[lp670sv]

Well the fact that the current minimum wage is lower than the living wage in almost all US counties is a pretty good reason to raise it. forcing companies like walmart to pay a living wage is a good thing considering how many employees they have and just how much they hate giving those employees a fair salary.

[lp670sv]

Originally Posted by suicidesaints

Just because WalMart is the devil doesn't mean their wages should be regulated any differently than any other employers. Obviously a small business owner is going to have a harder time paying their employees more, but it shouldn't matter.



First off, there may be only a small percentage of people working for minimum wage, but there is a much larger percentage of people working for slightly above minimum wage. If the starting point is (let's say) $7.25, then $10/hr sounds like a lot, right? But it's still next to nothing. The minimum wage is still a guide by which employers will decide to pay their "non-minimum wage" employees. If the minimum wage was $10 instead of $7.25, then the people that are currently making $10, would be making (i dunno) $12... and so on and so forth.

Which is why we should raise the universal minimum wage, treating everyone fairly while trying to bring everyone to a living wage.

[lp670sv]

Just some background information, in 1968 the adjusted value of the minimum wage was $10.64.
In 1981 the minimum wage was $3.35 ($8.46 today), by the time it was raised in 1990 the minimum wage was down to the equivalent of $5.88 today).
In 1997 it was raised to $5.50 ($7.87). When it was raised in 2007 the adjusted value of the minimum wage was down to $6.09.
The minimum wage of $7.50 when it was introduced had purchasing power of $8.30 today.
So essentially for most of the last 40 years the minimum wage has actually been reduced. The current minimum wage is 30% below what it was worth in 1968.

[lp670sv]

Originally Posted by suicidesaints

Why would McDonalds have to raise the price of their food 300+% in order to give the workers a 20% pay raise?

because that's how corporate logic works. If you cut in to their profits, they must raise prices to make that money back 3 times over.