the prom. And then low & behold he went to college & worked part time. Sound like a easy short cut to making it with little to no sacrifice. It wouldn't be near as bad if he thought the minimum wage workers deserved a much needed raise?

There's a pile of single females, Single Parent Homes out there trying to stay off welfare & raise their kids. Just think how much $2 an hour would improve their lives? Just because you're a little older & think all those kids working at fast food places don't have a child to support or have to give it to Mom to pay the rent or buy groceries is beyond me?

How easy was it growing up? Did you eat a few meals "EVERY DAY", did you have heating & Air Conditioning when needed? Do you remember the day you helped put up the new TV Antenna so you could watch 4 channels on the B&W TV instead of 2 channels? How many times did you go on vacation or did you ever go? How often did you get cookies at the house, did you get them once a week? Did you ever open up the refrigerator & found something to drink besides Ice water in a orange juice jug? All those are luxuries if the head of the house hold is only making $5 to $7 an hour? I wonder how many wall chargers you can afford on that salary, much less something to plug them into?

Those old folks that are working at those places do you think maybe they are living high on the hog & are just flat out greedy so they work so they can make payments on their BMW or do you think it might be because of they might need it for medicine or for a little bit better food? Tell me when you hit 50 how hard is it to go to work, then again at 60, again at 70?

We had a guy in the shop that was in his 70's with emphysema. He worked at the thread mill for over 30 years. Supported his family, one even went to college & at the end of 30 years they let him go, he gets a $125 a month retirement & about $1,000 a month social security? Is he a bad person? What did he do wrong? Is he a worthless person, no he isn't but there's a lot of people out there that actually think they are better than him? I think he deserves far more, I think his country, friends & family failed him? He's a damn hero in my eyes.

Everybody doesn't have a bed of roses growing up? This guy worked as a bag boy in his 70's only 4 hours a day 5 days a week until he died of a heart attack at work. They didn't even call his wife, she called wanting to know why he didn't come home. Can it get any worse, yes it can get a lot worse until you've been in a pair of wore out shoes, living in a body that has done with out, you'll never know the real world?

My argument is, we need to show a little human compassion for those minimum wage workers. You can't show it unless you or a loved one has lived it. Just open your eyes & look around? There's plenty of people getting a raw deal in like, some has never seen or heard of silver spoons?

OK, now how many people (Private Individuals) do you know that own businesses that pay their employees minimum wage? How Many? Now name the Fast Food Places, Movie Theaters & other Franchises and so forth that rich folks make it over the minimum wage workers sweat off their backs?

I bet over 40% of the American working class dreams of getting a job making $60,000 a year. How are they going to get an education working 50 - 60 hours a week making $5 an hour? Or even $7 an hour? Most are just proud to have the job?

If the $2 only helps a 1,000 families in the US it's worth the sacrifice I have to make to make it come true. There's plenty of people supporting families out there making less than $400 a week. Yes this is true, it ain't that bad either.

Making $60,000 a year, you should be able to afford a $1,000 a month house & a couple of cars, supporting a wife and a couple of kids... This is a life time dream of at least 50% of America's working class. If you got average health care provided & a retirement plan you're on easy street?

You might not be able to go on sea cruises, eat out very much, play golf on the weekends but definitely a easy life that millions could only dream about until the day they die?

I see older people that come to my shop that are on limited incomes. They have to decide if they're going to get a $30 repair done on their mower or eat a little bit better or try to get the medicine they need that month. They can't have it all, just one of them? Have you ever seen or heard of this kind of lifestyle?

Some people walk around with a bitter out look on life because they think they have it bad? In all actuality they don't even know what bad is?

Everybody knows what to do with the bear except the man that's got him?

One of the funniest games I've ever played with my kids is the cookie game or drink game that my sister & I used to play growing up?

We used to pretend we had a bag of cookies & eat them. Sometimes we would only pretend to eat 2 because we wanted them to last the week? Sometimes we pretend we ate a lot of them & get sick.

Getting sick was wonderful when I was a kid because that's when we got Coke a Cola or Sprite. Man back in the day it could cure anything. Those were the days of real people.

I had a guy come into the shop about 9 years ago. I knew he lived in a $300K home. LOL, he filled out a Snapper Credit form to purchase a $150 hand held blower. On the report he declared $80,000 a year income & his wife made $60,000. He was turned down because he had bad credit, he had been living in the house over 10 years, him & his wife both been employed over 20 years? What a pitiful person, he should have at least a $1,000 in his pocket at all times making that much money? I bet you $1,000 he says no to the minimum wage increase too? As far as I'm concerned he's committed a crime.

It's plain & simple, if anybody deserves a $2 an hour raise it's the minimum wage workers. Can't everybody get a nice job no matter what? How do you know better & want better if you've never seen it? How can a person supporting a family get an education working 6 days a week for minimum wage get an education.

Not everybody got to live at home & finish high school, then on to college?

As long as our country is ran by rich self employed educated people, things will never change for the lower working class. How many years & how many elections have we been promised health care for all or promised a raise in minimum wage? It sounds good but will it happen.

Remember not everybody can get a job of a lifetime, nothing is permanent except death & taxes. I took a cut in pay to work at the Firestone Tire & Rubber plant. I was supposed to be my last job until I retire. Everybody else thought that too.

4 years later they gave the employees 6 months notice of the plant closure, about 2,300 jobs will be terminated, quite a few husband & wives both worked there. That very day I saw several men & women crying. Over the next 6 months several suicides. There was a article in the newspaper about the judge complaining about all the divorces, that neither spouse wanted the house, the vehicles, boats or anything. During almost the same time another 2,000 had lost their jobs too at other places.

Just because things are good now doesn't mean they'll be good a year from now. When you're broke & about to lose everything you own, $5 an hour is very good pay $7 is even better.

A lot of people out there are maxed out on credit making real good money & are less than 1 to 2 paychecks from being bankrupt or homeless? Give them the $2 an hour & thank God you have a job at this time, they sure as hell deserve it & more.

If gas goes up another dollar a gallon & milk goes up to $5 a gallon you'll still make it better than 50% of the people are now. Some people are so Blessed & all they can think about is why they can't have what bill Gates or Opra has got. When all they got to do is do something different & take the precious time out of their lives to go to a family reunion to see how much better they have it than their own kin folks.

I just Thank God my family is alive, eating good & living in the USA... I'm a Blessed Man!

PS: It can't get any better than this & I'm willing to share mine so others can have more!

[Stephen M.]

Saying i'm not a good engineer because of the fact that i still mow lawns is not a very good assumption. I'm at the beginning of my career. I've only been an engineer for 1.5 years. I grossed 63000 last year as an engineer so i don't thing that's bad for my first year. The fact that I want more for my wife and daughter is why i still mow to add to my income. $63000 is nothing when you have medical bills and such hitting you all the time.

Milk here costs $5.00/gallon roughly.....if the workers at the stores get paid 40% more then milk will have to increase in price. Not a good thing for anyone.

Okay, so basically you are a hard working guy who is living like a minimum wage earner, but just a little farther up the food chain!

I DO know about medical bills since I broke my left calcanus (heel bone) mid Dec2003 and had it fixed by the BEST surgeon in America Jan 2004. At that time. my wife and I were w/o medical insurance and we are paying off a $40,000 medical bill. Then my wife has had some medical proceedures of her own over the past 2 years which medical insurance has paid about 80% of, but we have that on top of my medical bills.

HOWEVER, my own expenses have nothing to do with the guy eeking out a living at the bottom of the food chain. My troubles and your troubles are like comparing the perverbial apples to oranges as to which is better for you to eat!

We have alot of medical bills between us, but the difference is that YOU are WHINNING and I am NOT.

As to the price of milk, I used to be a dairy farm worker responsible for herd health, and I can tell you for a fact that the dairy farmer made only about $1.00 of that price.

[GrassMaster]

Yes people live on very little & are Happy too!

There's 1,000's of families living on less than $400 a week, yes it can be done. They just can't have luxuries that most take for granted. Phones, Cable TV, Cold in the summer, Hot in the winter, 2 vehicles, computers, video games, Block Buster, meat every meal, sweet drinks, cookies & a 1,000 more things are not necessary to live. These are luxuries that rich people take for granted... Come on people, surely everybody didn't have it easy growing up?

LOL, I knew a lot of poor kids that had it worse than me. Am I the only one left? :laughing:

Here's a copy & paste...

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/issueguides_minwage_minwagefaq

Who are minimum wage workers?
An estimated 14.9 million workers (11% of the workforce) would benefit from an increase in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 by 2008. Of these workers, 6.6 million would be directly affected and 8.3 million would indirectly receive raises due to the spillover effect of a minimum wage increase. Of the total affected workers, 80% are adults and 59% are women. Over half (54%) work full time and another third (30%) work between 20 and 34 hours per week. More than one-quarter (26%) of the workers who would benefit from an increase to $7.25 are parents of children under age 18, including 1,395,000 single parents. The average minimum wage worker brings home over half (58%) of his or her family's weekly earnings.

If you've never done without, you'll never figure it out & always want all the money for your self and nobody else? Sad but true. Greed is at a all time high in the US.

Do you remember back in the old days when poor people were actually skinny? Owning a car & or a home is a luxury, not a necessity to live.

Sounds like a lot of us have a bitter outlook on life because we have too much and don't appreciate what we have got & don't even know what it's like to do without?

[Stephen M.]

Stephen,
The amount of people supporting a household is vary small. The vast majority are teens second incomers and retired. The ones who are still will not be able to at 7 an hour. Don't dismiss this point because it is vary important. You can not support a household on 5,7 or 9 an hour as long as you use your argument, you can not rightfully justify the minimum wage at 5,7 or 9. In fact with your argument you can not justify not giving people a guaranteed 40k a year to get them above poverty level, you can not justify not giving them health ins. because any one with the slightest health problem can't afford it only making 40k a year, and you have to give them paid maternity leave and family med leave because you can't afford 2 months off because if you did you would not make 40k that year.

Minimum wage is designed for entry level low skill jobs. IT IS NOT A LIVING WAGE.

Gee, you FINALLY have a rational arguement, but it is only partially correct.

There are very few teenagers in the workforce today compared to 20 years ago.

Yes, I know that a min wage was never meant to be a living wage, but for some it is. Other than by choice, it has been a contributing factor in why people become homeless, but that is another debate like global warming.

The people who retire w/ a nice pension who may work a min wage job just because they want "something to do" are not the people who worry about that.

BUT, the older people who divorce, especially the older woman who had never worked outside the home for whatever reason, are suddenly thrust into the job market and have no marketable skills in todays world. THOSE people are suddenly their Head of Household. They won't get alimony because they lack the money to get a good lawyer to buy a better deal in life. Can you see where this is going? Its not as rare as you may think.

Most of you people who have other day time jobs and are only a weekend LCO are living in comfort. You are not risking anything because your employer is taking the risk for you. Now CLLawn, I have no idea if this applies to you.

As an employer, I quit paying min wage long ago because I want smarter people than what I can buy at min wage. Min wage earners have been the hardest working people I know because they have to be. If the guy is lazy, iots more of an attitde problem that affects his work habits. Just to say that all min wage workers are lazy, according to Weinnie, is grossly unfair.

[wenied]

Gee, you FINALLY have a rational arguement, but it is only partially correct.

There are very few teenagers in the workforce today compared to 20 years ago.

Yes, I know that a min wage was never meant to be a living wage, but for some it is. Other than by choice, it has been a contributing factor in why people become homeless, but that is another debate like global warming.

The people who retire w/ a nice pension who may work a min wage job just because they want "something to do" are not the people who worry about that.

BUT, the older people who divorce, especially the older woman who had never worked outside the home for whatever reason, are suddenly thrust into the job market and have no marketable skills in todays world. THOSE people are suddenly their Head of Household. They won't get alimony because they lack the money to get a good lawyer to buy a better deal in life. Can you see where this is going? Its not as rare as you may think.

Most of you people who have other day time jobs and are only a weekend LCO are living in comfort. You are not risking anything because your employer is taking the risk for you. Now CLLawn, I have no idea if this applies to you.

As an employer, I quit paying min wage long ago because I want smarter people than what I can buy at min wage. Min wage earners have been the hardest working people I know because they have to be. If the guy is lazy, iots more of an attitde problem that affects his work habits. Just to say that all min wage workers are lazy, according to Weinnie, is grossly unfair.

1. I hardly live like a minimum wage family. I don't let the checking account get below $1000. I always keep 6 months income in a high yield savings account. I contribute 12% income to retirement.

2. GM...your example of the woman who's husband dies and leaves her with nothing....why didn't the husband have a $1,000,000 life insurance policy? Life insurance is cheap and it's advisable to have at least 5X your annual income in life insurance. i'm proud to say that i have no medical bills...i paid them all off with the lawn business...for 2007 i'll use the lawn business to rebuild my savings.

3. Min. wage workers are lazy for the most part. They choose to work for 5.15 at dairy barn when they could go to wal-mart and work alittle harder for starting pay of $7.00/hr. They could buy a beater car and deliver pizza. The local dominos pays 15/hr on average with tips. They could work two min wage jobs...80 hrs/week and make plenty of money.

Don't say that working 80+hr/week is too hard either. this year alone in march..then in june and again in september i'll be working turnarounds that will cause me to work 7 days a week and 90hr/week for 35 days straight each. Sure i'll make anywhere from 12-15000 per month during the turn arounds but i'll get the crap taxed out of me during that period. The min wage earners dont have to worry about that tax issue.

Trust me..this min wage increase will drastically increase the inflation rate.

[Stephen M.]

Ok, wait. I was completely cool with what you were saying all the way up to the last line. Your elderly Mother is the exact person you should be most worried about in this situation. Her increase will not nearly match the cost of living increase caused by a nationwide min. wage hike. Should a hard working person making min. wage get a raise, absolutely, but not b/c the government says so. The employer should make that decision base on the workers job performance not the law. You want employers to be forced to give their employees a raise of $4200.00 across the board weather their perfomance dictates that or not. Can't agree with your mindset of comparing a min. wage worker to your elderly mom, they are unbeleivabley different situations.

I will concede the point, but you also inadvertantly made my point in that at least my Mother gets a cost of living increase every year. However the Government has also find a way to take it back thru the crazy Medicare prescription mess. The min wage worker has not had a cost of living increase for 10 years. I give my employees a cost of living increase every year. I charge my customers a cost of business increase every year.

But, hey, at least those of you who are against this are a least starting to put forth a rational arguement.