Minimum wage

I have been reading quiet a bit lately about raising minimum wage. I have always thought that was a wash. I ran buisnesses for a large company many years ago when the minimum wage was raised. I complained up my chain of command for a raise in the precent of gross I could use for labor cost. Upper management said sure you can increase your labor percent by, I cant really remember what amount it was, but that was until they raised prices to compensate. So within a month the prices of everything went up proportionatly to the increase in minimum wage. If anything I could see how it hurts the people it is designed to help. Those of us who make quiet a bit more than minimum wage may benefit from cash flow and inflation. I might be wrong I was just thinking aobut it. What does everyone else think?

Well i'm still a young buck getting ready for college, so i work at a convenience/gas store. I've been working there for a bit over a year. For about the first 10 months i worked there, prices pretty much stayed the same. But a few weeks before the Pennsylvania minimum wage hike on January 1st, prices started to go up significantly. The price of a 20oz. pop went up 3 times in a week, windshield washer fluid jumped from 1.39 to 1.99, cigarette price are now getting out of hand, and just yesterday, half gallons of milk went up about 40 cents a jug too. These are just some of the more significant price hikes. Whats really bad is that instead of the statewide minimum wage standard of 6.25 per hour, I am being paid 5.65 (only a 15 cent increase instead of 75 cents) because there is an optional exemption for businesses they have less than 10 employees. I don't know how the company i work for plans to keep good workers when they don't have competitive wages...Needless to say, my time there is very limited....

The people working at minimum wage are worth minimum wage. If they were worth more, they'd get more. If you work foir a jerk, and are worth more than you make, you go work for somebody else. Simple.

The governmenet needs to stay out of our lives. They are raising the minimum wage to buy votes. At my expense.

The other side of the coin - really, how much more does it cost a business owner with a minimum wage hike? If everybody gets hit with it, everybodies prices go up the same amount if everybody wants to stay competitive.

Let's look at McDonald's. Let's say they have 20 people on staff at any point in time. So 20 people times 2 bucks+16 cents extra SS (see how that works!) equals abot 50 bucks an hour. So lets say they sell 200 soft drinks, 200 burgers and 200 freis in that hours. Each item goes up 8.3 cents to pay the difference. But, you can bet yer sweet ass the owqner will jack it up a quarter so he can get a raise too. They all will.

So, what's my feelings - leave the min. wage alone.