Low minimum wages (below the cost of living) simply allow corporations to get their employees incomes subsidized by the government. Then who do you think are helping pay these wages? The tax payer aka us
So when a McDonald's or walmart pays $7 an hour, it's us picking up the difference instead of a multi billion dollar company just paying living wages

So for profit businesses are the ones abusing the tax payer and the government. Sorry that people have been blinded by conservative propaganda talking shit against the min wage. Which by the why when accounting for inflation peaked in the 1970s at over $10 in today's dollars.

And Kane mostly just beat me to it

one fulltime job at 40 hrs/week should pay enough to secure a living above welfare level

if your business relies on paying your employees below that and you have the rest of the tax payers substitute that by having to pay your employees food stamps or whatever, then you need to figure out how to be better or close.

and I do have employees, they earn about 3 times the minimum wage in this country

It's all adapt or die until someone's McWhopper goes up 25 cents.

when I was 18 I started working with a construction company.... I was earning top pay as a heavy equipment operator... running a scrapper, make $3.75 per hour, same as all the other guys... (we did works 60-80 hours a week though) that was in 1973... those guys are the last guys to work a job and support a stay at home wife, family and buy a home.... minim wage was $1.45... pretty much 1/2 top scale I guess... what happened? 'Arab oil crises'

No restaurant makes a 22% profit margin. Ever.

This is my thinking as well. Certain groups love to talk about govt leeches, but the truth of the reality is, any company whom purposely keeps workers as "part time" in order to get out of paying their obligations as an employer or much worse paying people at such a low wage the govt has to supplement their employees. Well that company is the true govt leech.

Walmart and most fast food is perfect example of govt leech business model.

McDonalds is not far off

McDonald's Profit Margin (Quarterly) (MCD)

they could for sure afford paying their people more

One could argue it is the government's willingness to hand out these subsidies to employees as being the problem. Allows these people to never work harder to be great employees and increase their worth to their current or next employers who value their skills. Doesn't make them accountable to survive. Lets them get by doing the bare minimum, with the least responsibility.

I would argue the safety net has gotten too big, too vast, and too easy to make people complacent and lazy.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh


you couldn't be more wrong.

that's not at all the same thing and certainly not what the article is trying to portray. The article claims the owners shuttered their businesses, closed them and walked away from their investment because of a pending accounting issue. didn't even try to sell them. that's not savvy in the slightest. and that's because the article is misleading. the business owners didn't do that.

how can i provide solutions to a bullshit problem? the article was misleading. they didn't shutter their businesses due to impending pay problems.

and yes, in most business roadblocks, stumbling points, etc, there is plenty to figure out. that's what running a business is. figuring shit out.

Welfare level is defined by the government at about $1000/month, which translates to $6.25/hr... which is way less than the current minimum wage, and that makes $15/hr about 2.5 of the "welfare level"...

so the whole argument: "no one working full time should live in poverty" is complete bullshit...

where exactly is the minimum wage $15/h right now? I must have missed when this became law

and i'll leave the "complete bullshit" comment to you - as far as i know you don't have employees

socialism is bad unless its for multi billion dollar companies!

it's not now, but it will be soon in Seattle (whole point of this thread), making it 2.5x level of "welfare level"...

how can someone working full time live below poverty line? minimum wage is 7.25 so that translates to about $1100 per month... which is ABOVE welfare level...

so where is the problem?

i was going to write an answer and then i thought of an old polish proverb: "not my circus, not my monkeys"

90% of your posts are you starting an argument then bailing out. :1orglaugh

You are overlooking that the poverty level is adjusted based on how many individuals are living in a household.

2015 Poverty Guidelines

It would be a different story if everyone was single without kids and could rent a room above a one car garage like Fonzi.

MaDalton is simply saying there would be less welfare if the average employee was better compensated rather than just paying them the bare minimum allowed by law.

:1orglaugh

that is true - i am working on not even starting an argument

and what's wrong with that? the person on the receiving end should then get a flash in his mind: "maybe I don't have any skills? maybe I should get my shit together and acquire some skills so employers would be willing to pay me more than minimum wage?"

then 2 seconds later: "fuck that, I'll just complain... I will rally politicians to raise the minimum wage to $15 and all my problems will be solved..." :1orglaugh

:2 cents::2 cents:

You mean like nunchuck or computer hacking skills?

I agree. There are some people who will do the bare minimum so long as they can continue to get their welfare and live their lives.

If there was no welfare or it was very difficult to get on I would bet that wages would increase one way or another. People would either demand higher wages because they can't otherwise survive on them or there would be more unionization and through it an increase in wages.

If people have no safety net then tend to demand more and work a little harder.

Also many programs have different qualifiers. You might be able to be at say 133% of the poverty level and still qualify for the program

According to Bloomberg Taco Bell sits at about 20%. It's not 22%, but it is pretty close.

Ma, mc donalds is not a restaurant...don't confuse corporate earnings with individual franchises.... completely different ball games...