Dems introduce "Living Wage for All" act

[Ivy 13,798]

I'll be honest I don't really understand how small businesses are supposed to survive with high minimum wage. If they are raising prices they can't compete with large business who are able to have lower price due to volume discount and other reasons which don't apply to small business 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,996]

1 hour ago, Bronco said:

I'm also going to add something because it's showing up in a lot of Western economies atm including the UK & Florida (which has been used an example in the thread). 

Higher minimum wages are driving up youth unemployment (among other factors squeezing entry level jobs). Because employers don't want to pay the same wage to an untrained 18 year old working their first job as they would for a 30+ year old with 10 years experience. 
Florida has a 10.5% youth unemployment rate (16-24 yr olds). Up 1% on the year. 

So this is why its really important that the focus isn't just "pay me more" its got to be about improving the system.
A higher min wage without steps taken to protect entry level roles from AI etc is a recipe for disaster. 
Because without actual systemic change, this is no different to what the boomers did to fund their lifestyles. It's robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

 

I do think younger people have less work ethic too and that factors in quite a bit to the youth unemployment. It's not without it's causes because really what are we working for in this world to begin with, there are honest conversations to be had about the benefits of working. We shouldn't be working to simply survive. But also, phone addiction and such play a part. Less than 10 years ago I busted my ass working for a minimal amount of money to scrape by. I see 18-21 year olds now that scoff at $20+ despite them not paying their own bills in majority of cases. This isn't meant to dismiss your argument altogether but it's a factor. 

32 minutes ago, Ivy said:

I'll be honest I don't really understand how small businesses are supposed to survive with high minimum wage. If they are raising prices they can't compete with large business who are able to have lower price due to volume discount and other reasons which don't apply to small business 

That's why this would need to go hand in hand with collusion, price fixing, and monopoly regulations. 

 

Overall just another piece of legislation that is never meant to pass, presented during an election year. Every 2-4 years we see a bunch of half-measures passed as bipartisan policy and a few laws with stipulations that sink the idea. Minimum wage raised to $15 was a far fetched idea a few years ago, now it's $25. There's truth in the argument against it and as @Bronco said, it's not wages that are the problem it's prices. Companies with billions of dollars as their worth shouldn't be allowed to acquire anything period. Companies that are failing should petition the government for acquisition by the people, including companies too big to fail. There shouldn't be bailouts only buyouts, even if just of certain amount of shares. Billionaires should be taxed on wealth, including stocks. You can do so by taking a percentage of the stocks and having the public exchange their payroll for the retirement accounts they invest in anyways. Then regular people wouldn't be taxed 21%+. Stop companies from buying more than $1 billion in homes, limit millionaires and billionaires from spinning off multiple companies to circumvent. Get rid of private insurance and create universal healthcare. Federalize drug research and production, we subsidize the research anyways for it to be patented. Or at the very least create a ownership stake for those patents within the government. 

[Duella Dvil 11,867]

4 hours ago, Bronco said:

The obsession on the American left with constantly raising the minimum wage is ignoring why they feel the need to get higher wages.

Prices.

The solution isn't get paid more in the same system, that just means costs go up and nothing changes. 

The solution needs to be actual targeted measures to reduce the cost burden on renting/home ownership, food costs, medical bills etc. 

This is all I came here to say

[Bronco 27,411]

6 minutes ago, AsleepOnTheCeiling said:

I do think younger people have less work ethic too and that factors in quite a bit to the youth unemployment

Nah, the system is just stacked against young people and they know it. 

The social contract doesn't exist for them, so naturally they don't see a reason to invest into it. 

Like we do work readiness for NEET young people at the charity I work for. 

We had government funding to specifically help young care leavers get paid placements & move them into the workforce. The funding came from the Dept of Work & Pensions (who want to shrink the benefits bill caused by high youth unemployment). 

They explicitly told us that young people taking part in the project we were running for them would not lose their unemployment benefit (universal credit/UC) or have it reduced despite it being a short paid placement scheme paid weekly to the YP. 

We signed up 20 young people. All fully committed to it and desperate for it - we were oversubscribed and even made room for extra placements. 

First week in - zero issues. Second week in the DWP cut UC payments for all 20 YP we had on the scheme and tried to claim arrears from week 1. This being despite it being a DWP scheme and them committing to it not impacting UC payments. 

All 20 young people quit the scheme because the UC cuts threatened their ability to pay rent.

This is why young people don't give a **** anymore. Because society deliberately sets out to **** them over. 

[StarstruckIllusion 53,590]

6 hours ago, Bronco said:

The obsession on the American left with constantly raising the minimum wage is ignoring why they feel the need to get higher wages.

Prices.

The solution isn't get paid more in the same system, that just means costs go up and nothing changes. 

The solution needs to be actual targeted measures to reduce the cost burden on renting/home ownership, food costs, medical bills etc. 

It’s because Americans are currently paid so much less than they actually should be. We’ve seen the graphs and how they diverge.

Costs went up despite wages staying flat - they have little to do with each other as CEOs will just do whatever they please and not lower prices just because the market occasionally says they should  

But, the solution is both actually. Kamala campaigned on price controls and higher wages. She was dragged from the right but at this point thanks to Bernie, a high wage is more palatable

[Bronco 27,411]

6 minutes ago, StarstruckIllusion said:

It’s because Americans are currently paid so much less than they actually should be. We’ve seen the graphs and how they diverge

Not an exclusive issue to America.

6 minutes ago, StarstruckIllusion said:

But, the solution is both actually. 

That was my entire point. 

[Ilia Malinin 3,080]

would be nice, my ass got paid $8.25 an hour during covid and because i couldn't get the hours i wanted, i made $800 a month.

[Roughhouse Dandy 13,831]

Absolutely wild to see people look at a potential wage increase for the proletariat and immediately start reaching for arguments against it. THAT'S NOT YOUR JOB. The businesses will do that. Stop volunteering to do their job for them. Advocate for yourself; the bourgeoisie certainly don't forget to. Unless you're earning multi-millions and paying people wages either start fighting for more or sit down. 

The peasant mindset of it all is so embarrassing. 

[Economy 53,075]

10 hours ago, Ivy said:

I'll be honest I don't really understand how small businesses are supposed to survive with high minimum wage. If they are raising prices they can't compete with large business who are able to have lower price due to volume discount and other reasons which don't apply to small business 

Imo $25 might be a little overkill

 

I think a better way to help average people would be a combination of a few things

 

#1 Still raise minimum wage just not this drastically

#2 raise taxes on the wealthy particularly capital gains and use funds to help average people in countless ways including tuition support, health coverage and direct help safety nets in addition to more general investments such as infrastructure. I think this is the most critical because capital investing being taxed at a lower rate than labor is what is allowing people already rich to compound wealth passively with little effort.

#3 cut military spending. Thats not so much related to inequality itself but still can free up money to help ordinary people

 

I do think min wage needs to go up but if u try to do it as the only measure it will have a lot of unintended consequences too

[Emvee 8,858]

Think of it as a “correction” for all those decades of American wages being left in the dust while the prices of everything just kept going up anyway. 
 

We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. The private sector always raises prices regardless of workers. In fact, one could argue that the point IS to suppress wages. We do NOT have the same interests. The only thing that makes a difference is having a government that has the welfare of the general population in mind. 
 

Every technological leap brings human misery. Our governments can either be reform-minded or end up like the monarchies that were overthrown in the early 20th century. 

 

Not saying I totally agree with a blanket minimum wage, but things need to get moving. Ngl, it’s looking like we should just be moving towards a universal basic income of some sort. 

Edited June 28 by Emvee

[phantasmas 12,429]

and give us a universal basic income! for $10,000.00 (minimum) a month, i WILL stfu about the govt for the rest of my life 

[ALGAYDO 35,378]

Although I do believe that the MW should increase, that’s just gonna cause more inflation. As others have said, we need to increase wages AND SIMULTANEOUSLY have laws that prevent corporations from increasing the prices of their goods. Otherwise, it’s gonna be an endless cycle of increasing wages and increasing inflation to the point where they just cancel out, and BOOM we’re back at square one. 

[ALGAYDO 35,378]

3 hours ago, phantasmas said:

and give us a universal basic income! for $10,000.00 (minimum) a month, i WILL stfu about the govt for the rest of my life 

Giving