It's not just teenagers earning a few extra bucks. Back when I worked for minimum, around high school, part-time at Burger King, it was a way (an expected way) to get some spending money, save some dollars, and spend some hours during my vacation.
These days, I wouldn't have nearly the luck in finding that kind of work. Check out your local McD's — it's not high school kids so much any more. It's adults pushed out of the better-paying job market (as that's shrunk, been off-shored, etc.), it's people working full time, it's people providing all or much of their family's income.
(h/t +Paula Jones)
Reshared post from +Armando Lioss
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While I'd like to see everybody paid a living wage, it's been my experience that every time the minimum wage increases, employers raise their prices. I'm worried that this won't significantly help low-income workers and will harm middle-income wage-earners.
I wish there were an easy solution, but I don't see one.
+Scott Randel living wages work in Europe.
Too bad America refuses to learn from other countries' successes.
That's alright. We tend to ignore America's successes too!
Raising the minimum wage won't lead to a 1:1 price hike. Minimum wage earners do not account for 100 % of the employees of any industry, so the hike will never eat up all of the extra earnings of the minimum wage earners, but will contribute to wealth redistribution.
Not 1:1, no. That's why I said that I feared it wouldn't significantly help. In my time in retail management, I found that employers would raise prices much more than needed to recover the cost of wages. I think the current attitudes of management will exceed the margin by even more, if only to say, "See what you made us do?"
“McDonald’s makes a tidy profit in places like Australia, where the minimum wage is $14.50, and France, where employers must pay at least $12 per hour. Australians are paying exactly 6 cents more per Big Mac than Americans. The French hamburger enthusiast faces a full 10-cent gouge over U.S. prices.”
Congressman fear mongers on minimum wage: You guys want to pay $20 for a hamburger?