Kerry Proposes Raising Minimum Wage((1997's $5.15 to $7.00)

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20040618/ap_on_el_pr/kerry

Kerry Proposes Raising Minimum Wage((1997's $5.15 to $7.00)

24 minutes ago

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Friday proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $7 an hour by 2007, which he contended would benefit working women more than any other group.

"If a president can go out and fight for four years to provide over a trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America, we can fight for a few months to raise the minimum wage for the poorest people in America," Kerry told an audience at Northern Virginia Community College.

Kerry's proposal, which calls for phasing in the $1.85 increase, mirrors Democratic-sponsored plans proposed in the House and Senate. President Bush (news - web sites) has supported a federal minimum wage increase, provided that states could opt out and choose not to raise it. <snip>

Kerry rejected that argument. "Some people stand up and say, 'Oh gosh, don't raise the minimum wage, that's going to hurt us in this small business.' But you know what? It never has."<snip>

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Raising the minimum wage never works

All it does is create inflation. Businesses are going to make their profit one way or another. The money for the wage increase isn't going to come out of THEIR pockets, it's going to come out of OURS in the form of higher prices for goods and services.

[Gemini Cat]

6. I don't know about that.

What I do know is milk costs around $3.00 a bottled gallon and last year it was around $2.00. Minimum wage wasn't raised to cause this increase, infact, a lot of people lost jobs. Yet the prices keep going up.

As always, someone raises prices and thusly makes money, but it's not the working class. An extra $3000.00 a year for a working class mum or dad might actually help out for awhile.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. How about solving the problem

instead of treating the symptoms? How about universal health care? Day care benefits? Job stimulation by increasing public works projects, and thus directly creating higher paying jobs for Americans? Better and more accessible education so Americans can compete for higher paying jobs?

[jwcomer]

17. minimum wage and inflation are not linked

Inflation has only one cause - expanding the monetary supply faster than the economy. I.e. too many dollars chasing too few goods and services. The only link between inflation and the minimum wage is that when inflation accumulates sufficiently it is time to boost the minimum wage.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Das REICH VING VALL STREET is going to be after JK.....

24/7/365 now!!!

[mhr]

3. It's Not Enough - How Does One Prosper On These Income Levels

Assumptions:

Work - 50 weeks per year
Hours - 40 hours per week

Total hours worked per year - 50 X 40 = 2,000 hours per year

Total Income - Hours X $ per Hour

@ $ 5.00 - $ 10,000 per year
@ $ 7.00 - $ 14,000 per year
@ $ 10.00 - $ 20,000 per year
@ $ 15.00 - $ 30,000 per year
@ $ 20.00 - $ 40,000 per year

It ought to be clear to all that the minimum wage should be closer to $ 20.00 per hour not $ 7.00.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Great plan

Except the part about the cost of living being multiplied by 3 as a result, followed by the immediate and drastic decline of the dollar. :eyes:

[papau]

5. Wage push inflation never happens to any measurable extent with a

minimum wage hike.

It just does not happen.

Seems the minimum wage folks are in industries where the price of service is 3 times salary cost - so the raise is absorbed out of profits..

It will make owning a Burger King a little less profitable for a moment - but even here the extra money in a core customer group means increased sales, so that effect is limited.

But the living wage concept would argue for a $10.00 minimum wage - I wonder why Kerry is so conservative?

[ContinentalOp]

10. Ah the old right-wing myth that a higher minimum wage leads to inflation.

Then does a decrease in the minimum wage lead to deflation? Because without any cost-of-living or inflation adjustments to the minimum wage we effectivly have a continually decreasing minimum wage.

The reality is that a raise in the minimum wage does not lead to inflation but cuts into companies' profits. The claim of inflation ignores the existance of competition in the market. If Burger King decides not to accept lower profits and raises their prices but McDonalds bites the bullet and keeps prices the same then McDonalds will steal customers from BK.

A raise in the minimum wage means more money in consumers' pockets which in turn gives a big boost to our economy. It's exactly the opposite effect from supply-side-voodoo-trickle-down-reaganomics which puts more money in the pockets of the people who are least likely to spend it.

[jwcomer]

18. where di you get these ideas

Sir JW "The Black",

Where did you get these ideas? Easy back of the envelope calculation show that your estimated impact to the cost of living effect is off by an order of magnitude or more.

[stopthegop]

8. $20 per hour minimum wage..

do you think that would casue any prices to go up?

[mhr]

9. Labor Cost Is A Small Portion Of The Final Price Of Goods And Services

Saying that rising labor costs will in and off itself destroy the economy is a typical tactic of the right-wing.

Most economists will tell you that it is not so.

The real question is this:

Do we want a society that supports an economy, or
Do we want an economy that supports a society.

We know where the right-wing falls on this issue!

[Robert Oak]

11. He's got to do something

minimum wage won't even pay your groceries never mind your rent.

Something has got to give I've noticed even skilled jobs hitting a ceiling of 10/hr in Oregon.

Something has to raise the standard of living, people just aren't making it. Universal health would be a good start and putting a lid
on drug companies, say start with banning advertising.

[69KV]

12. Good idea but should be more

1968 minimum wage $1.60/hr

Inflation calculator http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

1968's minimum wage in 2002 dollars $8.29/hr

Actual minimum wage is $5.15/hr. Raising it to $7 is a good start.

Raising the minimum wage has nothing to do with causing inflation. I'm not an economist and even I know that.

See also http://www.adaction.org/mwbook.html

[DocSavage]

13. .

If you raise minimum raise, at least for me, I would demand an increase in my wages to compensate. The people that are union in town would get a raise because thier wages are based on the contract wage that has a calculation of the minimum wage included. For me to stay where I am with my wages I would need to same bump up in my wage.

If you are working at a company, making 10-11 an hour after spending a couple of years leaning the job and earning raises, how would you feel if a new employee with no experience is hired and paid the same as you? What is your worth then? I agree the minimum wage is too low, but I am not sure how to fix that. I think just procaiming it to be higher is the wrong way.

[mhr]

14. So If It Is Not Made Higher What Do You Suggest?

Your last sentence baffled me.

[DocSavage]

15. Training and Education

Minimum wage pays for minimum work. The absolute best way to ensure people do not have to work in minimum wage jobs is to ensure that training programs and educational programs are available. I do not believe they should be free. Subsidized yes, but not free.

The second best way to ensure that people do not work in miminum wage jobs is the best free training there is. Instill a good work ethic. Show up to work on time, every day, work hard and do a good job. Ask any business owner, if they have a good employee, they will do what ever they can to keep them.

[Pale Blue Dot]

16. What jobs are they going to go to once they are trained?

I'm not sure that the current economy has the jobs to support this.

[Trillo]

21. Disagree Strongly

Well, I'll repeat something here. If one looks at professional versus high-school education level compensation, the ratio is about 13/21 years in education for the two versus 1/4 on the compensation side. Data is from the 1993 census, so it's out of date. But the bottom line is that high-school appears to do very little for lifetime earnings, yet, so many harmful lessons are learned in the forced indoctrination given.

To raise the minimum wage to equivalent time-spent-in-classroom seat requires $20 per hour minimum wage. Professional wages could be decreased, or high-school educations could be reduced to 5.5 years, as alternatives.

The second best way to ensure that people do not work in minimum wage jobs is the best free training there is. Instill a good work ethic. Show up to work on time, every day, work hard and do a good job. Ask any business owner, if they have a good employee, they will do what ever they can to keep them.

Most employers, in my experience, are bald-faced liars. If you trust your employer to do right by you, you will be sadly disappointed. Perhaps my experience is skewed, it's simply why I found that I could choose nothing other than independence from an employer. School did NOTHING to prepare me for that.

Hoping for an employer to reward your suggestions is like waiting for hell to freeze over. Maybe you'll get lucky, but I wouldn't bet on it.

edit: typos.

[Maurkov]

19. Unemployment?

The problem with a minimum wage is that any job not worth $7/hour won't be done. Expect to see more and more of these tasks handled in non-traditional ways: private contractors/piece work, outsourcing, and prison labor.

To make a positive difference, we need lower the cost of living, not destroy a bunch of jobs.

[0rganism]

20. Oooh, bad time for this one

This wage increase is only going to come at the expense of something else: whether it's more offshoring or reduction of benefits or increased price for goods and services, something's gotta give to pay for this one.

Dammit, give workers a real boost, like an affordable (wage-scaled) national health care plan, or a mandate for more fixed-rent low-income housing, or something. Sure, the minimum wage hasn't kept pace with inflation, but that's because we're in the process of equalizing wealth with the rest of the world.

We need to prepare for a time in the not-too-distant future when far fewer Americans are working and those that are working are working for a lot less. It's pretty much inevitable, so we'd better set up the infrastructure to handle it now while we still have the chance.

[Centre_Left]

22. Nice summary of why I oppose a minimum wage increase

http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/britt.htm