dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

On the surface and to the unthinking, this would appear to be a great idea. In reality, it's not.
--Bob

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

More kiosks in fast food places, more automation of the lower jobs and those that can't be mechanized twice the work will be expected by half the workers.
Oh well. This is a bone to the unions seeing as their pay scales are based on the minimum wage.

Red in Colorado

I have never understood how the math works. If I am making ten bucks and hour, I have that much purchasing power. When my wage goes up to $15 based on government mandate rather than business profits, the cost of the goods or services I am providing must go up. Assuming this is true of every service or all goods affected by the increased costs, prices go up throughout the supply chain. Now that everything is base $15 instead of base $10, how am I in a better place? I still can barely afford anything.

RAR_man Loc: stow, MA

dont worry. occasio-cortez and bernie will find a way to tax robots/penalize American innovation.

Famous restaurant in Boston is shuttering. One of the reasons is the new minimum wage increase. There were other factors, too, but they mentioned that the increase in min wage was a contributor.

I've read that a lot of small businesses in the Seattle area have pared back the number of employees due to the increase in min. wage.

I know, I know, the dims reading this will say the the owners are greedy. Businesses are in business for one reason only...to make money. If their model doesnt work, they close the business or make whatever changes they need to in order to meet their profit expectations. I have no problem with businesses laying people off in favor of automation. Remember, automation has the potential to create jobs, too (service, installation, training, assembly, shipping, receiving, cleaning...all in support of automation products).

Not sure why anyone thinks that flipping burgers is a career. for most (not all) such jobs should be steppingstones for gaining workplace experience. People need incentive to move on...not overpay for doing menial tasks. BTW, I applaud anyone that takes a menial job. Great first step...and an honest job.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

Profits have been going up. Business just doesn't share it without being forced.

RAR_man Loc: stow, MA

share it? Why should they share anything? their idea of being in business is to earn as much as possible for as little as possible.

Free market will drive wages up, as it always has. A good case in point are the factories in Mexico. I was marginally involved in some of this. Workers who had no jobs found jobs when foreign-based businesses (US, European, etc.) built factories in Mexico. Labor was cheap and plentiful. Once other factories came along, the workers were offered 5-cents to 25-cents to leave their job and go to work for a factory down the road. In turn, other factories came in and offered even more to the workers. The bottom line is that wages kept increasing lessening the effectiveness/profitability resulting in shuttering of some factories because it made more sense to build in lower cost manufacturing geographies...or even bringing the business back to the US (lower tariffs, lower shipping costs, better supply chain, higher wages offset by the aforementioned).

free market is the way to go. To those without a lot of money it seems greedy. To those jealous citizens, the businessmen are "greedy", need to pay their "fair share". Fair share???? they pay most of the taxes already. Over fifty percent of Americans pay no taxes. I dont think there is anything more un-American than the graduated tax. Everyone should pay the same. Even people on welfare should have to pay taxes. Everyone should have skin in the game.

Red in Colorado

Share? What a weird perspective. Business is not a charity. People agree to be paid what they agree to. How the owner spends the money is none of the employee's business.
It's math, not sharing.

btbg

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

No one FORCES a person to work at a job here in America, they choose the job and are free to quit for better wages if they don't like it.

Rose42

No it's not a good idea. One group it really hurts is small business owners. In essence, democrats are helping to do away with more small businesses.

Wages go up and so do prices. Democrats want to appear to be doing something.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

You are exactly right. Gotta start somewhere. I started work. between semesters, in manual labor at the minimum wage. I worked in the construction trades. Built part of the worlds Fair in 1964 worlds fair in ny city. Looked great on my resume for jobs after college. Showed that I was willing to do HARD work.- Still have the hammer that I used- a treasured artifact.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

Corps need quit being so greedy. After my first five years I paid union scale, had best crews. Had no turn over. Paid per diem. Was in business 30+ years. An still made money. Wasn't as much as I could have made. But did not have to worry about good help not showing up on time, everyday. Now that I'm retired. I'm building a ranch. You pay well. People protected thier jobs. Had list of new people wanting jobs to choose from.

DavidJon Loc: Ada, Oklahoma

Minimum wage laws simply guarantee that the least skilled workers (the young, minorities, the least educated) will either lose their jobs or never get hired in the first place. This is one of the dumbest liberal ideas that gets propagated about, and people have no comprehension what damage it does. They actually think that minimum wage will help the poor when the exact opposite is the case.

RAR_man Loc: stow, MA

as a shareholder in many publicly traded companies, I want corporations to be greedy. I want them to be smart about hiring, employee retention, supply chain, etc. I want them to make as much profit as possible. I have railed against some CEOs and their inflated salaries...only because they were not doing a good job; i.e., the corporation/stock was not doing well.

I'm a libertarian. I don't want govt telling us how much is too much. I don't want govt to tell me how much i have to pay an employee. I hear idiots wanting to empower the government to penalize people for being successful, for creating jobs and spending their wealth. How stupid. People that support high taxes for the rich are jealous. Reality TV has promoted schadenfreude (taking pleasure in seeing someone "kicked off the island", "fired", "rejected" by a bachelor or bachelorette. Instead of promoting compassion, the media breeds jealousy, deceit, bad values.

Why should we penalize anyone for success? I can't understand how anyone could be stupid enough to fall in line with what many dims on the far left are espousing: tax the rich up to 70%. S-T-U-P-I-D! Where do the jobs come from? From those flipping burgers? Those on welfare? Nope. It's the well off that buy properties, fix them up, adding jobs in the process and selling them. It's the well off that create more business and create more jobs. Yes. I know the small business owners create lots of jobs too. But the small business owner is typically not the one flipping burgers for minimum wage. They are typically well educated, have some dough to begin with. I know often they struggle to succeed, but making money always involves sweat of one kind of another. I ask my brothers and sisters on UHH to think about the nonsense that is being espoused by aoc, bernie, etc. Free. Free. Free. Who pays? Penalize the successful through taxation. Someone explain the logic.

Corporations greedy??? Wow! Of course, in day to day life, don't you make decisions to minimize your dollar outflow? Save 29 cents by buying the store brand instead of the national brand. Drive an extra distance to save 30 cents/gal for gas. Corps do/think the same way. Nothing wrong with that. When corps do well, stockholders do well through higher dividend returns. Seems like a good formula to me. And some of you want to restrict corp income for lower dividends? Some want corps to pay higher wages? That means lower dividends, too. No one is forced to work at any one job. This is free market. Those with drive move on to better wages through hard work and reward or by changing jobs. I suspect many of those that want higher taxes for the rich are just hurting for money themselves.