Minimum wage.

So what is the federal minimum wage, and how long has it been that rate?

 

Americans are smart.

 

I think she is Canadian

Federal Minimum Wage Rates, 1955–2009
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

 

Wow. Minimum wage is $6.50?

That's fuckin' sad.

 

It is.

Ours is not much better

There are three levels of minimum wage, and the rates from 1 October 2008 are:

• £5.73 per hour for workers aged 22 years and older
• A development rate of £4.77 per hour for workers aged 18-21 inclusive
• £3.53 per hour for all workers under the age of 18, who are no longer of compulsory school age

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nmw/#b

 

In California our current minimum wage is 8.00.

 

TheStar.com | Business | Minimum wage set to rise


Few economist seem to agree with raising the minimum wage during economic downturns. Moderate increases in the minimum wage during better economic times seems to be the way to go because this approach hasn't been shown to negatively affect employment. So this isn't the best time for Americans to futher increase the minimum wage and explains why we haven't heard Obama's people suggesting it.

 

right now it's 5.15 in nevada if they provide you health insurance (doesn't have to be good, just has to be "insurance" according to the insurance commissioner)

6.55 otherwise.

 

Like stated before, there is aslight difference betwenn Federal and State minimums.
Actually $6.55,($8.09 in Canadian Dollars) by July 2009 $7.25($8.96 Canadian, at the current ex)

Whats really sad is, alot of them aren't even worth the minimum wage

 

In Connecticut the min wage is $7.65 right now, going up to $8 in January. The Fed is still $5.15 but going up in Janauary too, but most states use the federal one

 

Few people believed the earth wasn't flat at one point.

Economic data is not as useful as it should be because it is shrouded by politics and self interest of powerful groups. Business lobbies will do whatever it takes to stop the minimum wage being raised because it impacts their short-term profitability.

Then there is the issue of the class system in the USA. Where the wealthier people have an almost royalty like entitlement complex appearing to believe they almost own the lower classes. This is a big problem in a society that claims to be free and operate as merit based.

The minimum wage is a great social advance and over history will be seen as one of our societies greatest innovations. The only time it hurts people is on paper, under a set of unrealistic perfect, conditions to fit a particular scenario where the minimum wage is detrimental.

As long as you do not set it too high. However, my belief is that the current crisis is a result of market failure in the labor market. So intervention in that market through raising the minimum wage would help to boost the econiomy.

 

The Fed is $6.55 since 7/24/2008
And will not go up until 7/24/2009

Too many people confusing federal and state minimums.

Less than half are at or below the minimum, not most.

 

Raising the min wage I think now won't do too much harm because it's been overdue, but just because you don't like the politics of it doesn't mean raising the min wage doesn't sometimes hurt employees. I.e. the grocery store I worked at has basically stopped any non essential hiring and frozen wage increases for the time being. So if they had to pay employees more right now they'd hire even less people then they already are

 

So, you believe that the bottom 2.3% of the workforce is the problem ? News to me.

How?

 

BoredGeorge,

Is it a good idea to raise the min wage futher during times when employers are laying people off like is common during a recession?

 

Read some works of Ludwig Von Mises.

 

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1774

Basically. Raising minimum wages causes a small decrease in employment.

The effect on inflation is also negligible because it is not possible that an increase leads to a $1 for $1 increase in prices. Why ? Because inflation is calculated CPI which includes increases in prices that have nothing to do with wages. Hence, it can't be a $1 for $1 increase which means any rise in the minimum wage or wages in general HAS to lead to increased buying power to a certain point. Meaning there has to be an optimal level to set the minimum wage while its growth is below that of inflation.

If we were to take this further and look at goods consumer by low income earners as a means to survive or where the largest percentage of goods were bought. We would see a growth in the wage well below inflation.

So we've got the effect where wages have been effectively reduced by inflation. Which is interesting because if we were too look at the wage as a percentage of inflation and measures earnings in comparison we would see the portion of inflation would actually be increasing over time. All a matter of how you look at it. Hence increasing the minimum wage might actually decrease the inflationary component of consumption.

I mean, what is a dollar anyway ? An arbitrary measure, what matters is the buying power of that dollar. So what if $1 is replaced by $100 so long as that $100 as a percentage of a persons income is buying a larger bundle of goods.

 

But I didn't see where that Australian link was advocating raising the min wage during a recession.