Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Do y’all think it’s fair that the government increases minimum wage to the point that people can live off it? Isn’t minimum wage for teens trying to get their first job?

Hiding in plain sight, I see.

Very well: minimum wage is for “unskilled labor,” generally. A good starting point would be to look up the poverty line and see how many hours of minimum wage one has to work in order to survive, make a point of it to show how many hours per day one has to work to meet it (assuming one works six days a week and a year has fifty-two weeks).

No, no it’s not. It’s so that employers don’t mistreat their employees by paying them too little like they did bfr this law was enacted. Now they get paid too little but they can live off it

also 0/10

If you raise minimum wage to quickly then it usually just results in less job oppertunities. If you have to pay a worker significantly more, you usually have to reduce the workforce to make up the difference.

@JhawkNH
he’s not saying to raise it , he’s complaining that people can make a living off of it. And he is also likely trolling

No, it’s to help draixen in his research.

I think it’s a fair exercise to see exactly how much time you’d have to work just to make ends meet, there’s nothing trolling about that.

Yeah. I personally think they do raise it to support people more. Minimum wage use to be $5.15 before they raised it, now it’s $7.25 (in VA). I see lots of adults in high school positions, like cashier at Burger King or bus boy at a chain restaurant.

There’s a federal baseline and a state level for both poverty line and minimum wage. I think it’d help to devote a section to comparing states with regressive taxes versus those that don’t.

That’s at least three paragraphs of subject matter right there.

Oh sorry my bad, I interpreted the op as a statement of opinion rather than question . I apologize

De nada.

I’m thinking about throwing my hat into the research side of this because I’m pretty curious about this as a genuine discussion. If I come back with statistics, I’ll make sure they’re legit.

thank you so much Jerk. As i said in the rc, i need this done before tomorrow and i don’t have a partner like i’m suppose to.

Lucky you, you happen to have a junior research librarian as a partner now.

A neat little guide to poverty by the Department of Health and Human Services:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/contacts.shtml

The US Census Bureau’s resources on poverty (I recommend “Effects of Businesses and Taxes on Income and Poverty, very recent report compared to some; and there’s also a link to small area poverty and income estimates…I suggest you use this to see about the situation in your own city if you can):
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/ poverty.html

Another neat little set of numbers for state statistics by the Department of Commerce:
http://www.bea.gov/regional/index.htm#state

Hell, exploring those side links alone would probably write your argument for you. Just write out a framework for how you’re going to write your paper and then use those to fill in your blanks. All the numbers relating to the things I brought up are in those reports.

Ever so occasionally, I grow weary of being me. Excuse me while I do something that is wholly uncharacteristic for me to do for about five seconds:

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGEE


… There we go. Please, do continue your discussion. ^_^

D:

Thank you Jerk. I’m probably gonna be at this office til 6 and then come back around 7 and then stay til I’m done.

It’s definitely a good concept, but it’s far too low. Minimum wage is what, $7.50 now? Maybe I’m just used to a good paycheck, but I don’t think I could live off that.

Unemploment Vs. Minimum wage

State UnEmp% Min Wage
1 NORTH DAKOTA 3.7 $7.25
2 SOUTH DAKOTA 4.4 $7.25
3 NEBRASKA 4.6 $7.25
4 NEW HAMPSHIRE 5.5 $7.25
5 VERMONT 5.8 $8.06
6 HAWAII 6.3 $7.25
7 KANSAS 6.6 $7.25
8 IOWA 6.8 $7.25
8 VIRGINIA 6.8 $7.25
8 WYOMING 6.8 $7.25
11 OKLAHOMA 6.9 $7.25
12 MINNESOTA 7 $7.25
13 MONTANA 7.4 $7.25
14 MARYLAND 7.5 $7.25
14 UTAH 7.5 $7.25
16 ARKANSAS 7.7 $7.25
16 MAINE 7.7 $7.50
18 ALASKA 7.8 $7.75
18 LOUISIANA 7.8 $7.25
18 WISCONSIN 7.8 $7.25
21 TEXAS 8.1 $7.25
22 COLORADO 8.2 $7.25
22 NEW MEXICO 8.2 $7.50
24 NEW YORK 8.3 $7.25
25 DELAWARE 8.4 $7.25
25 MASSACHUSETTS 8.4 $8.00
27 ALABAMA 8.9 $7.25
28 IDAHO 9 $7.25
28 PENNSYLVANIA 9 $7.25
28 WASHINGTON 9 $8.55
31 CONNECTICUT 9.1 $8.25
32 WEST VIRGINIA 9.2 $7.25
33 MISSOURI 9.3 $7.25
34 NEW JERSEY 9.4 $7.25
34 TENNESSEE 9.4 $7.25
36 NORTH CAROLINA 9.6 $7.25
37 ARIZONA 9.7 $7.25
38 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9.8 $9.25
38 MISSISSIPPI 9.8 $7.25
40 ILLINOIS 9.9 $8.25
41 GEORGIA 10 $7.25
41 OHIO 10 $7.30
43 INDIANA 10.1 $7.25
43 KENTUCKY 10.1 $7.25
45 OREGON 10.6 $8.40
46 SOUTH CAROLINA 11 $7.25
47 RHODE ISLAND 11.5 $7.40
48 FLORIDA 11.9 $7.25
49 CALIFORNIA 12.4 $8.00
50 MICHIGAN 13 $7.40
51 NEVADA 14.4 $8.25

Although it is not a linear progression, some interesting notes
The top 15 lowest unemployment percentages, only one is above $7.25
The top 15 highest unemployment percantage, only seven are $7.25
Average Minimum wage for 1-25 is $7.32
Average Minimum wage for 26-51 is $7.61

Really, that data just shows there is weak correlation at best between minimum wage and unemployment, and probably no real correlation at all - it is almost certainly caused by other factors. Its also worth noting that of the states with the lowest unemployment rates, nine of them are amongst the 15 least populous states, and only three amongst the top half of states in terms of population.

Also, consider that Mexico’s minimum wage is effectively under $2/hour, and yet, their unemployment rate is more than twice that of the worst case in the US.

Oregon has high unemployment due to the timber industry; basically, there were a bunch of people who lost their jobs a long time ago, had no skills, and thus have basically remained unemployed because they are fundamentally unemployable - they simply cannot get the pay they were getting previously because they have no skills, and the jobs they used to work no longer exist. They still whine about it.

California has a high unemployment rate due to immigrants, and I’ll bet money that Texas’s unemployment rate is underreported due to not including illegals. And yes, they do count.

Studies have been done to show that basically, unemployment and minimum wage aren’t really very strongly correlated.

Also, let’s face it: if you aren’t paying someone enough to live on, why should the state subsidize you underpaying your workers? The answer is that they shouldn’t. If you cannot pay people enough that they do not require government assistance, in the form of food stamps and the like, then your business does not deserve to exist because I should not be obligated to pay for your workers’ missing wages.

I’ll bet money that Texas’s unemployment rate is underreported due to not including illegals.

The US Department of Labor would beg to disagree, unless of course they’re the ones that don’t count illegal immigrants. I’m a little fuzzy on the methodology, after all, but perish the thought that Texas could ever have a better unemployment rate than California. Someone must be lying, of course. DAMN THEM PESKY INVISIBLE ILLEGALS. DAMN THEM TO HELL!

But then California is the one with the budget crisis and Texas isn’t. So what do I care if illegal immigrants are unemployed? If it’s really a problem, it’ll come to a head sooner or later, some way or another.

@Titanium Dragon

I wasn’t saying that as a rule higher minimum wage leads to higher unemployment. High unemployment is a resualt of multiple factors. But according to this data, higher minimum wages have a higher possibility of higher unemployment.