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Who makes minimum wage?

Posted: Oct 29, 2014

Who makes minimum wage? Apparently not just your average fast food worker.

The average age of a minimum wage worker is 35, not the teenager the Republicans are so afraid will raise the cost of their hamburgers.

54% of minimum wage workers labor at a full time job. Not the teenager who works for a couple of hours after school.

27% of minimum wage workers support children. Well, I am not sure if that is the teenager working down at the fast food joint--that probably depends on if they had more than just "abstinence" education in school.

Even though women make up 48% of the workforce, the minimum wage impacts 55% of the women in the workforce. (Yet the TPubs continue to block the paycheck fairness act.)

Take a look at the states that either do not have a minimum wage or it is below the federal level: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Looks awfully red to me.

Then there are the pseudo-intellectual arguments about how we should be glad to give up earning a living wage so that the rich can prosper. (I am thinking these might be the same scientists that insist there is no climate change, you know, the ones hired by the oil companies) Yet 600 top economists signed a letter advocating for raising the minimum wage, including Nobel laureates. See at link below.

I don't know about you, but I appreciate the $1200/year raise I got. The only reason I got the raise is because my state did something and I can thank our Democrat representatives for raising the minimum wage in my state.

;

Wonder what our socioeconomist will think of this. - nana7

[ In Reply To ..]
who posted below all the text book reasons why its not a good idea. With all those names from all these universities pushing for minimum wage increase wonder if he/she will weigh in on it.

Here in Michigan they took up a petition to get minimum wage raised to 15.00 on the ballot for this November and they had enough signatures for the vote, so our lovely Gov. Rick Snyder (R) raised the minimum wage to $8.15 and that put a stop to the petition. Talk about politics. Thats all it was. If there weren't enough signatures on the petition he would have done nothing. How many ways can you say politics and politicians are all crooks??????

Way to go Michigan! That is the way - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
That is the way to take our country back!

I hope the socioeconomist will take some time and research how a lifetime of minimum wage and low wage earning workers will live their golden years in poverty because they cannot afford to save for retirement and will have minimal social security benefits due to a lifetime of low wages.

whats funny - nana7

[ In Reply To ..]
is that this attack on our wages is not just toward the unskilled worker, its also happening to college graduates. I know 2 college graduates who have thousands and thousands of dollars in student loans who went into their trained field and are making less than $15.00 per hour. Both of them had to move back in with their parents because they can't afford living expenses and student loan payments.

This is a full blown attack on the middle class and if we don't wake up and do something about it it's going to be too late. Think the people that say there soon won't be a middle class is crying wolf look around, its already happening. The rich are getting richer and we are getting poorer. Having a college education does not make you exempt from it.

Yes, I have an associate's degree - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
The last "in office" job I left, they hired a person with a master's to replace me. I wonder what she thinks when they ask her to pick up lunch and wash the office car.

I'm trying to think if there were more ways you could have - been wrong about my post.

[ In Reply To ..]
......waiting for it....

......still waiting.....

Nope, not coming to me.

In the first place, there was nothing in my post that came from any "textbook". In the second place, the whole point that I made was NOT that it was a "bad idea" or a "good idea", but rather this (and frankly, I'm tired of trying to think of how to say it any more simply):

1. The minimum wage is a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. While it helps some, it harms others - INCLUDING an almost equal number of people at the bottom of the ladder. In fact, the number of people harmed is slightly larger than those who are helped, but close enough to be a "statistically insignificant different". Translation: They're about equal in number.

2. The minimum wage has little effect on the overall employment level (an argument made by its opponents), compared to broader economic forces such as recessions and expansions of the economy as a whole.

3. However, the minimum wage does have a provable adverse impact on the creation of NEW jobs at the lower end of the wage scale.

4. Companies take actions to protect their profits in the face of mandatory wage increases. These actions DO NOT benefit low wage earners by any means. And if I have to prove that point to anyone in this industry, they haven't been paying attention to what's going on in front of their eyes - or to their paychecks.

Now, stop misrepresenting what I say, please!!

I am not and did not misrepresent what you said - nana7

[ In Reply To ..]
Well if these are not textbook quotes where are you getting your information from? It is not a double edged sword as you say. It is paying people a livable wage and now a days $15.00 is not that much to live off of. But if you figure out the strain they then put on individual states for food stamps, cash assistance and everything else they qualify for it would be well worth raising the minimum wage.

These companies do not need a reason to raise prices, as you can tell, they raise them all the time, long before the increase in minimum wage.

Your last point is well taken, but again as I have stated in a different post we allowed this to happen. If a company tries to hire at a low price and no one takes it then they would have to raise the pay they are offering. Not all of our work can be done overseas.

I also used the auto makers as an example. Their people who most only have a high school diploma and make $30 per hour (my son in law works at GM and makes $30 per hour) how is GM so profitable? How are they hiring and adding new shifts and such. How are they giving huge yearly profit sharing checks. They are the model that this country needs to be based on. They are working and working for everyone and making billions on top of it.

That is what this country should be doing. How do you explain it? I am old enough and remember when the auto makers were threatening to move to Mexico for cheaper labor, was just a threat. It works for the employees at the auto makers and it can work for every other huge corporation out there but they are too greedy. Profits at an all time high, employee wages stagnate. Why?

So please let me know how I misrepresented you and please answer why GM employees can retire early with good pensions (I have many family members who retired in their 50s), live in very nice homes, drive nice cars, send their kids to college, etc. all from working at the auto makers.

They did move sections to Mexico. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
A lot of smaller businesses supporting the auto industry went under because of the Big 3 moving a lot of their departments to Mexico. That's part of what killed the city. That and Coleman Young.

I think Kwami killed the city. Coleman was what 25-30 years ago - nm

[ In Reply To ..]
x

Yes, Kwami helped what Coleman started. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I lived there during Coleman Young's reign, which began in 1974. The city started on a slow decline around that time and never recovered. It got progressively worse and morphed into what we see today. Bing tried to help, but it wasn't enough. Detroit used to be the richest city in the country. It is appalling what has happened to a once thriving and beautiful city.

How on earth can an MT of all people be - against raising the minimum wage?

[ In Reply To ..]
That just boggles the mind.

Who makes minimum wage? sm - MinimumWageMT

[ In Reply To ..]
Based on posts on actual transcription forums here, I'd wager the bulk of those who follow MTStars; i.e., medical transcriptionists, make minimum wage. Sometimes, we don't even make that and our employers have to add to our paychecks.

p.s. I'm talking about actual employees not ICs.

This is a great post. Thanks for sharing. - wheres_my_job

[ In Reply To ..]
Glad to have some solid information. Thank you.

Alabama is not below the federal level. nm - liveinbama

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

From what I read, they default to Federal - lowest bar

[ In Reply To ..]
Unless the State of Alabama has passed something recently, they, for whatever reason, decided not to set a state minimum wage. States that have a minimum wage less than the federal wage of $7.25 a hour, or choose not to have a minimum wage, must default to the federal wage. The federal wage is the "floor." Many states have decided to increase their minimum wage because it is obvious the average person cannot live on $7.25/hour. The Republicans have refused to increase the wage. I am lucky enough to live in a state where the Democrats have control of the local state government, have increased the minimum, and thus I have received a raise.

Not me - I make LESS than minimum wage - Depressed

[ In Reply To ..]
Seems some companies can get away with it and DOL does nothing. :(

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