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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Home away from home
 
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Agreed Pebble. Buying a bigger rulebook and watchdog didn't strike me as the thought leadership we needed after the whole crisis, bailout, OWS, etc.
Good to see that some companies, particularly the newer ones, have employee profit-sharing as central to their business. Incentives work better than laws when it comes to encouraging more companies to do this. In fact minimum wage might have been better structured using tax incentives instead of a rigid law. For example, corporate tax credit for employee pay over a minimum pay threshold.
Posted on: 2014/1/4 0:38
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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This is the entire argument behind many economic theories. The problem comes in trying to convince corporations that the employee shares the burdens. How do you convince share holders that the company's profits might increase if you pay workers more, which would then decrease profits in the short term? That really is the problem we have going on right now.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 23:47
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Dos A Cero
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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The arguments around minimum wage haven't really evolved much beyond a polarized Karl Marx vs Adam Smith debate. And there's merit in trying to strike a balance between profit and exploitation.
To me the biggest challenges we face are around wealth distribution and job creation. I believe employees are part of the operating capital of a company, share a measure of the risk, and should reap a better dividend from corporate profits, and not simply be treated as a business expense (paid a minimum wage). Companies with higher-skilled workers already do this. No reason this shouldn't be extended to the Walmarts and sole props. Personally I'd like to see workers get a minimum yearly bonus set to the same percent as the CEO, owner, board or shareholder dividend. That would have the double advantage of reining in excessive CEO pay. On job creation, I think we could do a heck of a lot better to encourage business to hire locally by overhauling the tax structure. At its simplest, both employees and corporations pay local, state and federal taxes - effectively double taxation on the revenues of a corporation. If the tax structure was overhauled to give corporations credit for the taxes their employees pay, then they would have a bigger incentive to hire local, and reinvest profits into creating local jobs. Bottom line - we should getting past Marx vs Smith and coming up with better ways of solving today's issues.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 23:03
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Who would work for 15 cents an hour? Even the lowest of skilled workers are more valuable than that. Quote:
Again, we're talking about min. wage laws, not child labor laws. Try to stay on topic.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 22:18
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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The child labor laws was an example. However, I believe you and others have said in the past that if min wage laws are so great, why stop at 15/hr. The opposite is if min wage laws are so bad (which is YOUR ARGUMENT) why have them at all? Why can't a boss decide to pay a consenting adult 15 cents an hour? The child labor law is an example of laws which have set a DECENT standard in the country which conservatives have always opposed because many lack decency and compassion.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 22:13
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Minimum wage laws =/= child labor laws You just created a huge straw man argument and then, predictably, shot it down. All I said was that there's no free lunch when you raise the min. wage laws.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 22:03
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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To those who say "if minimum wage is so good why not raise it even higher", I argue if market capitalism is so great, why have a minimum AT ALL - If a parent wants their 5 year old son to work in a factory on weekends for 30 cents an hour or even over going to school, why have the socialist Obama tell that parent that it's not "legal."
Bring back child labor I say right? I would find a factory with underage children working in them and say omg this is the future but all everyone has to do is lookup china. The fact is - what you people want is to be #1 - the #1 worst labor country in the world. The country that currently holds that place is China and if some of you had your way, we would have child labor, no minimum wage laws, dorms in factories with nets preventing suicides. But that's capitalism right? If there is a demand, there should be supply - no matter the human costs.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 21:58
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Yup. Unfortunately, there's no free lunch. If there was, we should raise the min. wage even higher.
Posted on: 2014/1/3 19:46
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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I hear ya.. but minimum wage doesn't apply to the middle class..
Posted on: 2014/1/3 19:45
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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I may not have drunk the Cool-Aid (or is it TEA?) but as the son and grandson of working Americans I certainly know my country. And I'm suprised you didn't cast a wider net for statistics - Fidelity.com' survey suggests 86% of millionaires are self made. But, then again a good conservative attacks the premise for any argument they don't like - my point was never whether the 1% earned their money, but that they have so overtly influenced policy so as to undermine the middle class. For those interested in understanding how the ground has shifted and how - contrary to borisp's assertion the disharmony is solely a matter of "sour grapes", I highly recommend "Who Stole theh American Dream" by Hedrick Smith, which traces the history of this restructuring from 1978 on: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion ... 6-87dfa8eff430_story.html
Posted on: 2014/1/3 19:41
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Keeping raising the wage and we might see restaurants like this in our future:
Posted on: 2014/1/1 22:09
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Thread goes to shit on the first reply to the original poster. who's shocked by this, anyone? beuhler? beuhler?
Posted on: 2014/1/1 15:55
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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You don't know much about America, do you now? Well, 80% of America's millionaires were not born millionaires. They created their wealth, not inherited it. This is how people get wealthy, - by creating wealth. The disharmony exists only thanks to the people who begrudge others their success. Allow me to quote Robert A. Heinlein: "Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded ? here and there, now and then ? are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck."
Posted on: 2014/1/1 14:51
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Lower than expected enrollment figures show that Obamacare is a massive waste of time and resources. Thhis is what happens when America doesn't drink enough TEA
Posted on: 2014/1/1 14:44
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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Minimum wage employees are simply considered an expense, and rarely get to share in a company's profit. Profits are mostly kicked back to shareholders and management, based on operating capital dividends and bonus agreements.
There's got to be a better way to treat workers as assets, and not simply bottom-line liabilities - and have them share in company profits. Perhaps it's as simple as giving workers a minimal annual bonus equivalent to the %dividend, or better still, a %bonus tied to the CEO's %bonus. The latter might rein in some of the obscene CEO bonuses we've seen in recent years...
Posted on: 2013/12/31 12:28
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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dear wishfulthinking. i hate to say it but the proletariot favors the 1% since it is the 1% that provides the jobsand is the fooundation of a propserous, god-fearing america. that's why america can't get enough TEA.
Posted on: 2013/12/30 21:11
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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If they want to stay among the proletary, and not end up in beggardom - you bet they do! And anyhow, don't we have harmony among the social classes? After all, the 1% won the class war ages ago and since the rest of us are well and truly defeated there's no point in disharmony anymore.
Posted on: 2013/12/30 20:37
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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does the proletrarat reaaly want higher wages as opposed to harmony among the social classes. Think about it.
Posted on: 2013/12/30 20:14
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Re: New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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TRENTON ? In two days, more than 250,000 workers making minimum wage in New Jersey will get a raise ? but what that means for the state?s future depends on whom you ask.
On Wednesday, nearly two months after voters approved it, the state?s minimum wage will jump from $7.25 to $8.25, followed by automatic increases every year based on the rate of inflation. Supporters say it will mean more cash in the pockets of thousands of residents struggling to get by in a high-cost state ? and, in turn, pump millions of dollars back into New Jersey?s economy. "It?s important not only to the workers, but it?s also important to the rest of us," said Gordon McInnes, president of liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective. "When you?re desperate and you?re sort of surviving in high-cost New Jersey, when you realize an increase of this kind, you?re going to spend it and you?re going to spend it immediately and locally." But opponents argue it will have a devastating domino effect: job losses, cutbacks in hours, and small businesses across the state now tied to annual increases that they may not be able to afford. "The idea of the increase was to get more money into people?s hands," said Philip Kirschner, president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. "But for everyone who gets that, there is going to be someone who pays for it." It?s an argument the two sides have been waging for a year. In January, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a measure that would have raised the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 and tied future increases to the U.S. Consumer Price Index, saying it would "jeopardize the economic recovery we all seek." Instead, he suggested phasing in a $1 increase over three years. But Democrats put the issue on the ballot in November. The business community spent about $1 million to try to persuade the public to vote against it. Unions and other supporters raised $1.3 million to push for its passage. Voters overwhelmingly approved amending the state?s constitution to install the $1 hike and the automatic yearly increases. The increase comes months after a report by Legal Services of New Jersey found a record 24.7 percent of the state?s population ? 2.1 million residents ? were considered poor in 2011. A report released last week by New Jersey Policy Perspective said the hike will "directly affect" 254,000 workers currently making between $7.25 and $8.25 and "indirectly affect" 189,000 workers making between $8.25 and $9.25 because their wages will rise as pay scales are adjusted. The report said 84 percent of those workers are at least 20 years old and about 33 percent have attended some college. "It?s not the high school kids saving for the weekend for a new iPod," McInnes said. "These are people using the wages to make ends meet." Meanwhile, the report said the hike will generate more than $173 million in new economic growth in 2014 and help create "the equivalent of 1,300 new jobs as businesses expand to meet increased consumer demand." But Kirschner said businesses ? especially small businesses ? will likely slash hours and reduce hiring to make up for the 14 percent wage increase. "A lot of industries that hire a lot of minimum wage workers, their sales haven?t gone up 14 percent," he said. Kirschner also brushed aside the notion that this will give the state economy a boost. "These are not new dollars," he said. "Every dollar they get is coming from somebody else. It?s coming from workers who get their hours cut. It?s coming from the store manager." Others say the real issue is that the increases are now written into the state Constitution. That could detract businesses from moving to New Jersey, said Thomas Bracken, CEO of the state Chamber of Commerce. "We are an expensive state, a high-taxed state," Bracken said. "Because of that, we have to do things to overcome that and make people want to come here. Mandating things that businesses have to adhere to in the Constitution ? that doesn?t help. Opponents are also worried about inflation. Currently, inflation is low, but major increases could lead to major jumps in the minimum wage, according to Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business. "That?s the real unpredictable part," Mozloom said. "The minimum wage in New Jersey is now on autopilot, and we think that?s very dangerous." JJ
Posted on: 2013/12/30 19:12
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New Year to Usher in Wage Hikes in 13 States
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JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Minimum wage workers in 13 states will see a little more cash in their paychecks once the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1.
While most of the increases amount to less than 15 cents per hour, workers in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island will see a bigger hike, according to CNN Money. The change in New Jersey comes after voters approved a referendum in November's election to raise the state's minimum wage by $1 to $8.25 an hour. Lawmakers in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island made the legislative decisions in their respective states. As a result, Connecticut's minimum wage will rise to $8.70, and Rhode Island's and New York's wage will hit $8. Workers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington will see a higher wage floor due to annual cost of living adjustments, the news outlet added. The federal minimum wage stands at $7.25 per hour. However, 19 states have minimum wages set higher. Once the changes take effect on Jan. 1, the number ticks up to 21. Wage increases are also set to take place at the local level, according to CNN Money. Voters recently approved a raise to $15 per hour for many workers in SeaTac, a small municipality centered around the Seattle-Tacoma airport in Washington state. A judge ruled this past week that parts of the measure were not valid: The city could impose the minimum wage for some of the affected workers, the judge said, though not all. Supporters of the increase plan to appeal. In addition, Seattle's mayor-elect Ed Murray has said he plans to also raise the city's minimum wage to $15. Washington currently has the highest state minimum wage at $9.19 per hour. Employees in San Francisco, San Jose and Albuquerque will also see wages increase. More moves will take place as the year progresses. Two counties in Maryland and Washington, D.C., will raise their minimum wages in 2014 and California is set to raise its minimum wage to $9 in July, the report added. The minimum wage hikes have become a hot-button issue as workers across the country staged protests over the issue. Most recently, fast-food employees in nearly 100 cities planned a strike on Dec. 5. Mass demonstrations were held in an additional 100 cities, as CSNews Online previously reported. Since a year ago, labor unions, worker advocacy groups and other organizations have been building a campaign to highlight the difficulties of living on the federal minimum wage -- which equals approximately $15,000 per year for a full-time employee. Protesters have called for a federal minimum wage increase to $15 per hour, although some refer to that figure as a rallying point rather than a near-term possibility. CSN
Posted on: 2013/12/30 19:07
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