Seattle Passes Ordinance For $15 Minimum Wage

How bad would you feel if you had just spent the last 5 years getting yourself up to $16 an hour?

Ouch!

 

There are a lot of places where you'll have some already $15+ people who will have worked pretty hard to get to that wage. All of a sudden, everyone around them gets a bump in salary and they don't. I'd be pretty pissed if that happened to me.

If you look at Dan's position, it requires good customer service and a good deal of knowledge about a wide variety of products and their application. By the same token, someone working at Mickey's just needs to know that when the buzzer goes off, the meat is cooked-look at the picture and get all the ingredients on the bun-or at least in the wrapper someplace. So I think Dan's justified asking the question as is anyone else-why is someone with few skills being paid the same wage as someone with significantly more skill? I don't look at that question as a handout/entitlement question at all.

 

I posted earlier back that this happened to me after a year plus in my job, the person who just walked in with no experience in the job prior made the same as I did..and I was told to train them. I said NFW.

 

I don't think it's the $15 an hr as a dollar figure being the issue, cost of living will always go in an upward direction, lets face it,everyone wants to make more $$, whether you are in retail making a living, producing something for market, or providing services to make a living.. If YOU raise the cost of doing business in your chosen field of income its a ripple effect soon the price you raised is mirrored back to you eventually in the form of higher prices for goods & services purchased, its a vicious circle that just goes round & round.. This is easily proven just from my own observations in retrospect... Growing up Dad was the bread winner, mom stayed at home , we were a family of 5.. On dad's income alone it was enough to own a modest middle class home, have a near new truck for him for work, a very clean 2nd car for mom, pay for all food/clothing /utilities power/water, all bills paid, take a 2 week vacation every year & still have a few $$$ to tuck away, this all on 1 income.. My dad was in construction & his take home pay was right around $175.00 a week..fast forward...most guys in construction now make almost that or more per day... so WTF happened ?? Inflation ?? sure, somewhat, mostly it almost HAS TO BE everyone wants to make more $$$$ & the other factor everyone seems to glaze right past is Oil, our economy was for a long time based on cheap oil, cheap energy, & really theres so many factors now it'd be tough to nail it down to just 1 cause... NAFTA was a train wreck, in theory it's alright but the only way it can work is if everyone plays by the rules & you KNOW that wasn't going to happen.

& also a HUGE factor is gov. civil service jobs years ago working for the gov. was one of those jobs you could get if you couldn't make it in the private sector, they were kinda like the butt of employment, pay was relatively low, much lower than incomes possible in the private sector.. fast forward again... WOW wish I had one of those crappy gov. jobs now, in the city of san diego for example a laborer1 job entry level position pays about $30k-$35k a year, not bad for a beginner, with anual cost of living increases, paid medical etc: My neighbor just retired from SDFD as a captain, his city pension is about $90k (thats right $90) a year, he made just over 100k a year before retiring.. Guess my point is when factoring in all the numbers $15 an hour for min. isn't all that outrageous

I myself used to make a min. of $54 an hr doing HVAC on gov prevailing wage... No one in construction is worth that, I averaged $30,000 PER QUARTER forr roughly 120K a year, for beating the shit out of sheet metal..

 

McDonald's announced Monday that it raked in $1.5 billion in profits in the third quarter, up 5 percent from last year.

The number is strikingly close to the $1.2 billion taxpayers are shelling out each year to help pay public assistance to the McDonald's workforce, according to a report released last week by the National Employment Law Project

 

Couple things. Your first link is an 0ct 2013 reference. McDonald's isn't really a career for most people. It's an entry level job. But they do offer benefits. Of course, not all are eligible and I'm guessing it depends on the individual franchisees.

Anyway, that's not really my point. My point is how will raising the minimum wage change any of that? It won't. It may for some but once you factor in the increased cost to cover, we'll be back where we started.

This guy is a zero skill maintenance worker and feels he is entitled to more money because he "keeps the place up". The article goes on to address the low wages by suggesting that these are entry level jobs. Entry level-let that sync in for a bit.

This really isn't a recovery as a recovery would be people going back to work at their old jobs or at similar jobs at similar wages. Instead, people are going back to work to entry level jobs and expecting to make what they did before. It doesn't work that way.

Lastly, do you think a McDonald's burger flipper should make as much as a line cook who went to culinary school and is working his way toward executive chef does? Cause that will be reality when the $15/hr wage hits.

 

Minimum wage isn't keeping up with inflation.

To be proportionate to 1960 levels minimum wage would need to be 21.16$/hour when you keep inflation in mind. 20% drop in the value of minimum wage in 20 years while the top 1% earned 20% more in roughly the same time.
http://inequality.org/minimum-wage/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...fails-to-beat-inflation-chart-of-the-day.html

You didn't have to work 2 full time jobs to barely scrape by in the 1950's/1960's. The middle class is what keeps the economy strong. Look at how the American economy went down the shitter in the last recession when the middle class lost all purchasing power. Meanwhile transnational corporations are raking in record profits as the middle class shrinks.

But I guess they just need to work harder

 

If you can make $15 an hour as a grocery bagger, parking attendant, security guard then why should people go to college. My first real job at of college with a business degree in San Francisco paid $18. It was stressful. I worked very hard. So the guy who dropped out of high school and doesn’t care should make almost as much as a college grad or should the college grad now make more.

 

Rich posted some good nuggets about the move to more of a service economy, where wealth is just being passed around and slowly bleeding off rather than being created. You can't just compare today's wages to the 50's and 60's, you have to look at more aspects than that. And there is no way to include all the factors and variables. Ever take economics? All those formulas to get an answer that was still only a GUESS? Drove me nuts, couldn't understand why anyone would become an economist.

 

Getting a degree in a strong field will give you a hell of a lot more than 18$. My buddy is a plumber and he makes 30$ an hour.

 

I graduated in 2011 with a business degree with a concentration in finance and above 3.0. I spent months applying for a job before I graduated and the best I could fine was $18. This is in one of the most expensive areas of the country to live.

 

Way back when I was in school, everyone used to rag on the kids that went to the trade schools. They must not be very bright. You need to go to college...


Well, who's laughing now? Trades people, that's who.


LOL!

 

These days, a generic business degree doesn't get you far. A specialized degree is a better starting plalce, and that + an MBA is becoming more the norm. Sad, but unfortunately true.

 

People should get paid as low as there willing to work for. If you dont want to do that job at the pay someone esle will. If not the company will have to raise what they are going to pay till someone takes the job. It doesnt make sense for a compay to pay people $15 dollars to do a job when there are qualified people willing to work for $8. Just my 2 cents.

 

I'm not going to argue with you. Your views on what is happening in the real world is slanted and inaccurate.

I sure hope you never fall on hard times in your life with the great Karma you give off

 

hey guys, the economy doesn't only trickle down... thousands of people earning more money will spend that money on their rent, cars, groceries, local businesses, utilities, entertainment, alcohol, toys, etc etc etc. This money flows up, businesses make more, pay their employees better so they don't leave for a job at McDonald's, and the economy evens back out like it always does.
As an employee of the private airport in Aspen, I can assure you that the lower and middle class do more to keep their money in our state and national economies than do the wealthiest, who buy brazilian jets, italian sports cars, french villas, receive corporate welfare and still send jobs oversees and money to offshore tax havens. Also, please FUCK OFF with your thinly veiled racism.

 

This guy knows what's up. It's sad how uninformed a lot of you are about the average fast food worker. The irony is that you all complain about people being on welfare yet this would help with the problem by forcing the employers to pay their employees instead of the taxpayers.

 

They were making the equivalent of 20$ an hour today. Not swimming in dough but enough to survive on without working two full time jobs.

Usually only the man of family was working too.