they could pay that same "raise" 40 years ago when our economy was weaker, I am not sking for higher minimum wage, all I am asking for is minimu wage to be tied to inflation

> @Gio funny, because every time it has been raise the poverty levels went down, and the lower class became on average more wealthy
@chaz Poverty levels are a manufactured level that is based on an arbitrary income level. The lower classes did NOT become more "WEALTHY", they simply had more INCOME. There is a vast difference. Their income went up, so did their outgo eventually as the cost of products followed the increase in costs of manufacture. Minimum wage either increases prices or reduces employment, there is NO other result.

the issue with raising the minimum wage is that for 1, an increase of wages forces a small comapny would have to increase the price of their products to match the rising wages, which if the small company cant afford to raise the price of their goods to pay their workers, there would be layoffs so that the company can afford to pay to pay the workers they have left, but if the sales from their goods still cant keep up the company will eventually fail and everyone loses their jobs

ok, so we should stick with the minimum wage passed by our goverment, right?

we should eliminate a minimum wage entirely.

A company should give their employees raises when they see they are able to.

That doesn't mean all will.

i dont believe the goverment should decide the minimun wage is tho, let the market decided

But they should.

raising the minimum wage sounds good on paper, but the only ones who would actually be able to do it are global companies like Walmart and McDonalds, not the local factory that only produces minor parts for a major company

everything the goverment touch make it worse

Which is why I don't think Trump has touched minimum wage?

@Bar you are not accounting for greed, in the 60's a ceo would earn, on average, 20 times more than his/her lowest empoly, do you know what it is today, do you know what the current avergae ratio is? 273 to 1, horrible right. we need more wage equality. although our cournty has continously grown its economy the minimu wage has gone down since it was implemented

i mean, have you considered that many major companies also revieve government grants, especially companies that also make military equipment, which in turn makes them massive profits

minimum wage shouldnt be a "thing" this is why we sign contracts, if they offer to pay 1 dollar an hour and i accept it, its on me, period

A company should give an employee a raise when he deserves it. If that company does not take care of good employees they should go elsewhere for employment. I don't give my people raises when I CAN, I give it when it's deserved. Some may never get a raise because they have not done the job that deserves a raise. Others may get many raises as they prove to be valuable employees.

You are comparing apples and aardvarks. the average company size in the 60's was about 4% the size of the average company now. With the increase in company size that ratio should be 400 to 1. Minimum wage reduces employment at the most critical levels, entry level.

And NO that is not horrible. profit rates per employee are going down

As well as, how produce is priced is dependent on minimum wage in an area most of the time.

Well products

I own a business that provides sufficient profits for me to offer an internship to about 24 people every summer at minimum wage. People with NO experience at all get an opportunity to work in a fairly large company and learn the ropes. At the end of the summer I can offer full-time jobs to sometimes 5 and sometime 15 of those kids, depending on the economy and how busy we are. Those people get an opportunity to get their foot in the door of a business that pays non-college graduates in less than 3 years $20/hr., I have some people without degrees making as much as $90 an hour with experience. If you double that minimum wage I'll have to cut the internship opportunities in half, eliminating that opportunity for 12 kids at entry level. Those 12 will have NO chance to enter this business, they will be forever stuck in minimum wage jobs with NO chance to do any better. And that's just my internship program on the engineering side. I employ as many as 50 people every year at an entry level on the construction side who never had any other job. Maybe half of them work out in the construction field, the rest just aren't cut out for working construction. Doubling the minimum wage will eliminate half of those jobs.

@Gio what happens when everybody only offers 1 dollar, and there is no better option?

Won't happen, that creates an opportunity for competition to hire away the best employees in that field for a buck-fifty. Or choose a different field. Right now we're talking about flipping burgers and other ENTRY LEVEL jobs. These jobs are not intended as careers, these jobs provide young people with something they can get NO other way, experience... and a few bucks for Friday night at the movies. The reason so many "adults" are flipping burgers as a career is that's the only job the can get and not have to pass a drug test. As soon as McDonalds starts drug testing the demand for $15/hr will evaporate.

I am required by law to pay minimum wage to those interns. That was not so in 1982 and I paid them nothing for three months. They knew they had a signing bonus of $2,000 if they made the cut and were hired at the end of the program, and they'd make more than minimum wage if hired. I had to turn away more kids than made the program. Now I have to pay minimum wage and frequently I have positions open that no one wants. No one wants to work for a living anymore, everyone got a trophy, why doesn't everyone get a check.

So free and fair elections are racist now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IryVRJmEwc4

@Bar so, let's talk about the idustrial revolution, in which, my ansestors got cents a week

You do know money had a different value then?

Yeah. Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase for $10 million. A modern aircraft carrier costs almost $13 billion

@chaz
Sure what would you like to discuss?? (Bear in mind I am black... so ...)

the pure capitlism of the past lead to wages that were simply despicable

and you shouldn't have to pay interns as much, thats not fair, maybe a minimum wage based on age or something?

The wages in the past also had things that we now refer to as cheap. The market rises and falls with wages

if you take into account inflation, factory workers were still making a couple dollars a week

You also got a remember 5 cents used to buy someone quite a bit of things

So even if someone were making pennies by the hour, they could still buy stuff

idk how to feel about this but ok

He is going to take us all to Brazil

entire America continent is going yo brasil

We will become part of the Brazilian federation

Visit Brasil

before Brasil visit you

In an age where travel was difficult certain segments of the population were indeed abused by certain business practices. Many people were simply incapable of seeking other employment for a multitude of reasons, including slavery. Using that as a basis for condemning capitalism is like using the Crusades to denigrate all of Christendom today.

Today, even in the most rural of areas, finding other employment (for those with the skills/talent) is as easy as simply looking and driving in a different direction. Adding 5 miles to a commute today is 5 minutes, in 1916 it was an hour. So let's not compare apples and aardvarks shall we not?? Slavery and indentured servitude are no longer issues, neither is the perceived isolation of the past.

Additionally, there is a much greater degree of freedom to alter career paths today than ever in the history of the world. Four semesters at a local college can open up entire new fields of employment for those with the mettle to step away from the comfortable. There exists today a much greater market for entrepreneurship in hundreds of new fields. In the last two decades I've seen the number of businesses in competition with me and even bigger engineering firms explode, as those wishing to be their own boss in this industry step away from the traditional position of engineers and hang their own "stamp" out for hire. That explosion has made all of us in the industry better for it. Competition improves the product like NOTHING else, and those who fail to address it are eliminated. Look at the number of large engineering firms in the last two decades that no longer exist either through extinction of absorption. I find my firm now in competition with engineers I trained, who, after a decade of learning the ropes, left my firm to start their own. That is a good thing, no a great thing, it forces me to be more agile and more efficient or lose business, and such is better for all of us.

Those factory workers have EVERY opportunity to do something else, BE something else, to expand their horizons. They are NOT locked into their current job, they are merely comfortable in it, too comfortable to seek out better. And sometimes better is in another city or even another state.