How do you feel about the new minimum wage increase? And why?

It is a band-aid. No ONE can live on that wage. Bush is trying to make himself look better before he leaves office.

As quoted by Advocates for self government.

"Skilled, experienced workers make high wages because employers compete to hire them. Poorly educated, inexperienced young people can't get work because minimum wage laws make them too expensive to hire as trainees. Repeal of the minimum wage would allow many young, minority and poor people to work.

It must be asked, if the minimum wage is such a good idea, why not raise it to $200 an hour? Even the most die-hard minimum wage advocate can see there's something wrong with that proposal.

The only "fair" or "correct" wage is what an employer and employee voluntarily agree upon. We should repeal minimum wage now."

Here is what minimum wage does, Inflation. The companies that employ minimum wage workers pass those cost onto the general population and the inflation rate far surpasses any raise in the minimum wage. I think it's great for kids who live with mom and dad but grown up's need to get their act together, Education leads to wealth not government mandates.

The best news about the minimum wage is that California's Governator Arrrnold is planning to pay state employees minimum wages until the California legislature passes a proper budget.

Quelle bonne idee!

I wonder if Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, has heard the news.........

If all these cushy state jobs were to be paid at the lowest legal wage rate, there would be an overwhelming outburst from labor, organized & otherwise, to make workers' wages livable.

The disparity of income is obscene.

The minimum wage increase was long overdue, but more importantly I think that the minimum wage is too low.

What I would like to see are regional minimum wages that are based more on the cost of living in your area. I know that some states have state minimum wages, but others do not.

I believe that a better system would be a minimum wage that can go up or down depending upon the cost of living in a particular area.

The market has the real minimum wage way above that. McDonalds in my neighborhood pays over $8 an hour because it has to to keep people working there. The minimum wage is pretty much irrelevent, since finding a job that actually pays that little is damned near impossible. It's just a gesture from our government who is trying to convince people they care.

Prices up = demand down

Now there will be less demand for workers which leads to greater unemployment.

However most states already had a higher minimum wage implemented and this federal increase will not affect the businesses in those states.

Tough call. Most people at minimum wage jobs had already negotiated higher rates during the period of low worker supply and high job demand for those positions. Now that the economy is getting hit, it will be harder for them to keep jobs, as well as discouraging some employers from doing more hiring in positions they can try to work without filing

It just means company's aren't going to be able to hire as many people and there will be fewer jobs out there for a person to start at, but I hope for the people that make minimum wage it helps rather than the employer saying i can't afford to you anymore, I guess we will wait and see

I think it will actually hurt low wage people more than help, especially in this economy. Companies are going to laying off and cutting hours because they can't afford it, prices are going to go up, and minimum wage will actually be less in buying power.