And before anyone says "no one pays those wages anymore," it's true that I didn't get paid $7.25 an hour when I first moved back to Indiana about 10 years ago.
I was paid $7.75 an hour. From a TV station. To shoot live news and sports, meaning traveling in weather no matter how dangerous for regional basketball games and seeing lots of dead bodies, then going back and editing two news shows every night before heading out again to shoot the next car crash.
And when I was up for a promotion, I was told I didn't have the right attitude. Because my attitude was things like, "it's blizzarding out right now. I really don't think it's safe for me to drive 50 miles down a 2-lane highway at night." rather than, "sir yes sir!"
I left that job as soon as I could. To the other TV station in town. For a $10 an hour job making commercials.
These are jobs in L.A., where I used to live, that would pay you a high five-figure salary if not a six-figure one. And the weather is a lot safer to drive in.
Yep, Indiana sucks when it comes to pay. I'm sure those other states are just as bad.
...I make about $20 per hour as a surgical tech, and the cheapest apartments that are within the on-call response time radius of the hospital and don't come with a realistic chance of getting shot while walking to or from the car; plus utilities, food, gas, etc... and there's almost nothing left.
I could stretch it out a little by eating rice for every meal, but $7.50 per hour wouldn't even cover rent. Splitting it with a roommate who also makes $7.50 per hour might just barely cover rent.
You'd need like 5 people sharing a single bedroom apartment and a car just have a roof over their head and food in their stomach.
...meanwhile we have oligarchs that make so much money that the number of dollars is literally beyond our brain's ability to process.
Scan your pay stubs and pop them into whichever art software you prefer (shout-out to getpaint.net).
Don't type the numbers in, but copy the image of one digit at a time from other numbers in the document. Make sure to math any other values to match the new pay. Print that shit, and good to go.
Great when asking for a 'match' to your previous pay when starting a new job too - unless you're state or federal, in which case that could land you in jail.
"The 20 states where the baseline wage will remain at $7.25 an hour are primarily located in the South and Midwest, ranging from Alabama to Wisconsin. "
So, the states you thought weren't getting the raise are the states that aren't getting the raise, except Florida apparently!?
They forgot Massachusetts. Yeah, we’re not raising minimum wage next year but it’s already $15/hr. We deserve to be listed as one of the six seven states with minimum wage twice the federal level
The increases will boost the baseline pay to at least $16 an hour in three states: California, New York and Washington. In 22 states, the new minimum wages will take effect on January 1. However, Nevada and Oregon's new rates will go into effect on July 1, while Florida's will increase on September 30.
By contrast. workers in 20 states will still be subject to the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009, when it was last increased.
"You work a minimal effort job you get minimum wage."
Explain to me again why I'm seeing machinists and web development jobs being posted for fucking $16/hr when that's minimum wage?
Why are people who literally save fucking lives getting taco bell wages?
I love how there's always a quote to justify shit wages that just completely flies in the face of reality.
I'd say minimal effort is simply owning a thing and paying other people to do the work for you. Sorry that making phone calls is so much work for you...
Here are the states that are boosting their minimum wages in 2024, along with the new baseline pay that will take effect next year. Most of the states will increase their baseline wage beginning in January, with increases in Florida, Nevada and Oregon going into effect later in 2024.
Alaska: $11.73
Arizona: $14.35
California: $16
Colorado: $14.42
Connecticut: $15.69
Delaware: $13.25
Florida: $13
Hawaii: $14
Illinois: $14
Maine: $14.15
Maryland: $15
Michigan: $10.33
Minnesota: $10.85
Missouri: $12.30
Montana: $10.30
Nebraska: $12
Nevada: $12
New Jersey: $15.13
New York: $16
Ohio: $10.45
Oregon: $14.20 plus an adjustment for inflation (TBD)
The argument is that raising wages would cost business owners too much. They would need to close up shop rather than pay higher wages, and then the workers aren't making anything.
And there is some truth to that, unfortunately. Almost half of all private sector employees work for a small business. If small business labor costs doubled overnight, most could not absorb the additional expense and survive. You'd see a lot of places go belly up, and either nothing would replace them or large corporations that were able to absorb the labor costs would take over and raise prices to maintain their margin. A higher minimum wage just strengthens the position of the companies with enough capital to survive the change.
I agree that wages need to increase, but it's a lot more complicated than just the government saying, "Hey! Pay them more!"
Then don’t do that. Every such minimum wage hike I looked at the details of phases it in over multiple years. I was by no means comprehensive, but it’s a logical compromise
Most successful Small Businesses already pay above Minimum Wage enough that an increase would only effect Corporate. But also by your Logic Competition shouldn't exist because it would cause Small Businesses to shutter since they couldn't weather the storm. Please have more faith in your local businesses and for Heaven's Sake buy from them!
Worth mentioning that Florida passed a law a couple years ago that has been raising the minimum wage by $1/hr every year until we get to $15/hr. Slowly is better than not at all. Nice to see Florida not last for once.
I wish most/all laws worked this way. We should be aiming for incremental changes over time instead of big bang ones that get undone after the next election.
Hell, for minimum wage though, it should always change based on cost of living as it continues to increase over time.
It seems like collusion because a lot of employers stick there. But that's only because those employers would be paying you less if they legally could. Companies can always pay up for better work if they value it.
But no one would actually work for free, so now the company has to actually decide how much it values the work at.
Look at what happened with retail and fast-food after lockdowns lifted in the US: wages surged for the bottom 10% of earners. These places couldn't get people to work for minimum wage, so they had to ignore minimum wage and actually value the work accordingly. As a result, income saw some pretty strong growth for those employees.
What a minimum wage does is set the opening baseline for negotiation. The company can say, "We know this is a shitty job that anyone can do, and the government says that kind of work is worth $7.25." That creates a hurdle to discourage an employee from negotiating for more.
Minimum wage needs to be adjusted for inflation to match what it was originally intended for, or it needs to be abolished. Right now, it just gives employers a very low starting point for their bad-faith negotiations.
Capitalism itself is the scam, ownership is fake justification for exploitation and suggests a false level of meritocracy. Capitalists aren't Capitalists because they are smarter or more competent, but because they have money, and can grow that money in the M-C-M' circuit.
Minimum wage is an absolute necessity because Capitalists would abuse their power to pay as little as possible otherwise. The only places a minimum wage are proven to be unnecessary is in extremely unionized countries where Unions have all of the bargaining power they need.
Minimum wage is an absolute necessity because Capitalists would abuse their power to pay as little as possible otherwise.
This is wrong for several reasons:
1: even a worker-owned co-op would seek to limit new hires, because the pool of revenue is only so big. This is no different from wanting to pay someone as little as possible, ethically.
2: if minimum wage was an absolute necessity and markets didn't drive wages, vastly more people would be paid at minimum wage.
Minimum wage means if they could get away with paying you less they would, but if it weren't for those pesky laws. But let's be real here, they already get away with huge amounts of wage theft, especially for minimum wage workers. The minimum was always meant to be the minimum amount needed to live. It's just corporations/oligarchs wanted the masses more desperate because they are easier to exploit. Oh there's middle class, and lower class and upper class. Those are "UnSkIlLeD" labor jobs, they don't deserve a living wage. It's always been a war against the working class and they have us fighting with ourselves over this shit. NWBTCW
It seems like collusion because a lot of employers stick there. But that's only because those employers would be paying you less if they legally could, and thus things would be worse without the minimum wage. Companies can always pay up for better work if they value it.
You all are so short sighted there isn't even a conversation to be had. Try this https://youtu.be/A-I4Vsl-AEg lots of background but you can skip to 15min
The way I see it is higher minimum wage will just increase inflation which is already ridiculous. It would be better to tax/cap corporate profits, limit ceo compensation to 10 or 20x the lowest paid employee's salary etc. People not earning a living wage is a symptom of broader issues, not the problem itself. By manipulating this symptom there are knock on effects that will just make things worse.
Read a fucking book. Exploitation will occur if you allow the free market to fully set the price of labor.
“In the making of the wages contract the individual laborer is always at a disadvantage. He has something which he is obliged to sell and which his employer is not obliged to take, since he [that is, the employer] can reject single men with impunity“