Sources?

Budgeting, cutting back, and getting better at their job are all options.

You simply cannot forego basic economics. If someone's labor is worth X, then to force an employer to pay them more than X causes serious problems.

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"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." - Hassan-i-Saba

Loans, roomates, and ramen noodles worked for me

SF Chronicle, You might have to do a search for it. It was something I read months back. I don't have the time to find it at the moment.
If you get a chance, maybe read this article and tell me what you think. I'd be interested to see why you think Minimum Wage has negative effect on the labor market.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_bp150

First off the Resturant business doesn't pay minium wage, most waiter in this country ear 2.13 an hour plus tips, if you suck at being a server you can't afford to pay your bills...


Since when does public education cost anything?

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Oh the DeadHead avatar is there because I like their Music, not because I'm a hippy

Minimum wage, like everything else, is a balance.

I think it has a place in protecting workers from being exploited. There's a serious power imbalance between low-wage workers and their available employers; they don't generally have much negotiating power when it comes to wages. As a rule, this isn't a problem, but it becomes one when an employer uses that advantage to drive wages down to the point where one cannot earn a living.

So a minimum wage has a purpose in ensuring a minimum amount of pay for an hour's work. Further, from a government perspective it's better to force employers to pay a certain minimum amount than it is to have that worker on welfare where the government picks up the full tab.

A too-high minimum wage risks the things that Lazarus describes, as well as ignoring the reality of today's global competition. But it's hardly a 1-for-1 ratio. Raise the minimum wage 10 percent, and you don't see 10 percent fewer workers or prices rising 10 percent. the marketplace constrains prices, and employers still need employees. So you might see some layoffs and some price hikes, but the net income going to minimum-wage workers generally rises.

In short, minimum wage is not inherently evil, but like any tool it can be abused. And since it's a coercive tool, great care should be taken NOT to abuse it.

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Man up.

It's also worth noting that wages aren't really the main barrier to hiring. Benefits -- particularly health care -- are. You want to encourage employers to hire people according to need, worry less about wages and more about decoupling health insurance and employment status.

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Man up.

And I hear-- That won't work for everyone! I didn't think it would work for me either but it beat the crap out of not eating. And all those people at GM better start looking for a new career because making $40 an hour to watch a machine go by with a part isn't going to be happening much longer if we still want cars made in the US. No one can afford them. So let's just raise that minimum wage and see what you can afford to buy at the grocery store, McDonalds, Lowe's, the mall. You know? All those jobs meant for laborers who do not have any experience but an employer takes a chance on them anyway.

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Those who think they know everything, usually know the least.

As Raytri said "minmum wage like everything else is a balance"

The amount that labor is "worth" is constantly on the auction block. There is no God given number. As any realtor will tell you, a house is worth what someone will pay for it and the same goes for labor. Labor is worth more when there are fewer laborers and lots of jobs. Of course the problem is that there are a lot of low skilled people in this country fighting for the low-paid service jobs. That has something to do with immigration and other factors. The corporate class is perfectly happy to squash unionization (one of the few counterbalancing institutions) and perfectly happy to have government subsidize their bottom line in the form of medicaide for their low-wage workers. As Raytri's sensible post indicated , there is no perfect and direct correlation between the price of products, the number of available jobs and minimum wage. If minimum wage is raised, maybe Walmarts (an arbitrary example) will successfully retain better, more productive employees. Maybe all those people who receive minimum wage or close to it will spend more money at Walmarts. Maybe the upper management will take a cut in pay. Maybe State governments will have a decreased medicaide burden and therefore lower taxes.

My brother owns several retail stores in Oregon. He pays his employees much better than his competition and provides them with benefits. He runs the business on a profit sharing scheme and employees are welcome to look at the books any time. His employees do the hiring and firing. Since there is a great incentive for them to see the businesses prosper, they are careful to hire people who will pull there own weight and be responsible. My brother's business model is based on the fact that good employees are his most important asset and he always gives them incentive to perform. His businesses have grown while the competition dwindle. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

Don't you people remember the last time we had a minimum wage increase, bread, milk, food in general almost doubled in price to counter the loss so that management wouldn't have to take a cut in pay (Most companies raised prices even if they had no minimum wage employees, taking advantage of the situation and actually gave themselves pay raises). The thing is that most of the reasoning for raising the minimum had the opposite effect on the economy! People who made just over minimum actually wound up with a pay cut do to the rise in basic need items.

The only way to raise the minimum without changing the economy or the cost of living is for the higher Archy take a cut in pay, and that ain't gonna happen, no matter what it costs the country!!

These are the types of companies that are crippling the economy! Paying people for the value of their work in todays business atmosphere, is considered counter productive, and un-American (socialism) in the thought process of many of our so-called leaders! That is why the outsourcing, and the use of illegal aliens, is so "important" for their pay (Management being paid more and the workers continuously getting less)! I would almost bet a paycheck, the management of those other stores, get more benefits than the managers of your brothers stores, because they are getting those benefits at the expense of the workers. Management interprets a fair share as "taking their share", and it couldn't be farther from the truth! Gone is the philosophy that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of you!! It's much easier to consider them a burden, & demonize them as lazy, unworthy, thieves, trying to steal "my" share of the pie, and take advantage of a large work force, who more and more, are willing to work for near nothing, so they can just get by!!

Buck S. N.

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There are only two things wrong with this great nation of ours, democrats and republicans!

Not necessarily in that order.

I’ve been talking about San Francisco and yes waiters and waitresses earn a base pay of $8.50 an hour plus tips…
I figured since I said “tuition hikes” you’d know I was talking about community college, etc. I’ll remember to edit for those that are a little slow.
My own personal beliefs are that if a company is doing well and can afford to pay their employee’s a “living wage” then they should do so. My home state of California has a set minimum wage but we’ve found that isn’t good enough. People in different parts of the state need a higher wage and so in certain parts (including San Francisco where I live) minimum wage has been raised quite a bit.

I realize that statistics point out that mainly younger people have these sorts of minimum wage jobs. I hate to break it to you but the small amounts of people who do live on their own or do in fact have a family isn’t such a small number. Look at Oakland for example. Do we just write the entire city off and not give them any hope? There are lots of families and communities that rely on these sorts of jobs. I don’t care if it not on every corner of this country…I think it matters that these communities do exist and there’s times where raising minimum wage does help. Like I’ve said, your story doesn’t work for everyone. You haven’t lived in Oakland so you can’t relate.