Should Americans who work a full-time job, have a right to expect to be paid a Living Wage?

Its a bad way to run a country when two people are demanded to have a full time job in order to minimally support themselves and a family.

Its bad for the young family and difficult as people grow older and may have minor physical problems which aren't bad enough for disability, but painful to work with.

The Democrats though have at least been in favor of raising the minimum wage, against the howls of the Republicans who always claim that extra quarter an hour will ruin the economy and be the end of the country.

But working people are the backbone of the county, those who sweat, not those who sit are the ones who deserve a bigger share of the pie than they get now. Still the idea that a college degree and an air conditioned office qualify as working harder is a myth our economy promotes. A little more recognition by those in the corner office as to what their employees are worth would be beneficial to the entire economy.

Maybe that way kids would have at least one parent to come home to, and one parent to kiss them goodnight...that would go a long way to reducing the social problems that have grown in the past thirty years.

The employers do not expect the employees to be able to live off of minimum wage. That's not the employer's problem - you are doing mimimum skill work, so you get paid minimum wage. It's your responsibility to make it work. Upgrade your skill to make more money or upgrade where you work. There are many of 16-17 year olds who are making $12 an hour. $550 is VERY inexpensive for an apartment in most populated areas. Why would you have a car payment when you are making minimum wage? = minimum wage earners should purchase their cars for cash. Add'l Info: In your case, ignorance is stupidity, not bliss. I live in California (NE bred, CA born). I live in an area that is proud to not keep up with the Jones'. I make a 6figure income and most of my neighbors do too. We call ourselves the 96% (96% based on where we live, 99% if we lived where you live). We are all millionaires if you consider real estate investments. - I drive a '04 car that is about to turn 100K miles. It looks nice and gets me everywhere I want to go. My neighbor just purchased a Nissan Juke for $20K. Our other neighbor is driving a '05 Element. Probably not cars that you would be caught dead in - although we are making 5X+ more than you. - we live 1.2 miles from the Pacific Ocean are housese are small and worth LOTS of money. On minimum wage you should be driving a $5000 car, tops. You should really consider selling it so you are not living pay check to pay check. We all did and we are all finacially sucessfully now. One neighbor is a director of a LARGE company that is a household name - she was driving the tiny Hyundai under about 2 years ago. Another is a Vice President at a Fortune 500 company and was driving a Yaris...

Of course, though it should be at a certain age.

Say we put into legislation "The Grown Up Pay Act", If you are 21 years of age no matter what job you take, you deserve to be paid well enough to pay all the bills and have enough "fun money" left over to spend it however way you want it.

I could see how it can be flawed, but every job out there has it's purpose and shouldn't be struggling in life just cause other jobs can't hire at the moment while you have to work at fast food joints, clothing stores, etc.

What's the point of working a low paying job at all if you can't pay up your premiums such as your car/health insurance or electric bills, rent for car or apartment, etc. The supposely low end jobs should still pay you well, but the higher up jobs should help you get even more! After all, you wasted a couple of years of your life on knowledge that isn't even truly useful for whatever field you are trying to get into. People should start to really think hard about this, would you guys rather live a hard life, or a prosperous life where work is some what bearable due to the pay of the job that can help you live your life?

Money is the biggest problem for all americans, it's what causes people to go mad and do stupid things.

Okay... Who decides what decent housing, and "all the other necessities of life" are? Is a cell-phone a necessity? I see many many people who are on public assistance carrying a cell phone. Is an x-box 360 a necessity? Is a 42" LCD television a necessity? How about jewelry? What kind of car are we talking about? There becomes a fine line where there are some collecting freebies from the government who are better off than hard-working Americans...

Employees do not have rights to jobs or pay. A living wage is a socialist myth. Who determines what is a living wage. If I work, I want at least $50,000 in gross income. If I work at McDonald's restaurants, what are the chances I will get that amount? Answer: none.

Employers determine wages based on what an employee's worth is to the company. I am opposed to minimum wage laws. Unions are even bad. They artificially jack up wages, then consumers have to pay more to cover those extra costs.

Depends on the job....

Some jobs do not, and never will earn a living wage.

Solution: Education.

It stands to reason that a full time job flippin burgers at mickey D's, is not going to earn a living wage, because it takes no skill or education.

A better example which would illustrate your point better...

Let say i'm working as a sales agent for a residential home builder..(they build "regular" homes..3/2 nothing special). It stands to reason that I should be able to afford a home built by the people I work for... or, one of these three things are probably true.

1) I'm a crappy sales agent

2) I'm underpaid

3) There is a fundamental problem with the underlying economy.

Russia has that plan or it did till it went under.If people lived like they did in the 50's one income is enough but now the homes are bigger 2 cars,cable internet,cells,faxs,and thanks to our stupid leaders we no longer have cheap energy.In that time drill where every you wanted now they have to go all over the place even with oil in our back yards and it will get worse with every new law n mandate can't drill here 2 mouse and a snow bird live here.No off shore drilling near our shores you get the picture the real problem is government and unrealistic environmentalist over the last 40 years

No.

It would be nice, but you are ignoring BASIC ECONOMICS!!!

Look, you can't be paid more than the value of what you produce. That's the bottom line.

Lets say you are a baker. Your Boss pays the rent, energy costs, etc. for the bakery where you work. Lets say that is $10 a day. He then buys $50 worth of ingredients. You then take those $50 worth of ingredients and use your baking skills to turn them into cakes and cookies.

The cakes and cookies you create have to sell for more than $60 for your Boss to break even. Your wage comes out of everything over the break even point.

Lets say your cookies and cakes sell for $120. That means he has $60 to use to pay his taxes, himself, and you. If your cookies and cakes sell for $250 that means he has $190, from which he can pay himself, you and taxes. If your cookies only sell for $40, you are looking for a new job because the Boss can't afford you.

That's basic reality, doesn't matter how much rhetoric scream or laws you pass, or what you think you "deserve", that's the way the real world works.

So, lets say you live in one of those horrible "Blue States" with high taxes and a sky high cost of living (cost of living in NYC and San Francisco is about twice that of a city in Texas). This means your "living wage" is very high, because it costs a lot to live there. This means you are going to have to be a very very productive person in order to produce enough that your boss can afford to pay you a "living wage". Since there are only so many hours in a day, you can't just "work more" or "work harder", to up your productivity. That means two things.

1) Your boss can use technology to increase your productivity. This generally takes the form of machinery and automation. It also means fewer jobs. (Example, the Boss buys a machine to mix bread dough, and fires the guy who used to do that job.)

2) You need to be a highly skilled person. Better skills make for a more productive employee. That is why experience is worth a premium. For example a lawyer takes paper, a computer/printer, and her skills and produces a set of documents that lets you stay out of jail...documents that you will pay a lot of $$ for.

Now if you are a highly skilled person, you can make this happen. If however you are NOT a highly skilled person (you didn't do well in school, or you just aren't that smart, or you only got sent to really crappy schools, or you are young and just got out of school and don't have any experience) then you are out of luck. Going back to the bakery, lets say your cakes and cookies sell for $160 a day. That leaves $100 for you boss to pay you and himself. Now if you live in Dallas and the cost of living is only $35, then your boss gets paid $60 and you get $40, and everyone is happy. If however you live in New York and the cost of living is $70, then your boss gets $70 or $75 and you get $30 or $25. You can't live on $30 in a place where the cost of living is $70.

This means one of three things happens.

1) You get paid a cruddy wage and have to take a second job.

2) Your boss can't find people to work for $35 so he has to move the bakery to Texas or North Carolina where taxes are lower and the cost of doing business is lower, and he can find people to work for $35.

3) A law gets passed that REQUIRES your boss to pay you $70. That would cut the boss's pay to under the cost of living, so he closes the bakery and retires to Florida.

So no. While it would be NICE if every 40 hour a week job paid $100,000 a year, it CAN'T happen that way.

They are free to go find another job. And, people's opinions differ on what is a "necessity".

Minimum wage would hardly being a living wage in my opinion. But, I don't think the government has the right to tell private business what to pay.

all people should be entitled to decent housing, food, utilities, transportation and all the other necessities of life.

those things are basic human rights ...it is a shame that the US as the supposedly "most powerful nation on Earth" is the only Western Industrialised country that fails to care for the less advantaged in their society