Minimum Wage

  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    In America, currently, there is a discussion about minimum wage. It's $7.25 where I live.

    After taxes, I take home thirty five cents below minimum wage. If I were to work full time, I could hope to make 14,000 a year. That's 3k above the poverty line, which isn't much.

    I've seen a lot of things on Facebook about how places like New Zealand have awesome minimum wage regulations and I think San Francisco has a high minimum wage, with both high employment and low unemployment.

    Discuss!
    April 13th, 2013 at 03:23am
  • Airi.

    Airi. (2240)

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    San Francisco does have a pretty high minimum wage in comparison to the rest of the country, we're at about $10.25 an hour. Our minimum wage may be high, but our cost of living is around $15 an hour so it's still not enough for someone to live on in the city. You'd have to live in one of the suburbs like Daly City to make it, and that'd be just barely if you're lucky enough to find a cheap apartment.

    Personally, I think minimum wage should match the cost of living. It's kind of sad and ridiculous to me that in so many places (urban places especially), the minimum wage is so much less than the cost of living. People simply can't live on minimum wage with the way it is in the U.S. It's not enough and working two jobs isn't all that possible for a lot of people. I've heard so many people defend minimum wage by just saying people "should just get two jobs", it's quite sad I think.
    April 13th, 2013 at 03:43am
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ Airi.
    And it's not easy to get two jobs. I don't have a car and the bus system in my town is not set up that well. I basically have a choice of one bus line.
    April 13th, 2013 at 04:24am
  • charming.

    charming. (135)

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    Australia doesn't have a culture of tipping, so our minimum wage is - I believe - about $16/hr for full-timers and almost $20/hr for casuals. (But things also cost a lot more here.)
    April 13th, 2013 at 04:39am
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ pravda.
    Holy shit. That's double what I make. I don't get tipped in my job. And no one in my department is eligible for bonuses, even though we make more money than any other department.
    April 13th, 2013 at 04:53am
  • charming.

    charming. (135)

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    Mm. And yet the 'left' party in power is getting slammed for how poor and unemployed we are. (Unemployment is at 5.6%)

    Perspective, people: get some.
    April 13th, 2013 at 04:57am
  • rosewater tide.

    rosewater tide. (130)

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    Minimum wage in Fairfield County, CT, is $8.50.
    As a high school student I make close between $130-$200 a week after taxes.
    I can't picture someone meant to sustain themselves be able to afford that.
    Hell, an apartment in Danbury (probably the cheapest town) is upward of $1800 rent a month.
    That is absolutely impossible & it makes me feel so ashamed.
    April 13th, 2013 at 05:22am
  • wxyz

    wxyz (240)

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    In the UK it's £4.98 ($7.64) for 18- to 20-year-olds and £6.19 ($9.50) for 21+. For the part-time work I've done in my local pub before (a fiver an hour, 3/4 hours a day, two days a week) that's been great, but I'm really not sure what it'll be like when I leave uni and have to live on a part- or full-time job. (Especially with a music degree, haha!)
    April 13th, 2013 at 02:49pm
  • kafka.

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    Have you guys heard about the European citizens' initiative for unconditional basic income? It's an EU-wide campaign to make having a guaranteed basic income a recognised human right in the EU. You should consider signing up if you're an EU citizen (you can do it online, although unlike a petition they'll ask you for your full name, address and a 'personal identification number' e.g. passport number), they have until the end of the year to get the necessary 1 million signatures for the initiative to be discussed by the European Commission.
    April 13th, 2013 at 07:07pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ kafka.
    I'm curious. Does that apply to only earned income or is this supposed to sort of extend to unemployment, sick leave, maternity leave, etc? That you would be given the same basic income? As an American, I know you have different maternity leave and sick leaves in place than us. I'm just curious if it's a basic minimum wage or something more.
    April 13th, 2013 at 07:23pm
  • kafka.

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    druscilla.:
    @ kafka.
    I'm curious. Does that apply to only earned income or is this supposed to sort of extend to unemployment, sick leave, maternity leave, etc? That you would be given the same basic income? As an American, I know you have different maternity leave and sick leaves in place than us. I'm just curious if it's a basic minimum wage or something more.
    It's actually a bit different from minimum earned income, I now realise my post here is confusing. It's going to be independent of current social security systems and things like unemployment benefits. In Europe, how much money you get from (for example) unemployment benefits differs a lot depending on your wage before being unemployed, whether you paid unemployment insurance, how long you've been unemployed (after 12 months you get less money), whether you fit other criteria (you prove that you're actively seeking employment) etc. The purpose of unemployment benefits is to offer you temporary relief while it forces you to get a job, but a basic guaranteed income will be a human right (the same as access to education, for example) so EU governments will have the duty to ensure you have it regardless of employment status / any other circumstances, you'll be able to decide, for example, to stay home and raise your children and still get it.
    April 13th, 2013 at 08:24pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ kafka.
    Would another example be if a single mother worked part time this would ensure her income would be supplemented so she could still spend time with her children without having to work two jobs?
    April 13th, 2013 at 08:35pm
  • Airi.

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    @ dru saves the songs
    True. A lot of people are underestimating the problems that can stop people from even getting one job. It seems like a lot of people seem to think it's pretty easy to get a job or even two jobs. v.v I've been searching for months and have come up with very little, and I live in a huge city with great bus lines. It's just no one is hiring for someone with my qualifications.
    April 15th, 2013 at 09:59am
  • Sansa Stark

    Sansa Stark (930)

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    Minimum wage here in Portugal is a joke: 485€ a month. Even if the cost of living is overall cheaper here than in any other EU country, it is still a joke.
    May 15th, 2013 at 12:48pm
  • AmorarEsDeVivir

    AmorarEsDeVivir (100)

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    Minimum wage where I live is, I believe, $7.25 an hour. My fiance works at a job that pays ten cents above that, and he works 40 to 50 hours a week, and barely brings home enough money to pay the bills COMBINED with my job where I make $9.36. Absolutely, the minimum wage needs to come up.

    It just frustrates me that the response to suggesting raising the minimum wage, even moderately, is "It will cost businesses money!" Yes, perhaps, on the front end. But we live in a consumer-driven economy, meaning businesses thrive when people are buying things, and when people like me and my household are barely making enough money to pay the bills and maybe get fast food once a month, they aren't buying things--meaning less money is going INTO the businesses to make up for what's going out.

    I don't know what I think it should be, but I would say at least $9.00 an hour. At least. But you know what would happen--businesses would decide that they would fire employees so they don't have to spend any more money on wages than they currently do. That seems to be the trend, whenever companies have to invest more than the bare minimum in their employees.

    /me being bitter
    July 15th, 2013 at 07:15pm
  • wx12

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    I don't think every job should be a livable wage or "support a family of four" like politicians are currently referencing in America. Granted, I think the minimum wage is far overdo for a dramatic raise, but the answer to poverty is not to let Americans get by on jobs with the bare minimum... but to create jobs that pay more than minimum wage and provide young people with the education to obtain them.

    When I hear Democratic politicians talk about minimum wage and how it cannot support a family, I say no shit! It shouldn't. Minimum wage should be reserved for low skill, low . Our goal should not be to make a minimum wage job at Mc Donalds support a family, but to get that breadwinner out of the minimum wage market. Minimum wage jobs should not be a lifelong thing for anyone ideally, and it seems we're just further creating a system that keeps people in minimum wage jobs their entire lives.

    To me, that philosophy is just as bad as Republicans who think there should be no minimum wage because it disenfranchises low skill workers. Democrats and Republicans argue about this without realizing (or, they do realize and just don't care?) that both models ensure there will be a lot of low skill workers who never improve.
    July 15th, 2013 at 11:39pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ Kurtni
    It would also be nice if jobs paid appropriately. I'm paid about 80 cents above minimum wage, but I do the work of graphic designers who make 16, 20, or upwards an hour. It would be nice if I could make ten or eleven. Or at least incentive pay. My department makes more at work than any other department, by margin, and we do a ton of extra DTP work and we have built our department so much. But we don't make bonuses and everyone else in the store does because they sell electronics.

    I just want to be properly compensated for my work.
    July 16th, 2013 at 06:19am
  • wx12

    wx12 (10125)

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    dru will be okay.:
    @ Kurtni
    It would also be nice if jobs paid appropriately. I'm paid about 80 cents above minimum wage, but I do the work of graphic designers who make 16, 20, or upwards an hour. It would be nice if I could make ten or eleven. Or at least incentive pay. My department makes more at work than any other department, by margin, and we do a ton of extra DTP work and we have built our department so much. But we don't make bonuses and everyone else in the store does because they sell electronics.

    I just want to be properly compensated for my work.
    I think that's an unintended consequence of having minimum wage. Your work may be worth $20+, but companies know they only have to pay you $7.25.... and they know they can pay shitty wages because people need jobs. Minimum wage may be meant to "protect" low skill workers... but it makes everyone's work less valuable.

    I don't know what kind of minimum wage legislation can be passed to fix that.
    July 16th, 2013 at 02:48pm
  • fen'harel

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    @ dru will be okay.
    Same. I do the work of a business administrator and an accountant and I get paid 90 cents above the minimum wage (7.25 in Texas). I'm a college graduate; granted, graduated with a B.A. in Psychology which means I cannot practice until I earn at least a Master's, but still, I graduated from college and am performing the job of a college graduate professional.

    What I keep hearing though, because I live in a border city, is that "at least you don't earn the low wages that people in Mexico make" (they normally make between 700 pesos to 1000 pesos a week, which is around 47.52 dollars to 79.24 dollars a week) and that I should be grateful for that. Grateful for what? For the governments setting a freaking idiotic low wage that makes people overwork themselves in order to be able to buy food and pay for a roof above their heads?
    July 16th, 2013 at 03:26pm
  • wx12

    wx12 (10125)

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    First $15 an hour minimum wage passed.
    January 15th, 2014 at 04:17am