Livable / Poverty Wages?

That one chick who loves Australia always says that they have a solid economy with $15/hr min wage, which has, apparently unlike the USA, managed to rise with the times.

I don't know if I believe raising min wage that high will work for the USA, since being in business has taught me that costs are already so high that the majority of businesses who deal with Chine et al. do so out of necessity, not out of greed; however, one does tend to wonder whether it would be that big of a deal.

Most small business owners, whether they're ordering from China or manufacturing in America, pay their small workforce over min wage anyway. They value loyalty because of their state of being, and with a smaller workforce, it's easier to increase wages by dollars per hour.

For companies like WalMart or MacDonalds, raising wages means massive rise in payments for workers who will not be more loyal, who will not work harder or produce more etc.

So who is being hurt? The small businessman who is already suffering yet already paying higher wages to better employees?

Or the large corporations who already take in big profits and might actually be able to afford the wage hike?

Is $15/hr a real number or just a speculation irrelevant to America? Should "min" wage be different depending on your dependents, or is that to be made up for by welfare programs?????

I don't know any of the answers.

But it seems like anybody who is trying to make a living wage off of a min wage job is kinda screwed up, since the majority of jobs pay over.

But the majority of jobs still don't pay $15/hr....

I think I would rather lay it on the heads of employers instead of the government to pay people though.

If raising wages meant massive cuts or elimination of welfare, then it might be worth something. But I don't think that's what people are generally fighting for.

I think most people who want higher min wage are folks who don't care to excel in their career life, and simply want more money for doing the same work, since they're feeling some heat and need more cash to maintain a lifestyle- that's an attitude that we need to squash, or else our capitalist and industrial machine will shut down and demand socialism even before socialism has the chance to shut it down. Because there's not really much difference at that point. You're just demanding that everybody gets paid a living wage, controlling the actions of businesses without regard to the institutions of risk, investment and the capitalist will that made all the production possible... When wages are demanded with disregard for the bottom line of a business, then things get silly.

While the definition pf poverty varies as to location, the US government defines it as $14,700 yearly income for a family of three( 2 parents and a child). Personally find that figure to be low. That's $7.65 an hour for a full time job.. $10.00 an hour would be $20,800. In NYC that would not feed, clothe and house a family of three. In the small town I live in in Texas you would spend a third of that on rent, very min.

Small businesses often pay a higher wage to attract the best employees. There are several reasons for this.. customer service and trust worthiness are two

Well, it would depend on where you live, and different people have different opinions, but I would say around $10 an hour in most places... about $20k a year...

but in places like NY and LA... probably $15 an hour, about $30k

gets pretty hard to make it on less than that these days in most places...

would that really decimate a small business? I know many that pay this much and more now?

EDIT: I think a bare bottom federal minimum is needed and that's pretty much what we have now... if you didn't have that, states like Mississippi would have min wage at a penny... lol

A livable wage has been defined by liberals as more than yesterday but less than tomorrow.

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n'uff said..

"Living wage" to them means whatever supports their $80 a month phone plan, buying the newest video game every month, supporting their weed habit, and of course the necessary cable tv.

iT DEPEND ON THE NEED AND PRIORITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL.