HOLY CRAP! It Just Hit Me About the Minimum Wage

[Yavin4]

I am 42 years old. When I was 18, I worked at a telephone survey company, and I made the minimum wage. This was 1982, and I made $3.65/hr. Twenty-four years later, almost a quarter of a century, the min. wage is only $5.15 an hour. That works out to annual increases of about $0.06 year or 1.6% annual increases.

Wow.

[buddysmellgood]

1. I'd like a 1.6% annual increase. But I make a hell of a lot more than $5.15 an hour.

[Selatius]

18. You should demand higher than that. 1.6 does not keep up with inflation. n/t

[Target_For_Exterm]

2. That's too much. Bush doesn't believe in annual raises.

Unless they're his. But he just gets an increase in his allowance. Waah, Poppy - I need more $$$!

[GymGeekAus]

3. It is pretty shocking.

And there are still employers out there who refuse to pay it, who hire undocumented workers and underpay them, or refuse to pay them at all. And then threaten them with deportation if they report them (which is a bullying and hollow threat, since the employer broke the law by employing them).

And there are still jobs out there that don't get the minimum wage anyway.

And the law as it exists now doesn't take into account different work schedules--it assumes a 40 hour work week.

There are all sorts of problems.

And what for? So investors can pocket that extra cash. Which to them, is little more than chump-change.

Time to eat the rich, people. The estate tax doesn't hit the top one percent early enough.

[DaveJ]

6. I could not agree more

The rich are freeloaders all of them... I mean, I would feel rich if I simply had a nice 3 or 4 bedroom home that was paid off, but beyond that people should expect a significant rise in what they are expected to contribute to the working poor who support them with their labor.

[POAS]

4. In the 19 years between

when I started working fulltime in 1963 and your start in 1982 the minimum went from 1.25 to 3.65, almost a threefold increase. By that standard i figure it should now be somewhere close to $11.00

[GymGeekAus]

7. Yeppers.

Having a job should be protection against poverty. It's pretty simple. Working should provide you with access to food, shelter, and healthcare. And maybe even more.

But once you get a conservative in the discussion, you have to start defining things really, really closely.

[sandnsea]

5. In 1978 it was $2.65

The house I live in right now would have cost $25,000. Now it would sell for $200,000. A pound of hamburger was .49 lb, now it's $2.49. Anybody living below the median wage has it so much harder than 25-30 years ago.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. Yep, the lower class is way down there. No insurance,dental,

eyeglasses, yet everything else goes up. Gasoline, utilities,food, clothing,housing. But the rich don't feel it. They don't even see it.

America used to care. America must respect and start helping the working poor.

"Corporate America has no heart, and isn't supposed to." says my Repub friend.

"We are not Corporate America," I say.

[SoCalDem]

20. But the supreme court gave corporations "personhood", so

with their mega-money they can buy all the congresscritters they need, and all the ads they need to convince people so "see things their way"..:puke:

they have not only achieved personhood..they are SUPER-persons with super powers..

[Hav]

9. .

I think many with normal jobs would be quite content with an annual increase of 1.6% ;). It's not much but some don't even get that but that is besides the point.

I also guess that when you use the correct formula, the increase will be below 1.6%.
But of course, the point is how well one can survive with such a wage when everything else costs more every year.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

10. Honest to God, this is a funny story. In 1974, my dad started a

chemical business and we were pretty low income. I was 14yrs. old, he said he would pay me a $1.00/per drum (65 gallons) to paint them. I painted 5/hr.., he would always make a joke about me making $5.00/hr., and I never got it until this thread.

I did work minimum wage in the coming years, I guess, as a young person, it never occurred to me, how much an hour I was making. I used spray paint, and it stank and my nose was black (kids don't think about these things), when, I had to use a mask, I quit!

[ComerPerro]

12. That is disgusting

"many with normal jobs would be quite content with an annual increase of 1.6%"


You are disgusting

[Nickster]

13. Maybe not content, but doing much better than they are now with a 1.6% increase.

Hell, my wife hasn't had ANY raise in 3 years now. I agree with your sentiment though.

[ComerPerro]

15. I would imagine that most raises work out to at least this increase, probably more

work at one position for five years, then get promoted, make ten thousand more, that's over this annual increase.

[Nickster]

22. True, but not everyone is in a position or will be in a position to get a big

enough raise at one time to make up the difference. Just saying. Something is better than nothing. By no means am I saying that that little of a raise is right or fair, just that it's better than what some people are getting.

[ComerPerro]

23. yeah, they just got it easy, don't they?

This is exactly the kind of "me first" thinking that gets Republicans elected.

Reaganomics at its finest.

The richest of the rich make off like bandits while looting the treasury, and to appease and distract people they tell them that its poor people who are draining society, not the take-all and give-nothing rich.

So they convice everyone that the working poor are poor because they are lazy, and that their laziness provides them benifits that regular, honest, hard working Americans aren't offered.

This sounds exactly like Reagan's "welfare queen" lies, which were long ago debunked.

[Nickster]

30. You're reading way too much into what I was saying.

My family is in no way a case of "welfare queens". My wife that I mentioned in a previous example is a college educated worker and has not received a raise at all in the last few years. We are in no way rich. We would not be happy, but a 1.6% raise would be much better than the 0% we have been receiving. We would be slipping much less than receiving the 0%. All that I was saying is that some people are working hard and are not receiving the raises that they should be and aren't in a position to receive a big fat raise to make up for the 0% they had been receiving. I'm sure that there are other people in the same situation, so we can't just say "oh, we'll eventually make up the difference."

[Hav]

31. .

At least you weren't called disgusting for messing up a sentence :eyes:.

I guess it's just hard to compare the situation of those only getting the minimum wage with those who earn the average wage.
I think most of us agree that it's very hard to pay the bills with these 5 bucks per hour. On such a low level, this increase over the years was way too low and the people will have severe problems because everything else costs so much more.

On the other hand, assuming one made 36k and assuming it's for the same job without promotions, getting 600$ more every year doesn't sound that bad, does it?

[Nickster]

33. Sorry, but I was called much worse....a Republican! :-) n/t

[ComerPerro]

35. And neither are people at the bottom. Its not 1.6% each year

[Hav]

25. .

Jesus, I'm sorry! I didn't want to offend anyone. English isn't my mother tongue and I probably expressed it poorly because I was thinking about rules concerning certain jobs in my country. What I meant was in contrast to regular jobs with wages closer to what the average worker in a country gets.
My father for example has the same job for 13 years and only got one real raise.

[TahitiNut]

11. Yep. It's lower now than it's been in over fifty years. Here ...

[DaveJ]

14. This also corresponds to income inequality graph

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/IncPov01.html

Exactly what people want who think we should bow to our masters.

[TahitiNut]

27. Yep. Here's my graph of the Gini Ratio (I invert it - UP is 'better')

I think it's important to see the reference points for other countries.

[rucky]

16. Now Johnny can have his operation! n/t

[DaveJ]

21. Sorry, Can't afford the operation

After paying $150 out of every paycheck for health insurance, then finding that insurance doesn't cover the operation, nothing left.

Edit: not sure if my irony was conveyed. Paying for useless health insurance makes one unable to afford healthcare.... :shrug:

[rucky]

36. It was my irony that wasn't conveyed.

:)

[SoCalDem]

17. and of course things still cost the same as back then too

:sarcasm:

[Initech]

19. Oops, this reply was meant for another thread.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

24. I have several employees

And the lowest paid only makes about $10/hr, and I feel ashamed to pay that little, even though he's a college student. I can't imagine an employer feeling good about themselves paying only %5.15/hr to their employees.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

32. I salute you...

for doing all you can to pay a living wage to your employees. We need more employers out there like you.

[stepnw1f]

26. You Just Helped to Frame the Debate

in a way that makes the right wing's argument look incredibly shallow.

[irislake]

28. Hmmmmmm

sure takes a while to "trickle down". Don't it?

[Flubadubya]

29. First worked at age 16... minimum wage was $1.25/hr.

That was in 1965 - an eternity ago. But what that really means is that minimum wage has increased only $3.90 in 41 years. Pretty pitiful! :thumbsdown:

[a kennedy]

34. I think they should push for a "living wage" not a minimun.....

and it should be at least $10.00 an hour!!!