Monday, November 29, 2004

    Minimum Wage

    Unless every worker is paid the exact amount there will be low, middle, and upper level wages. Each of these wage levels can be further divided. For example, "low" would include unreported compensation for work that is below a federal or state mandated minimum wage - often unreported to the government as income. Minimum wage is compensation given for unskilled labor. Unskilled means the employer would be easily able to replace a worker with someone else, usually without having to do much searching at all. Are minimum wages right and should they be increased?

    Everyone, no matter what your wage level, would like to get paid more. The logical way for an unskilled minimum wage earner to increase their wages is to get skilled. No worker in this country is forced to take job nor are they forced to remain unskilled. A persons wage is an individual's choice - improve ones self or not.

    An unfortunate side-effect of minimum wages is we all pay. The rest of us are actually subsidizing the companies that pay only a minimum wage. Companies get a lower labor overhead and we pay the social cost of this business practice - especially if the wage earner has a family. We end up paying medical, education, probably food stamps, etc. - all provides the company with cheap labor. Oh don't get me going, the education system is a whole big mess!

    4 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    hi read your comment. It sounded like you were going somwhere but then you just sort of stopped thinking out a clear argument.

    I thought what the heck?
    then I realized you were in Eugene.
    THat is not enought of an argument, please clean it up and repost it with a point.
    Thanks

    Anonymous said...

    Do you really think that everyone who is forced to work for minimum wage is unskilled? Do you really think that everyone who wants a better job can just get one? I suppose, you agree with the Chimp, that if you don't like your job, you should just "get yourself a business of your own!"? Don't be ridiculous!!! You are obviously living in the past American Dream and not the current American nightmare, where corporate America abuses the psyches of the masses by telling us to pretend we're at Disneyworld when you come to work (and by the way, Disney doesn't pay much more than minimum wage and Disneyworld is not a playground in which to work either) ... Hang your hat and your troubles on the hook by the door and SMILE SMILE SMILE... .while you cook in a hot kitchen, clean toilets, sit at a computer and tell lies all day. How many college graduates work at Burger King? How many people are enslaved worldwide? How many children don't have Health care? Do you think it's because all these people are stupid and unskilled and don't care about their families? What is in the water out there?

    JustaDog said...
    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
    JustaDog said...

    Anon #1: It's a huge topic and not easy to post all my thoughts in 1 blog entry. Thanks for the feedback and perhaps I will focus on a part of the topic.

    Anon #2: Thanks for the feedback. It is the position of a minimum wage that is usually unskilled. Some multi-degree Ph.d. can loose his/her job and choose to pick apples. That person can be very skilled at something, but the task itself, if payed minimum wage, is uaually an unskilled job.

    President Bush just nominated a Cuban-born CEO to be secretary of commerce. You should read his life story and see how he worked his way up from the minimum wage catagory. I say that people that are the most sucessful will be the ones that control their destiny - learn, work, educate themselves. Those that don't make it are the whiners - blaming everyone else for their woes. They lack vision, they lack drive, they lack a committment to even themselves. If you sit around and wait, expecting the government or a corporation to move you up without you pushing yourself, then you're living in some dream world (more like a nightmare).

    BTW - nobody put a gun to employees at Disneyworld or Wal-Mart to force them to work there. My question would be, since those jobs have fixed hours they clock in/out have they enrolled in the (usually free) local college to better themselves? If they have kids and further responsibilities then again - they made those choices. That is their problem and I and no one else should pay for peoples poor choices.

    And YES - if you have a marketable skill you can leave a company and choose where you want to work. If your skills are not so marketable, then you have less choices. Again - who chose the skills and career? People make their own choices. If you want to be able to pickup and quick somewhere then you should choose a career that has those types of marketable skills. If a union cashier is on strike it is hard for them to just quit and go elsewhere since a cashier is not such a marketable talent. Again - it was the life choice for that person to choose that path.