Should minimium wage correspond with where you live?

[HEyHEY]

As in, should the higher cost of living in cities warrant a higher minimum wage than in smaller towns? Cities need minimum wage workers too. And many barely scrape by. Some can't move due to situation. What do you think?

[patriotvoice]

1. FBI salary includes proportionate "locale pay"

Don't see why minimum wage should be any different.

[HEyHEY]

3. CBC gives a housing subsidy to reporters living in the North (arctic)

Because it's so expesive to live there.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. Minumum wage should be high enough

that you could at least barely survive working full time in the most expensive locale in the country.

[RoeBear]

11. Need to work on that a little...

...for example in Michigan, Bloomfield Hills is a pretty ritzi place. Minimum wage to live there would be about 75,000 a year.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

21. You are defining 'locale' too narrowly imho

[Cleita]

4. Minimum wage is supposed to be the minimum a person needs

to get by on. That means modest rent, food and transportation. It should include health care too, as far as I'm concerned. Therefore, it would appear it needs to be tailored to the locality.

[Metatron]

5. I favor a living wage

that takes into account realistic cost of living estimations based upon location. Over 100 municipalities in the US (generally cities and counties) have enacted living wage policies that cover local government workers and employees of companies that have contracts with the local governments, in an effort to prevent taxpayer money from supporting poverty-level wages.

[Zinfandel]

6. Minimum wage should be a major issue of the democrats platform.

As it was in both of Bill Clinton's two campaigns.

And more important, because it the right thing to do!

[Beatrix]

7. It does

Every state has the right to define a higher minimum wage. Some states choose to do so, others don't.

As to a higher minimum wage lower than state level... That's dangerous because it sets up a precedent of some laws for some people and some laws for other people.

[tkmorris]

8. Not quite the same thing

Some states do in fact have higher minimum wage laws than the federal minimum but that's applied across the entire state regardless of the cost-of-living differences. Furthermore, many states choose not to have higher minimums due in part to the potential loss of jobs (manufacturing mainly) to neighboring states that do not institute similar minimums.

If the federal minimum is raised and indexed by COLA adjustments to area (not state, state boundaries are political constructs not economic ones) this will remove some of the incentive to shift jobs about to find the cheapest labor. Alas, such jobs are already being sucked out of the country which is another debate entirely.

I think it important that all such ideas be discussed with an eye on the bigger picture. For example, a hike in the minimum wage of any significance would accelerate the shifting of jobs overseas to cheaper labor. Thus, without some sort of protectionist changes in the law, like tax incentive/disincentives to keep jobs in the US, changes in the minimum wage laws which raise it in any way will result in higher unemployment.

[ContinentalOp]

15. A higher minimum wage doesn't lead to higher unemployment

A higher minimum wage won't necessarily lead to higher unemployment. How will a raise in minimum wage send all of the Wall Mart & McDonalds jobs overseas? I would be interested to see how many minimum wage jobs in this country could actually be sent overseas that aren't already. It seems that most of the ones that are left are service oriented.

[ContinentalOp]

19. And to answer my own question...

Here is a list of minimum wage occupations.
http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/minimumwage/whoarelowwage.cfm

I see very few if any jobs on this list that could be sent overseas. The idea that an increase in the minimum wage would increase unemployment is a myth, as is the claim that a higher minimum wage leads to inflation.

[amjsjc]

22. Actually the logic dosen't involve offshoring...

It works out something like this: If you increase the minimum wage to $10/hr then people who cannot create at least that much value for their companies will not be hired. As such low skilled employees would suddenly find themselves unable to find a job. Of course this is all very abstract. (I suspect that if you raised the minimum wage companies would simply increase the cost of their products, thereby raising inflation until the new minimum wage only had as much pruchasing power as the old one.

Oh, and as for the post at large, there should definitely be some kind of Cost of Living Adjustment added to the minimum wage. What sense does it make to have the same wage in Yankton SD (average house cost $100k) and Palo Alto CA (average $1.5m)?

[brook]

17. I have a better idea.

Limit CEO salaries. Nothing drastic. Maybe cut a mil or two from, say a 27 mil annual dip in the honey bucket? It'd cut the cost of doing business in this country quite a bit, dontcha think?

[Darranar]

9. Yes, it should be adjusted according to local inflation...

its base value should also be higher.

[Alerter_]

10. of course

$5/hour in New York City is a joke.

[Trillo]

12. I live in a small town,

and while the cost for housing is modestly less than in several surrounding cities, and certainly less than the large cities within 60 miles, the cost for many other things is greater. Food is one. Trash collection another. A lot of people living here work in the larger cities, and have notably higher transportation costs than those who live near where they work.

I'm not convinced that the cost of living in small towns and rural areas is across-the-board less costly.

I definitely agree with most of you that minimum wage should be tailored to a local cost-of-living, and is enough to insure that basic needs can be financially met.

[Alerter_]

13. transportation costs can be huge in small towns

You have to have a car, insurance, gas. Often that makes up for any savings in rent or mortgage payments from being in a small town.

[brook]

14. Absolutely.

When I asked my supervisor recently why she thought people work for the lousy wages they pay, she responded "Out of the goodness of their hearts." Truth is, this county has access to a community college and a University (which translates to plenty of people willing to work for book, beach or beer money)- it's also a tourist trap where many jobs involve selling trinkets, slinging burgers or cleaning hotel rooms . These are primarily part time/no benefiits/minimum wage. Options are you work for local/federal government or the prisons. Ever since I came here 11 years ago, when I questioned the pay scales, I have been told that "it's the price you pay for living in Paradise". A real paradise would at least have a climate where you could live under a tree. :)

I now have to work one day's shift for 10 gallons of gas and am planning an insurrection at our staff meeting next week.

[pinto]

16. minimum wage in US is archaic and arbitrary. Yes, min wage needs

to equate with livable wage.

[ContinentalOp]

18. It should correspond with INFLATION

More importanly than locality, minimum wage should be indexed to inflation. When you factor in inflation we have actually been decreasing the minimum wage for decades...

"The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 24 percent lower today than it was in 1979 and in real dollars, $5.15 an hour minimum wage is worth just $4.75. If the wage had just kept pace with inflation since 1968 when it was a $1.60 an hour, minimum wage would be $8.46 an hour in 2003."

http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/minimumwage/

(edited for poor grammar in the subject line)

[Alerter_]

20. Talking about livings wages doesn't help win the elections!

In fact, if we talk about it too much, the Corporate Media might demand Kerry come out against raising the minimum wage to prove he's "centrist" and "moderate" enough. Otherwise they will says he's "crazy" and give him the Gore/Dean treatment.

So, should we all keep quiet so the corporate media doesn't get spooked by grassroots Democrats?