my minimum wage idea

[slide to the left]

Ok, take it or leave it, but I have been thinking about his for a while.

A living wage should be considered what a worker, working 40 hours per week needs to make in order to live in the area he/she lives in with a family. That means in CA it will be higher than NE, and so on.

The only people that should make a "living wage" should be over 18, not considered a dependant by anyone, and must work more than 180 days per year. This means all high school students, part time workers, and summer job people will not be paid as much as others working to support families. That seams fair to me.

When I was in HS, I worked more than 180 days per year and was over 18 (the last year) but I was still a dependent, so I would not qualify. In college, I worked during the summer, so I would not qualify.

In a lot of places, this would be around $10 per hour, and if they work 50 of the 52 weeks (250 days) (that means 10 days of sick/vac/holiday) that would be 20 k per year.

That is a hell of a lot more than some people are making now.

[XNASA]

1. It's already like that to some extent.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm

[OhioChick]

3. Not in OH.........

We're still at $4.25!

[northzax]

2. how big of a family?

four? in DC that makes the minimum wage roughly $18/hour.

[slide to the left]

6. I was thinking 4, nt

[northzax]

8. then you really need about 50 grand, seriously

to maintain anything close to a lifestyle. that's 25 bucks an hour or so.

[sweetheart]

4. location arbitrage

the problem there, is that everyone will try to relocate to the areas where they
will be paid the most (not everyone, but a significant mass).

If we put that energy in to getting universal healthcare, then the minimum wage
would go up beyond your wildest prayers.

[slide to the left]

5. but

the cost of living is higher where you get paid higher. You are still getting paid the "same" everywhere. Its just an equasion to figure out what the col is in an area and pay based on that.

[sweetheart]

10. its already that way

there is a federal base minimum wage, then there is uplift in
different states and cities for their increased load.

Why is not the existing methodology enough? Just its a fine
line towards making an unsustainable offer of a living wage,
when corporations will just abandon the city when the tax
burden for the increased payments is inevitably transferred
to their big badness'es.

Santa Monica california went through this, that the local
employers threatened to pull out if they were taxed any more,
years ago... And the rent control laws went in to protect the
poor that created their own unintended side effects of offering
a perk to the rich. I'm all for a living minimum wage, like
the op says, just it needs to be federal or all the poor will
swamp the place that offers it.



Universal healthcare, representing 300 dollars a month
per person, would be a big adjustment to the minimum wage.

[napi21]

7. Parts of your idea are OK, and parts are a problem.

Do you realize a wife is considered a dependant (legally) if her husband?

I think it's nice to include vacation/sick time, but that shouldn't be mandatory, IMO. That is one of the ways a company keeps it's employees, and should be up to the Co. to make that offer or not.

[On the Road]

9. As XNASA Points Out,

some of those limitations are built into some laws today, such as seasonal labor rates. Some states have higher minimum wages, although to my knowledge none is $10/hr.

The obstacle in your proposal is that for unskilled positions, having a lower wage for workers under 18 encourages retail and fast food businesses to hire predominantly $6/hr high school kids at the expense of $10/hr adults who may have greater need for a job. It's not necessarily the wrong position, but that effect does have to be taken into account.

I agree with the $10 per hour, maybe even $12. That plus higher taxes on the upper brackets is badly needed to level the playing field.

[AllegroRondo]

11. My idea

the lowest wage a company is allowed to pay is 1/250th of what the highest paid person gets. So if your CEO really needs $50 Million a year, the lowest any worker can get paid is $200,000 per year (about $100 per hour).

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Net result

Companies offering minimum wage jobs would refuse to hire adults who would received this minimum wage and instead hire (as far as legally possible) high school students and others who could be paid a lower wage. Unemployment would become even worse than now, and many families would suffer.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. 10 bucks an hour would be a huge raise for me

I get what you are saying, but how would you prove that you are supporting yourself and dependents? I still remember the 50s, when my mother was paid less than a man because "he has to support a family and you women only work to buy hats." My mother was a single parent raising two kids. My brother started working at age 9 to help put food on the table.