Is there a good reason why congress should not require companies to pay a livable wage?

[peacebird]

Seriously - Walmart is highly profitable, in part because it keeps its workforce largely part-time in order to avoid paying for insurance. Many workers therequalify for food stamps and other assistance.

Should minimum wage be increased to a livable wage?

[spanone]

1. yes.

[peacebird]

2. Okay, please elaborate?

[PoliticAverse]

3. Would you be specific in what you mean by 'liveable wage' ? n/t

[peacebird]

9. A full time salary would put you above the Feds poverty level

[octothorpe]

12. poverty level for what exacly? one person, two, a family of four?

[PoliticAverse]

13. ok..

For 1 person that is $11,170 ( http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml ).

For 40 hours/week, 52 weeks per year that comes out to be $5.37 per hour which is actually
less than the current Federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour ( http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm )

(For 30 hours/week, 52 weeks per year $11,170 would be $7.16/hour )

[pipoman]

4. A "livable wage" in San Diego, or

a "livable wage" in Olpie Kansas?

[peacebird]

5. For the location. Feds adjust the per diem for location, no reason this could not also work that way

[pipoman]

16. The result may be

a dozen eggs costs $28 in San Diego, and at $2 in Kansas..

[Recursion]

6. The argument, as far as it goes, is that not everybody has to live off of their wage

The high school kid guessing your weight at the carnival, etc. I'm not terribly convinced, but that's the most cogent argument I've seen.

And that doesn't even get in to the fact that farm workers don't have a minimum wage.

[bamacrat]

7. It'll kill jobs?

[peacebird]

10. We are subsidizing a lot of company profits by giving food stamps and medicaid to their underpaid

part time workers. part time workers who want to work full time, but are intenetionally kept part time in order to justify NOT giving them insurance.

What can be done to help the working poor?

[Lightbulb_on]

8. What defines a "livable wage"...

Location as mentioned above...

Also does that include luxuries like TV, AC, vacations etc.. etc.. etc..?

[slackmaster]

11. That power is not granted to Congress by the Constitution, therefore it belongs to the states.

Tenth Amendment - Reserved Powers

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

[PoliticAverse]

14. There is a federal minimum wage law...

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/minimumwage.htm#.ULtq1HeJSno

"The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. The federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Many states also have minimum wage laws. In cases where an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages. "

[slackmaster]

15. Yes, under the "general welfare" clause. Article I, Section 8.

But the federal minimum wage is not a "living" wage, and trying to define what that would be poses serious problems because of difference in the cost of living from one place to another.