Tiered minimum wage?

[724Skinsfan]

Hey guys, thought I'd run an idea a colleague and several others were discussing...

The subject of minimum wage and education came up. One guy brought up an idea that minimum wage should be tiered to represent your education level. Ungraduated from high school would be the base, GED would be the next level and high school diploma would be next. The idea would be to encourage students to at least finish their high school education.

Any thoughts on this?

[12thMan]

Naw...I don't buy that one at all. For a lot of different reasons really. But I think the current system works well.

People haven't finished high school for a lot of different reasons, so bringing them in at lower rate could actually be a disincentive to finish high school.

[724Skinsfan]

Actually the thought is raising the rate for the GED and HS graduates, the current base rate would be for non-high school graduates.

[MTK]

All I know is the current min. wage rate is a joke. Let's get it raised to a decent level first and go from there. It's not a livable wage as is.

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

All I know is the current min. wage rate is a joke. Let's get it raised to a decent level first and go from there. It's not a livable wage as is.

As I said, it's not INTENDED to be.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Buster

As I said, it's not INTENDED to be.

Personally I think it should be, or at least a lot closer to being a livable wage than it is now.

[Monkeydad]

Not necessary...most minimum wage jobs are FOR non-high school graduates anyways. There's no reason to have any qualification system for minimum wage and really, no reason to raise it. Working at these jobs are not permament arrangements, not intended for or used for raising a family (mostly kids looking for their first job or a summer job and retired people looking for something to do take the jobs) and it would actually hurt the entire US economy to raise the min wage. It would force the employers and businesses to raise prices to make up for their lost profits from the government-mandated payroll expense. McDonald's wouldn't pay for the rate hike, their customers would. Also, it would make a lot of employers have to cut the number of minimum wage employees they can afford to keep, so the "feel good" political tactic of raising the minimum wage would end up puttting a lot of the people they want to help out of work instead. We haven't even gotten into the higher-paid employees' demands of raises to stay the same "value" ahead of the kids at the counter or cleaning the windows.

If you have ANY skills at all, you can do better than a minimum wage job. Sure there are a lot of kids having babies, but they better not be relying on burger-flipping to support the child.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Buster

Not necessary...most minimum wage jobs are FOR non-high school graduates anyways. There's no reason to have any qualification system for minimum wage and really, no reason to raise it. Working at these jobs are not permament arrangements, not intended for or used for raising a family (mostly kids looking for their first job or a summer job and retired people looking for something to do take the jobs) and it would actually hurt the entire US economy to raise the min wage. It would force the employers and businesses to raise prices to make up for their lost profits from the government-mandated payroll expense. McDonald's wouldn't pay for the rate hike, their customers would. Also, it would make a lot of employers have to cut the number of minimum wage employees they can afford to keep, so the "feel good" political tactic of raising the minimum wage would end up puttting a lot of the people they want to help out of work instead. We haven't even gotten into the higher-paid employees' demands of raises to stay the same "value" ahead of the kids at the counter or cleaning the windows.

If you have ANY skills at all, you can do better than a minimum wage job. Sure there are a lot of kids having babies, but they better not be relying on burger-flipping to support the child.

I agree with all of this... except the bolded part. Salary inflation in the country has been about 2-3% per year over the last 7 years. Over that time, the minimum wage has not been raised, not even to adjust for inflation. So speaking in relative terms, the working poor have lost value to the higher paid employees. To be truly fair, we should give minimum wage a boost to make up for 7 years of inflation. I don't think minimum wage should be raised in that min wage employees should have more money in their pockets, but they certainly shouldn't have less than they did 7 years ago, which is exactly what happens when the wage doesn't keep pace with inflation. A 14.8% boost in the min wage would put employees on the same footing as they were 7 years ago, assuming inflation was 2% per year.

But you are right, minimum wage is not intended to support a family, and it should not be expected by anyone to do so.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I agree with all of this... except the bolded part. Salary inflation in the country has been about 2-3% per year over the last 7 years. Over that time, the minimum wage has not been raised, not even to adjust for inflation. So speaking in relative terms, the working poor have lost value to the higher paid employees. To be truly fair, we should give minimum wage a boost to make up for 7 years of inflation. I don't think minimum wage should be raised in that min wage employees should have more money in their pockets, but they certainly shouldn't have less than they did 7 years ago, which is exactly what happens when the wage doesn't keep pace with inflation. A 14.8% boost in the min wage would put employees on the same footing as they were 7 years ago, assuming inflation was 2% per year.

But you are right, minimum wage is not intended to support a family, and it should not be expected by anyone to do so.

If a person has worked for 7 years and are making min wage then it is something they are doing wrong. Like not keeping a job, calls in sick all the time, does not even try at all, etc. Did you know that only 17% of people in poverty have a full time jobs so that means that 83% don't even work over 40 hours a week. I bet you cannot find me one person that has worked hard at a job for over a year and is making min wage that is just not the problem.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by firstdown

If a person has worked for 7 years and are making min wage then it is something they are doing wrong. Like not keeping a job, calls in sick all the time, does not even try at all, etc. Did you know that only 17% of people in poverty have a full time jobs so that means that 83% don't even work over 40 hours a week. I bet you cannot find me one person that has worked hard at a job for over a year and is making min wage that is just not the problem.

I don't disagree. My point is that people who just dropped out of high school and started on minimum wage 7 years ago had a better standard of living than the people who are just dropping out of high school and starting out on minimum wage today.

That ain't right.

The world is 14.8% more expensive to live in today than it was 7 years ago. There needs to be an adustment made. It's not a boost by any means, it's just to get them back to where they were 7 years ago.

[724Skinsfan]

I didn't even get a 1% percent raise last year. I expressed my opinion during the yearly review about that. Two months later 35 employees were layed off, mostly irrelevant and overpaid territory sales staff. So, I decided to give them another chance...

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I don't disagree. My point is that people who just dropped out of high school and started on minimum wage 7 years ago had a better standard of living than the people who are just dropping out of high school and starting out on minimum wage today.

That ain't right.

The world is 14.8% more expensive to live in today than it was 7 years ago. There needs to be an adustment made. It's not a boost by any means, it's just to get them back to where they were 7 years ago.

What isn't right is that they dropped out of high school. That tells me they are lazy and not willing to finish their job. They know when dropping out that they are going to have a tough time making a living so thats a poor argument,

[724Skinsfan]

Let's see what happens when the Senate gets a hold of this...


'100 hours': House passes minimum wage hike - CNN.com

[BDBohnzie]

Most jobs these days start at well above the minimum wage, so it really shouldn't be an issue.

As Buster said, minimum wage is not intended to be a livable wage. It's routinely for kids working part time while in high school/college to earn a few bucks. It should be incentive for those making minimum wage to bust their asses to make more money. I almost equate it to the newer grading systems in school...trying to get everyone to pass so they don't feel the negativity of failing. Raising the minimum wage will only help those people squeek by instead of working harder to gain their own incentives.

[saden1]

They do something like this in Europe and some countries factor in age as well.