Is US Minimum Wage really $7.25?

reply to post by theovermensch


That is not true in all of America... For example, in a MOSTLY Republican state Wyoming, you can work for Pizza Hut for $15 an hour. Wyoming is one of the states that is doing great during the economic crisis.

Another thing, some people seem to think that "caring for the poor and middle classes is only what leftwing people and ideologies do"... This is NOT true, social programs don't have to be socialist...

Heck, before most of the "progressive ideas" were implemented Americans were able to pay for doctors to go to their home, they could buy houses without having to pay for years the house, and could pay cars without having to buy loans.

The wages are so low in the U.S. BECAUSE of "PROGRESS" not because there is any lack of "PROGRESS"...

Not sure if it was posted yet, since there are so many useless comments not attempting to answer the question at all...but, our minimum wage is tied directly into the bargaining agreements with Unions. So if the minimum wage goes up, so does all the wages for anyone in a union....which is over half or more of the work force in America.

And you can thank Liberal Democrats and their union ties for that. Keeping the poor as a slave voting class.

Originally posted by AshleyD
reply to post by theovermensch

 

Here in Australia it is $15.51 an hour.In Australia a 16 year old gets $7.34.

Why would a teenager earn half of the minimum wage? Just curious. Are employers over there allowed to discriminate pay based on age? I don't understand that.

To answer your question, 'minimum wage' is not the same as 'living wage.' It was never intended to be.

It's a minimum wage, not the maximum wage employers have to pay.

Australia might be seen as more of a welfare state that supports its poor counterparts more generously than most other countries, but look at Australia compared to the rest of the developed world. Our country is in a lot better social and economic condition.

Bitching about $7.25/hour ?

Here in Portugal the Minimum Wage it's 2.5€/hour (450€/Month) ^^

The mininmum wage is one of the reasons I think so many people here in the UK don't work.

If you work minimum wage you pay for all your own housing, council tax and travel costs take all this into account and your lucky if your £20 a week better off. Stay on the dole all your housing is paid there is no council tax and no travel costs.

To me its a no brainer why people would stay on the dole rather than work minimum wage.

Originally posted by theovermensch
I read that the Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. I knew it was low but I think that is crazy.How could you afford to live on that? Here in Australia it is $15.51 an hour.In Australia a 16 year old gets $7.34. And our dollar is worth slightly more than yours. I cannot beleive that adults in a country as prosperous as America are only worth $7.25 an hour. How would you even pay for utilities? There must be people that work fulltime and are on 'food stamps'. Are minimum wage jobs a significant percentage of the workforce?

From the outside looking in America looks like a terrible place to live. I have seen the 'tent cities' and seen how the homeless are treated. And then you see MTV cribs and the stark contrast. Yet you have armies of lunatics wearing patriot costumes screaming for blood because of 'obamacare'. The neocons seem like insane psychopaths. You watch a gop debate and hear people cheer at the idea of letting the poor die because they are poor. And you hear them call for cuts to welfare when the poor in your country are obviously already living like badly-fed animals. Anyway,I digress.

I was thinking that since America has an army of unemployed people that would be willing to work for minimum wage why isnt more stuff produced on US soil? I know people working in Chinese factories are worse off but surley more jobs in manufacturing is possible. You would save some on the fact that products wouldnt need to be imported and you could make up the difference in tarrifs. If grown men will work for $7.25 an hour I think there are solutions.

edit on 9-12-2011 by theovermensch because: typo

it really is not $7.25.. the dollar is not worth a dollar so min wage is greatly lower than that. the people in this country have become comlacent as did the german people in 1936. this is THE LATE GREAT UNITED STATES. a land of lost values and morals... where else can a nations air force (USAF) get away with taking the remains of their dead and bury them in a landfill? thats right.. a LANDFILL!!!. but no one will do one damned thing about it.I sent the link covering this diabolical behavior to all the major news agencies. cnn, fox, cbs, abc.my states senator.. and guess what??... it has been 5 days and I have not gotten a reply. probobly wont. the world has a hidden agenda.

Minimum wage in the USA is figured by each state, it's not the same across the USA. www.dol.gov...

The USA is really a terrible place to live and work. The government is way to involved in what we do, to a point where it's difficult to open/manage a business to healthcare and working/living. The way we discard our fellow human beings who are struggling and/or homeless is disgusting, let alone, the irreparable damage we have done to the USA economy should be enough to cause us to overthrow the USA government! We need a complete overhaul of our society from A to Z. It just makes me sick to live here!

So, yes, I agree with the OP that minimum wage is unbelievably low in the USA and our society here in the USA is a total mess!

reply to post by cloaked4u


Temp agencies need to be outlawed. It gives employers a way to not pay benefits or be held liable for anything. Which tells you a lot about the companies integrity. The temp agency has this gimmick where they tell you that they are going to give you benefits after 3 months. Guess what happens after that 3 months? You get the boot! Very few ever get hired on perm. So now you're out looking for work with no unemployment benefits. You go to the employment office and a lot of the jobs there are temp agency jobs! Then the employment office workers there wonder why you have a crappy work history. They all come out smelling like a rose while your health and way of life diminishes.

From page one - needs to be restated -

Originally posted by AshleyD
'minimum wage' is not the same as 'living wage.' It was never intended to be.

That .. and a person who put in 4 years of hard work at a college to get a degree in - oh, let's say engineering - deserves more of a salary then a person who quits school in the 9th grade and wants to be a part time summer lifeguard or something. People who work harder and do the schooling deserve more money than those who don't want to do the work. And yes, many don't want to put the effort in to make themselves more marketable.

I know .. I know .. not everyone at minimum wage is a lazy - live off entitlements - person.
But there ARE a lot of people lke that out there ...
wanting the salary that a doctor gets, but not wanting to put the work in to get it.

here is the reason , the western world gets crushed by Asia. where i live (indonesia/ different by state here) the minimum wage is USD 120 per month/ 40 hours a week.

I work in a hotel, and the room rates and hotel profit is as good as any standard 5 star hotel in europe.

i give you an example. I have a pretty high position in a 300 rooms hotel (director of sales) and make about USD 3000 per month (granted - that's very low for the western equivalent job). From my salary i can support and build up my wife's internet business for retirement later, with 3 full time employees (one of them a fully fledged and java script pro - web designer). that business doesnt make any money now, no rush for me, and i target 2 - 3 years until i get some return. 5 years and i target and hope to retire from my job. i am 31 years now

only possible in Asia, and i like to call it "living the Asian dream"

I have seen a lot of posts on this topic lately, and I would like to point out that according to my research via google, only 5% of the US actually works for minumum wage. I think this makes the argument pointless, and as other people have pointed out, raising the minimum wage leads to inflation.

Currently in the US many people live being paid a minimum wage. You can barely get by on this wage eating Cup o Soups and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches however I always remind my friends and family it's a two income world.

What's worse than being paid a minimum wage is not getting many hours. Companies try to avoid giving too many hours to any one employee to avoid health insurance and other perks like paid sick time and vacation time.

However, people who work for minimum wage suffer far worse than people living under government care. They get special living expense or cut in cost of rent and utilities, food stamps, health care and even public transportation, ALL PAID for by the government. So the hard working minimum wage folks get the shaft while most welfare folks stay home without worrying about if they will have enough money to make lunch or dinner, I try and skip breakfast myself.

This is sad really.

reply to post by steppenwolf86


Wow, this can't be right, look at all the retailers and chain stores where most only pay people minimum wage and raise are really low.

So what should be do to get help for people working minimum wage jobs? There aren't many really good paying jobs available atm and also you're worried about inflation? You should try living off $200 a week and $400 if you are lucky to find a second job. I have a friend who was denied a second job because the company is only hiring out for people with no job at all :/ These are tuff times for the poor and more and more people are learning how tuff they are.

BTW I went from a really good well paid job with perks to nothing because of a really bad incident in the company. Many people got laid off by it and we all would still be there today if that never happened. In the mean time, it's a job and try to make ends meet.

reply to post by SoulSpire


You know what you should do? Count your blessings. I currently live in Poland, and many people who work full time jobs earn around $650 a month, and likely have to PAY for their insurance on top of that. Also, the cost of food is roughly equivelant to the US. And this is NOT a third world country, and not effected by the euro, as the zloty currently floats. And social security is $150 a month.

Like I said, count your blessings.

reply to post by theovermensch



Okay, well, let's do this.

Cost of living is a factor everywhere. Even here in the states, someone in one state might make a lot more than someone in another state for doing the exact same job, due to the rent and other costs being higher in the area they live in.

That being said, there is no area in which 7.25 is enough. However, anyone making that wage should (ideally) be living with a parent and just looking for spending cash.

reply to post by notquiteright


www.forbes.com...
But, in fact, most minimum wage earners are not actually trying to support a family on a single minimum wage income, or at least they don’t have to do so for long. Under 5% of the US wage earners make the minimum wage or less, which means that since wage earners only represent a bit over half the total work force (the rest are paid a fixed salary), those who earn the minimum wage make up less than 3% of the total work force. Of these, more than half are under 25 or over 70, and many who earn a minimum wage have other jobs or other family members who works.

also: www.getrichslowly.org...
(End of quotes, now me talking)

If you want to raise minimum wage, force walmart to allow their employees to form a union. In fact, I would argue that in states without right to work laws, unions actually keep employees from earning more money. Instead of being promoted or given a raise on merit alone, you are forced to join a union and make more money only after you put in enough time(and pay enough monthly dues).

Originally posted by jpmail
The mininmum wage is one of the reasons I think so many people here in the UK don't work.

If you work minimum wage you pay for all your own housing, council tax and travel costs take all this into account and your lucky if your £20 a week better off. Stay on the dole all your housing is paid there is no council tax and no travel costs.

To me its a no brainer why people would stay on the dole rather than work minimum wage.

Quite true. The solution is not to increase the minimum wage but to reduce the benefits handouts or make any able-bodied person claiming benefits do a minimum of 20 hours community service each week.

reply to post by torsion


Actually, the price increases in milk is do to rise in oil/gas prices. Cost in delivery is the main reason not payroll.

reply to post by theovermensch

Wow, that minimum wage is awesome.
I live in a small town in North Carolina (population less than 6000). When I graduated in 1989 there were a lot of manufacturing jobs here. My husband, sister, brother-in-law and just about everyone I knew worked at this one factory. It employed over 1000 people. Now, it is gone along with 12 other factories. All of these factories provided a living for so many people and they for the most part paid pretty well. Many people bought homes and raised families on the money they made at these places. Heck, I remember my first job after high school. The starting pay for the entry level job was @10.00 an hour. This was in 1990. Within a few years it was over. All of the manufacturing plants were gone and the only thing left were chicken plants and hatcheries. At that point, all of those jobs except a select few were taken by Latinos that had come here to make a better life, legally and not. The chicken plants lowered the pay in order to take advantage of these poor people. Anyway, all of these years later, there are only stores, restaurants, etc. Almost everyone I knew that worked at the plant that employed over 1000 people sits empty. A huge facility that is on the main road through our town. Now, my husband works as a delivery driver (The company he works for is over 50 miles away. Luckily, he takes the truck home), my sister works at a car dealership @30 miles away. My brother-in-law works the closest...@25 miles away. They took these jobs b/c these jobs actually paid a good wage. It just breaks my heart that my little town is littered with these buildings that sit as a reminder of the good ole days that are most likely gone forever.

Don't worry, soon it might be even less