What about fast food workers wanting $15/hr?

Minimum-wage hike would hurt low-income workers

SPRINGFIELD — Minimum-wage workers, many of whom spent Thursdaystriking, should look at Illinois before convincing themselves that a higher minimum wage will solve their problems.​

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Illinois is one of the best paying states in the country, but the economic reality in the Land of Lincoln proves why a higher minimum wage does not make things better for low wage workers.

Illinois’ $8.25 an hour is the fourth highest minimum wage in the country. Only Washington, Oregon and Vermont pay more.

But Illinois has the second highest unemployment rate in the country. Only Nevada is worse.
Illinois’ 9.2 percent jobless rate dwarfs the national rate — 7.2 percent.

“While we can’t place all the blame of our state’s woes on the minimum wage, it clearly is a factor and one of the reasons Illinois continues to seriously lag behind our neighbors,” Kim Clark Maisch, Illinois’ director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said.

In other words, someone working a minimum wage job in Iowa earns a dollar less, but because Iowa has half the unemployment — 4.8 percent — there more jobs to be had.

If nearly one in 10 people not having a job wasn’t bad enough, Maisch said the figures are far worse for the people who usually work minimum wage jobs.

“In fact, teen unemployment (16-19 year olds) is around 26.5 percent in Illinois and 48 percent in the city of Chicago,” Maisch said.

That means half the young people in Illinois’ largest city cannot find a job. No minimum wage, no matter how high, is helping them.


And don’t kid yourself, young people are the ones doing most of the work for minimum wage.

As a 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics report notes “Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up about half of those paid the federal minimum wage.”

Maisch said most minimum-wage workers are only part time, few are the heads of households, and less than 5 percent are adults who work full time.

But even full time at minimum wage does not make someone poor.

The federal government’s poverty threshold defines a single person making less $11,490 as poor. Working 40 hours a week, someone making Illinois’ $8.25 an hour would earn $17,160 a year.

The feds say a family of four is poor if they earn less than $23,550. If both parents work minimum wage jobs in Illinois, they’d bring home $34,320.

That family of four would earn more than $40,000 a year if Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has his way.
Quinn has been pushing to raise Illinois’ minimum wage to $10 an hour.

Maisch said if Illinois can’t find jobs for its citizens while paying $8.25, what will the state look like at $10 an hour.

“If government would stop intervening by setting artificial wage rates, mandating expensive and burdensome regulations like Obamacare, and stop throwing roadblocks up to starting small businesses our state and our country would be much better off,” Maisch said. “ When I ask my members – small business owners – what do you need to help you succeed in your business they say “tell government to get out of the way.”​

http://watchdog.org/103560/illinois-minimum-wage/​

 

No argument...I agree completely!

So, who do you feel is responsible for that? ...and what's the solution?

(I'll be happy to offer an opinion, if you don't have one...or if you have a misguided one)

 

The solution? We need to find a way to provide jobs that build a stronger middle class and I would agree with anyone that simply raising the minimum wage isn't the panacea that will solve the problem. There should be some adjustment there but it isn't going to take care of the larger issue of proving a living wage for an honest day's work that people can live on.

I think the eventual solution has to be a hybrid approach. We need to stop providing tax incentives for businesses to move overseas. We need to have government investment in small businesses and cutting edge research projects. We need the private sector to give a damn about the workers instead of just their shareholders by incentivizing them with a combination of fiscal policies that will make them want to invest in this country again instead of overseas. We need to revisit our foreign trade policies that do not encourage job growth in this country. AND......this is radical......Tie the unemployment rate to the corporate tax rates allowing them to realize lower taxes as the national unemployment rate falls. More workers means the government receives more revenue in the end and everyone wins.

Just a few ideas I think would have a positive impact.

 

Small business is swamped by government now and you and the government to control their finance too. Oh, but you are liberal.

As for your tying the unemployment rate to the corporate tax rates allowing them to realize lower taxes as the national unemployment rate falls. The problem with that is that it raises the tax rates as the government screws up the economy. You may not believe this, but business profits actually increase employment and you are cutting them as they are more needed to hire people. Even Obama finally said that.

 

Listen to this UCLA economic debate and draw your own conclusions...

 

I don't have to listen to him because I already know he has an opinion. Apparently one you agree with. And you know that I could go out and find another guy with the opposite opinion. Big deal. I told you my ideas, YOU have no opinion?

 

Raising the min wage cannot & will not work...it's not just those making $7.25 an hour whose wages will have to be increased.

 

There are three guys discussing the economy and monetary policy...Conservative, Liberal, and Moderate. I think the Conservative makes some good points...but, as you say, that's the way I lean. I'm sure you'll see points made by the Liberal that you agree with. I just thought it was an interesting debate on an interesting topic.

Why not have a look?

Actually, I have...thanks for asking.

I certainly don't think minimum wage jobs are "quality" jobs and (like you) feel it's a travesty that heads-of-households are trying to raise families on these wages. These are "transitional" jobs best suited for high school students to earn some independence...and (hopefully) save a little for college.\

Ultimately, statutory wage increases...beyond inflation...will do more harm than good.

I agree with you that we need to reestablish the manufacturing base in this country...and it can be done! Unfortunately, I don't have the time tonight to go into the level of detail required to characterize what went wrong and what we need to do to right-the-ship.

Let me simply say that both parties are to blame and the ultimate answer is to tax consumption, not labor.

...more to come!

 

Minimum wage jobs aren't the preferred option for anybody but there certainly are a lot of them out there and in so many cases, they are the only option. Aside from the should we or shouldn't we raise the minimum wage question is the greater question of what if anything can we do in this country to raise the standard of living for everyone? Minimum wage will increase by itself if there are a lot more better paying jobs available. It seems to me that we should focus on accomplishing the goal of creating a lot more good paying jobs and stop talking about a silly thing like raising the minimum wage a couple of buck.
I wasn't looking for either side to blame. I was suggesting that we focus our efforts on something other than something that won't do what either side has claimed no matter which approach they go with.

 

You could start by cutting back on cheap imports, returning call centers from other parts of the world to the US (A number of British companies are doing this) How open are other countries to your trade? For example how easy is it for the US to export to places such as China or Japan?