Fast Food Worker Strikes!

[Seth]

If you employ someone you take at least some responsibility in keeping them alive,

Horseshit. The only not-in-the-workplace-at-work responsibility any employer takes on regarding an employee is to provide exactly the amount of financial and other compensation negotiated for the labor actually provided, and not one god damned thing else.

You can't as an employer say here's 50p per hour its all I can afford to pay you and if you can't live on that tough shit.

You most certainly can. An employer takes on no obligation of support for any employee for anything other than the labor they provide.

Now, the federal government maintains that it can compel employers to pay a "minimum wage," which putative authority is extremely dubious and the rationales weak, but which has been ratified by the courts, but the employer has no obligation to pay more than that amount even if the government determines that amount is insufficient as a "living wage."

[Seth]

If they double the minimum wage that means they're going to double my social security payments, right? That's what "rising tide" means, right? Mrs. Lak's salary will double too, because that would only be fair, and we all know that private companies are all about being fair, right?

If they double the minimum wage, the economy will boom, and everyone's problems will be solved. Heck, let's raise the minimum to $50 an hour. Why stop at only a little of a good thing....?

Fuck that! I want LAWYER'S wages...$400 per hour minimum!

[piscator]

If they double the minimum wage that means they're going to double my social security payments, right? That's what "rising tide" means, right? Mrs. Lak's salary will double too, because that would only be fair, and we all know that private companies are all about being fair, right?

It's gonna work out great for you Lak, you and your wife can augment your Social Security working at McDonald's after they quit hiring kids because the dang'd minimum wage got so high.

[piscator]

If they double the minimum wage that means they're going to double my social security payments, right? That's what "rising tide" means, right? Mrs. Lak's salary will double too, because that would only be fair, and we all know that private companies are all about being fair, right?

If they double the minimum wage, the economy will boom, and everyone's problems will be solved. Heck, let's raise the minimum to $50 an hour. Why stop at only a little of a good thing....?

Fuck that! I want LAWYER'S wages...$400 per hour minimum!

Lawyers used to charge $50/hr, but I guess the demand has outstripped the supply by a factor of 8?

[JimC]

From some people's arguments here, there will never be a time when any rise in the minimum wage is warranted...

[piscator]

From some people's arguments here, there will never be a time when any rise in the minimum wage is warranted...

Never was either...Imagine all the $0.15 MickeyD's you could buy on your salary today!

[Coito ergo sum]

If they double the minimum wage that means they're going to double my social security payments, right? That's what "rising tide" means, right? Mrs. Lak's salary will double too, because that would only be fair, and we all know that private companies are all about being fair, right?

If they double the minimum wage, the economy will boom, and everyone's problems will be solved. Heck, let's raise the minimum to $50 an hour. Why stop at only a little of a good thing....?

Fuck that! I want LAWYER'S wages...$400 per hour minimum!

Lawyers used to charge $50/hr, but I guess the demand has outstripped the supply by a factor of 8?

Lawyers charge what they can get. Yes. The supply/demand ratio is what it is. It's not a "factor of 8" ratio. You need to take an economics class. It's more calculus than arithmetic. https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/courses/C ... xtract.pdf

[Coito ergo sum]

From some people's arguments here, there will never be a time when any rise in the minimum wage is warranted...

From some people's arguments here, there is never a time when a rise in the minimum wage is not warranted...

[JimC]

From some people's arguments here, there will never be a time when any rise in the minimum wage is warranted...

From some people's arguments here, there is never a time when a rise in the minimum wage is not warranted...

Should it simply be tied to the cost of living, then?

No arguments from either side...

[Warren Dew]

Should it simply be tied to the cost of living, then?

No arguments from either side...

In times like these, when people who are actually working are not keeping up with the cost of living, no, it shouldn't.

Also, a federal minimum wage makes little sense in the U.S. Right now, the starting wage at McDonald's is considerably higher than minimum wage in Massachusetts, but minimum wage is high enough to keep a lot of people out of work in Mississippi. It should be set on a state by state basis, if at all.

[laklak]

It's gonna work out great for you Lak, you and your wife can augment your Social Security working at McDonald's after they quit hiring kids because the dang'd minimum wage got so high.

Why whould I need to augment my SS or her salary? After all, it's been argued in this thread that rising tides lift all boats, and that other salaries must necessarily rise as the minimum wage rises.

[piscator]

It's gonna work out great for you Lak, you and your wife can augment your Social Security working at McDonald's after they quit hiring kids because the dang'd minimum wage got so high.

Why whould I need to augment my SS or her salary? After all, it's been argued in this thread that rising tides lift all boats, and that other salaries must necessarily rise as the minimum wage rises.

Medicare and Obamacare will pay you a higher salary to compensate for your diminished Social Security salary. And don't forget your Bear Sterns 401k salary.

[Seth]

From some people's arguments here, there will never be a time when any rise in the minimum wage is warranted...

Damned right. Minimum wage shouldn't exist in the first place. Employees negotiate with business owners based on their experience and value to the company. Their labor gains value as they gain skill and experience and their wages increase commensurate with their value to the company...or to some other competing company. It's exactly the same free-market economics that make the markets themselves operate properly. Supply and demand. Quality and value. Customer satisfaction and cost.

Those economic forces are immutable and work best when the government keeps it's nose out of the markets except to police fraud and criminal activity.

[laklak]

It's gonna work out great for you Lak, you and your wife can augment your Social Security working at McDonald's after they quit hiring kids because the dang'd minimum wage got so high.

Why whould I need to augment my SS or her salary? After all, it's been argued in this thread that rising tides lift all boats, and that other salaries must necessarily rise as the minimum wage rises.

Medicare and Obamacare will pay you a higher salary to compensate for your diminished Social Security salary. And don't forget your Bear Sterns 401k salary.

Damn, sounds like Lotto time to me. Ah well, I can spend my Golden Years bagging groceries at Publix, I think saying "Did you find everything you needed?" is easier than "Would you like fries with that?"

[piscator]

If they double the minimum wage that means they're going to double my social security payments, right? That's what "rising tide" means, right? Mrs. Lak's salary will double too, because that would only be fair, and we all know that private companies are all about being fair, right?

It's gonna work out great for you Lak, you and your wife can augment your Social Security working at McDonald's after they quit hiring kids because the dang'd minimum wage got so high.

Why whould I need to augment my SS or her salary? After all, it's been argued in this thread that rising tides lift all boats, and that other salaries must necessarily rise as the minimum wage rises.

Medicare and Obamacare will pay you a higher salary to compensate for your diminished Social Security salary. And don't forget your Bear Sterns 401k salary.

Damn, sounds like Lotto time to me. Ah well, I can spend my Golden Years bagging groceries at Publix, I think saying "Did you find everything you needed?" is easier than "Would you like fries with that?"

Since you look at it as a salary, maybe you can go free agent and individually negotiate a higher Social Security check for yourself? You know - Supply and demand.