Federal Minimum Wage
I don't want this to become political, but I genuinely have interest in knowing other people's opinion on this matter - especially people who mostly do similar jobs for a living.
Is a $15 minimum wage a good thing? Will it act as a morale boost for employees? Will it create a more lazy work force (more money, no added responsibility)?
Also, will this cause an increase in price for manufactured goods? It seems that if you have to pay employees more money to create the same good, then the price of that good must increase. Will this potentially lead to layoffs because some companies cant afford a $15 minimum wage?
Again, I'm not looking to start any political drama. I am just looking for some opinions. I honestly don't know how I feel about it. It both worries me and excites me.
Thanks in advance for any insight!
Comments (4)
The positive (from an employer perspective) is the trend has pushing out children in minimum wage jobs allowing the employer to assign all tasks to the job. This is about all I can say from a safety perspective. Everything else is political and I don't want to go there.
Maybe I'm missing it, but how does this question correlate to worker's safety? In the original phrasing it seems unrelated to the safety knights mission.
Looking at history, the minimum wage was at an all time low a few year ago based on the value of our currency. In the 1960s you could pay for college and live on minimum wage, those days are long over. Increasing the minimum wage to $15 will not destroy the economy, but I'm sure that like all things, there will be pros and cons.
Pros - More Americans will be getting paid a livable wage. The current minimum wage is outrageously low. It is near impossible to live off of less than $8 per hour. "Get a skill", "Get a better job", these things are easier said than done.
Cons - Grocery stores, Walmarts, etc. have been phasing out employees for this very reason, thats why we see so many self checkouts. Large companies will be fine, their stocks might dip, but they will recover. It is small businesses that will suffer. Unless the government can give out some kind of incentive to small businesses, it will only increase the powers of monopolies.
My opinion, we need to increase the minimum wage slowly, not overnight. If we double it immediately there will be an economic reaction. Yes it is overdo, but we also need to focus on skilled labor in this country. Education. We need to give people more incentives to pursue careers that require some type of technical background. I don't necessarily mean college. IT departments, the Trades, there are career opportunities out there that require training but not college. High school school boards need to emphasize this with the next generation. Many millennials make terrible money because their high school told them to go to college to be successful, so they majored in something dumb and now they can't get a job.