What's your opinion on the minimum wage?

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

It's fine where it is, increasing it will only increase the cost of everything and cancel out the the increase in pay to the people that get it.... Even worse I think increasing the minimum wage will only increase the amount of jobs outsouced from this country...

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

Since housing costs continue to increase more than wages, I’d say minimum wage needs to be raised. Especially here in the Bay Area.

It is suppose to be a starting point for people getting their first job. The minimum wage should not be increased people should increase their own worth to employers.

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

That isn’t realistic AT ALL. Many, many, many people have no place to work except retail, Walmart, Target, etc. The REALITY of it is not everyone have those skills, have the ability to learn those skills, nor is there a huge market offering loads of jobs that pay well…at least not on every spot in this country...

Many, many more people can't even get a job because of the minimum wage. Their labor isn't worth $5.15 an hour + whatever the state charges, and so employers won't hire them in the first place. I would rather have a low wage than none at all, myself.

The minimum wage also hurts people who need to get job training. Ultimately, this hurts the economy quite a bit, because people who don't have valuable labor aren't getting hired at all and don't get the chance to improve the value of their labor, which costs the economy and a lot of individuals a lot of money.

When the minimum wage is raised, employers either have to fire people or raise prices, which completely negates the purpose of the wage raise in the first place.

The minimum wage puts small businesses out of business; raises unemployment; raises prices; severely limits the options of teenagers, students, workers-in-training, part-time workers, and interns (who hold the vast majority of minimum wage jobs currently -- not people with families); and it hurts not-for-profit organizations.

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

I started out in 1998 as a clerk at a local convenience store at $5.15 an hour. I was given a promotion to Asst. Mgr in 1999 and my salary was increased to $7.50 an hour. I became a manager in 2000 and my salary increased to $500 a week. In 2001 I was promoted to the main office for development and was paid $650 a week. I worked my can off for that one single company. So please don't tell me there are no skills to be learned. I learned how to run a register, balance the money, hire, fire, order groceries, profit/loss sheets and on to training. Granted you need a will to learn but if you just go to a job for a paycheck then that is all you are going to get. Currently I am on a salary position with a new company and all those things I learned in the little convenience store have helped me to become an asset to many employers. Retail is a great place to learn skills. So instead of going to work to just earn some money why not try using it as part of your education. By the way, I did all of that as a single parent with no child support and no welfare. Hard work my friend, everyone should try it.

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

I suggest someone trying to do that in San Francisco…It’s really hard to argue about minimum wage for the entire country. I know that it’s been vital that we keep raising minimum wage here in the city. I’d like to see someone do some research and argue otherwise.

If you raise the minimum wage, all that will happen is unemployment and prices will get higher.

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

Just so you know… the restaurant industry in San Francisco which outperformed the economy in employment growth is doing great even after the minimum wage was raised in January of this year.

So what’s your solution to tuition hikes in public education and housing costs? How are working college student’s suppose to get an education and feed themselves if they can’t get a raise?