It is our position that people who want to live at a certain standard of living must seek the education, skills mastery and initiative to gain employment that provides them the means to live that lifestyle. Paying people more than their contributions are worth is nothing less than a welfare state and demeans the human spirit that embraces reward for accomplishment and contribution, demoralizes the individual who strives for more than a hand out and diminishes the worth of every human being to the lowest denominator
Low paid workers deserve to be paid a wage that meets all their basic needs. Guess what would happen if everyone had a college degree and wanted high-paying jobs? The jobs which now earn people a lot of money would still pay as much but those who choose to flip burgers would be paid more than some office workers. With that [substantial raise] the cost of living would sky rocket and the system would crumble. I'm all for the raising of the minimum wage but not so much that it would make the prices of everything shoot up.
I agree that anyone working 40h per week should bring in enough cash to live a normal, decent life. But seriously now... those figures are SO far off as they can possibly be. $1000 for an apartment? 1.Name a city where you cannot find a sub $1000 apartment from the suburbs? (say... within 1h with public transportation) Seriously, name one. 2.Clothing: $75 per month on new clothes? Seriously now... I don't think that's too much to spend but if you are borderline on having food on the table, do you really need a couple of new clothes every month? 3. Transportation. Once again... these people just aren't being serious. Name a city where you will pay $500 for monthly access to public transportation. 4. Healthcare. Whoa there. I know in the USA it can be costly to get something done, but usually your employer provides you with some sort of healthcare plan. Even in minimum wage jobs. Who here spends an average of over $4000 per year on medical things which do NOT fall under your healthcare plan? 5. Miscellaneous. So let's get this straight. You are working a minimum wage job, so basically something everyone can do. You have already your apartment, bills, food, transportation and even clothes budgeted for.. and you need ANOTHER $400 for "stuff". Please do explain what this $400 goes towards that a person simply can't live without? That is $4800 per year... we are talking about minimum standard of living.. I guess that means a new laptop, a new tv and a vacation abroad. Can you please post the link to this utter pile of garbage so I can see who I should be laughing at?
Pretty much, I mean, we are working 40 hours per week, 8 hours per day on the paper that in most cases are more, and we don't bring in a wage big enough to live? We have families as well to support...
I believe that working at least 40 hours a week is just way too much and one should think about how well they can avoid working so many days. I hope to try better income than what I have been doing. But that is not possible if I do not have a better job.
Yea I agree that some of these figures are way out there, $400 a month miscellaneous seems a tad steep. Quite honestly so does $300 a month for food. I support two people on less the $300 a month for food. This maybe shocking but you actually have to cook stuff! I can assure you it is not steak every night either. And NO crimsonghost not every person that works 40 Hours in America gets health insurance, sometimes you have to pay for that yourself and that is not cheap, even with Obamacare. Figure if you pay your own insurance for a family of two and you make $32K you will pay a premium of at least $189-$350 a month and have a $5000 deductible, that means you basically pay for almost every health related thing you have and then some $4000 a year is not unusual. This is with the subsidy no less. Rentals in this area go for about $860 a month and may or may not have utilities. The utilities can be quite high in the Northeast, especially in winter, you will be grateful if your natural gas bill is only $400 in February. In comparison maybe it will be only $17 in August. So you make decisions, heat or phone? Electric or Cable? It's called priorities, and sometimes you can't have it all. Now transportation I would agree, if you live in a metro area you maybe able to get the bus or a subway, but not all areas are metro and not all areas have buses. To drive a car including gasoline, maintenance, car or lease payment, insurance, parking and tolls $500 is about right. If you live right in NYC you better believe that parking can cost as much as some people pay for their monthly rent. Transportation is one area where the cost has rose sharply. Cuts in state funding for mass transit (In NY at least) has made it so you have no option but to drive from some areas. And drive you will, maybe an hour each way to a job where you might make $10 an hour if your lucky.
Where I come from, the minimum wage is very minimal. There are people who work hard yet they live from hand to mouth. They have found a way to survive; they stretch everything to make it last ensuring that they have food on the table. Some will go to bed hungry and still wake up in the morning to go to work.
Numbers are pretty much out of orders. But in my country we have 250euro minimum wage. A room in the suburbs is about 100-150euro/month. That's almost 50% of the minimum wage, not counting food, internet, electricity and the room heating/water costs.
As an employer, I personally believe I will get what I pay for and therefore prefer to pay reasonably well. With that said, I don't think it's my responsibility to finance a lifestyle an employee thinks they are entitled to, no matter how grand. And certainly not at the expense of hurting my business and putting myself into the poor house. Fast food workers expecting $15-20 an hour is a perfect example - such wages will cause mass layoffs, restaurant closures, increases in prices for the consumer (inflation), etc. People need to realize that minimum wage jobs are primarily meant as a point of entry into a company or as a temporary job until a better opportunity presents itself. You shouldn't expect to be paid $50-100k or more a year to bag groceries at WalMart or man the deep fat fryer or grill at McD's, and if you're not motivated to move up the ladder, find something better, or open your own business, you shouldn't expect to live like you're making $50-100k or more. If rent in a particular place is too expensive, get a roommate, stay at home, or move to a cheaper area. "Advanced utilities" such as cable, internet, and smartphone costing nearly $2k a year are not a necessity. $500 a month for transportation (including gas, oil changes, etc) sounds like a pretty pricey car for someone making minimum wages. $100 a week for "misc" is also steep for a minimum wager. As for healthcare, I thought Obama was going to make it free?
I think what makes me sad is what the economy has done to some very hard working people. Since the dot com bubble burst back in the 90's there have been quite a few workers that have been displaced from jobs that in the past had been stable careers. I blame a lot of this on corporate greed. Things have not got better, in fact if anything they have become worse. just the basics cost a fortune these days. Last night I went to the supermarket to get milk, it was about 11 at night and the place was staffed by mostly senior citizens. In the past when I was younger if you ran into a senior that was working it was because they were trying to make some money to go to Vegas or something. Now it is about just surviving. You can tell these people are scraping by. This is part of what has fueled the whole thing about increasing the minimum wage. If you have people that should be retired forced to work jobs that are meant for the uneducated and first jobbers what do you expect? I think this is my worst nightmare, I worry there will come a point where even a job at McDonald's might not be a possibility. Corporate America, get rid of the older employee because they cost to much, hire the younger ones. Then where do these people go before companies look at them as to old?
