A friend of mine works in a large retail chain store. When the minimum wage went up June 1 the company simply fixed it by cutting the hours of the minimum wage employees and making the rest of the non minimum wage employees work harder to make up for those missing hours....and they did not get a raise. I am pretty certain that this was the story across the board when it comes to retail outlets where most minimum wage employees work, though some stores may have raised prices to compensate which would affect consumers. So who benefits from this aside from the politicians grandstanding about it? It seems like a loss for everyone else.
Does raising the minimum wage actually benefit anyone?
- Thread starter Hugh Jass
- Start date
Most research show that minimum wage increase does not help the poor.
The working class would benefit from less taxes in fuel, property, purchases, and income significantly more than a minimum wage increase which comes at the cost of business owners.
The working class would benefit from less taxes in fuel, property, purchases, and income significantly more than a minimum wage increase which comes at the cost of business owners.
I’ve also been a firm believer that minimum wage is stepping stone to get you work experience and earn a bit of spending money.
I’ve fortunately never been in a position where I was forced to work minimum wage to survive. It was a way to earn some money to have some fun. I delivered pizza in high school and did other minimum wage work during the summer....again for spending money on my car or whatever!
I did an apprenticeship slowly working my way up to a higher wage. As I’m gaining more experience and becoming more valuable I’m expecting a higher wage.
Life has also become more expensive for everyone and I also believe the wages haven’t followed suit.
Fucking gas is triple the price compared to when I first started driving!! Real estate is no different! Taxes...yeah don’t get me started!!!
The average wage increase for jobs that require skill isn’t even close to what it should be.
They keep talking about worker shortages like in trades etc but people doing jobs like that can’t afford to fucking live here!
Start paying people what they’re worth perhaps!!
I really look forward to the day when a blue collar guy can make the same amount as the guy wearing the fancy suit!
Why does the suit wearing guy with clean hands and perfect hair deserve to make 6 or 7 figures while the guy getting his hands dirty abusing his body can barely afford to put food on the table??
I’ve worked on very high end homes where wealthy clients have spent 100’s of 1000’s dollars on things yet balk about the price of labour! They have no problem buying those $500,000 windows from France yet bitch about having to pay a good sum to have highly skilled installers put them in!!!!
I’ve fortunately never been in a position where I was forced to work minimum wage to survive. It was a way to earn some money to have some fun. I delivered pizza in high school and did other minimum wage work during the summer....again for spending money on my car or whatever!
I did an apprenticeship slowly working my way up to a higher wage. As I’m gaining more experience and becoming more valuable I’m expecting a higher wage.
Life has also become more expensive for everyone and I also believe the wages haven’t followed suit.
Fucking gas is triple the price compared to when I first started driving!! Real estate is no different! Taxes...yeah don’t get me started!!!
The average wage increase for jobs that require skill isn’t even close to what it should be.
They keep talking about worker shortages like in trades etc but people doing jobs like that can’t afford to fucking live here!
Start paying people what they’re worth perhaps!!
I really look forward to the day when a blue collar guy can make the same amount as the guy wearing the fancy suit!
Why does the suit wearing guy with clean hands and perfect hair deserve to make 6 or 7 figures while the guy getting his hands dirty abusing his body can barely afford to put food on the table??
I’ve worked on very high end homes where wealthy clients have spent 100’s of 1000’s dollars on things yet balk about the price of labour! They have no problem buying those $500,000 windows from France yet bitch about having to pay a good sum to have highly skilled installers put them in!!!!
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Because the guy in the suit makes enough money to pay 10 skilled installers. He sits higher on the food chain.
Business owners are trying to maintain their profits; to do so they have to increase the price of their product or lessen the amount being paid out....
The rich have to bitch about something-- thats the labour but will always brag about how much the window cost....
Unfortunately our society has impregnated the general populace with the ideal of earning top dollar. Be your own boss, open a store.... unless you are willing to spend 16 hours a day running that store, you will need some help with labour/employee; which cost money from your business. If you need to make a profit, add in all the things you can to the price of the object/service...
Look and watch as stores open and close in this failing retail sales period due to big box stores and email order stores like Walmart and Amazon.
As a consumer I have to think I can get something cheaper, because the retail store has it, and it makes a profit...... so somewhere it has to be cheaper. Unfortuneately the manufacturers are in leaque with the retail stores to advertise items at the same price....
Look at an iphone made in China. Lets say the Labour is 3 to 7 dollars an hour, material 30.00 and the phone sales for 1500.00 or 700.00 on a fixed lease deal .... Look at your runners made in India; again cheap labour and material, yet the average runner sales for over 80.00....... Millionaires and billionaires..... they have monopolies..... patents......
The west has lost it manufacturing ability for every day stuff like clothing and household goods. The only thing we have is technological gadgets that we don't allow foreign manufacturers to make... If we are making clothing in NA, its in a sweat shop using illegal immigrants... or its out of your price range....
Our minimum wage increases to keep the workers above the poverty line. It is a losing battle, because the economy will collapse at some point where it will be cheaper to manufacture everything outside the country. The rich get richer and the poor/middle class become slaves to the economic realities of our time..... chasing dreams.
In reality you need food, water, clothing, and shelter/warn place to survive.
If everyone were billionaires and billionaires didn't make clothes, who would make the clothes; soon all the billionaires would be naked and cold.
The rich have to bitch about something-- thats the labour but will always brag about how much the window cost....
Unfortunately our society has impregnated the general populace with the ideal of earning top dollar. Be your own boss, open a store.... unless you are willing to spend 16 hours a day running that store, you will need some help with labour/employee; which cost money from your business. If you need to make a profit, add in all the things you can to the price of the object/service...
Look and watch as stores open and close in this failing retail sales period due to big box stores and email order stores like Walmart and Amazon.
As a consumer I have to think I can get something cheaper, because the retail store has it, and it makes a profit...... so somewhere it has to be cheaper. Unfortuneately the manufacturers are in leaque with the retail stores to advertise items at the same price....
Look at an iphone made in China. Lets say the Labour is 3 to 7 dollars an hour, material 30.00 and the phone sales for 1500.00 or 700.00 on a fixed lease deal .... Look at your runners made in India; again cheap labour and material, yet the average runner sales for over 80.00....... Millionaires and billionaires..... they have monopolies..... patents......
The west has lost it manufacturing ability for every day stuff like clothing and household goods. The only thing we have is technological gadgets that we don't allow foreign manufacturers to make... If we are making clothing in NA, its in a sweat shop using illegal immigrants... or its out of your price range....
Our minimum wage increases to keep the workers above the poverty line. It is a losing battle, because the economy will collapse at some point where it will be cheaper to manufacture everything outside the country. The rich get richer and the poor/middle class become slaves to the economic realities of our time..... chasing dreams.
In reality you need food, water, clothing, and shelter/warn place to survive.
If everyone were billionaires and billionaires didn't make clothes, who would make the clothes; soon all the billionaires would be naked and cold.
Guy with clean hands and hair here!
First, let me say that wealthy people are sometimes just as cheap as the next person and I think it has a lot to do with a lack of education on their part. A true craftsman and tradesperson should be paid very well provided their work reflects it. I have done renovations myself when I was in university and to do a high end home properly is an incredible skill.
Wealthy people usually have businesses and by nature, sometimes, we want to negotiate and can come off as a cheap jerk in the process. We negotiate for a living so we take some pride in getting a good deal. I think a lot of people just don’t understand a good labourer vs a bad one... until they’ve experienced one.
As for wage increases, it doesn’t help anyone but it buys votes and shuts people up. It does not in fact help the economy at all. Plenty of studies have been done to show it does the opposite. As a business owner, I’m fortunate that my business doesn’t have entry level positions however if I’m a small business looking to hire, I’m probably going to shop for an intern vs hiring someone that could move up the food chain.
I’m a big believer in free market because it fuels opportunity for entry level people to get their foot in the door, figure things out, learn and increase their value. Anytime the government puts controls on things such as minimum wage, people FEEL protected and safer but it’s just that, a feeling. The reality is very different.
As for pricing in Vancouver. I think wages and prices are massively out of whack. Im extremely fortunate in my financial situation and I’m baffled at the cost of living here. I honestly feel “average” in Vancouver which is absolutely crazy.
I have a tremendous amount of compassion for families and just people in general trying to make it in this city. It’s a really poor place to make a good living and have a good quality of life. Yes, Vancouver is the nicer of the Canadian cities but it’s completely horrible for the average person.
Anyway, raising minimum wage looks like a do-gooder action but it’s not. Business increase their prices or hire less workers. Seasoned workers just above the current minimum wage feel pissed because their hard work and a raise is now a new employees beginning.
Costs go up, tax brackets stay the same meaning higher nominal income (potentially more tax so less real income).
I’ve said this before, I firmly believe MOST successful entrepreneurs with a good chunk of employees want to be able to pay their staff really well and encourage productivity, long term advancement etc. The government does things all the time to show they’re helping employees against the “big bad company”. In the end, the very thing they try to do to help people has the opposite effect.
/rant
The premise: as prices go up, those in charge have been pocketing every increasing shares of the revenue while the workers' salaries stall.
The ideal: by forcing those in charge to pay their workers more, they get to keep less and the balance will be restored.
The reality: you'll pry those increased profits from their cold dead hands. They will try anything and everything to ensure the money needed to support that minimum wage increase comes from anywhere but their personal pockets. They've grown accustomed to their margins and they're not about to give them up.
Such is the nature of the beast though. Can't blame a lion for being a lion. The real surprise is they haven't figured out how to squeeze their workers sooner, but I guess it took a while for skilled labour to become a buyers' market.
Socialism, or a version of it. Minimum wage increase isn't the answer but perhaps more government control over larger business would help.
In Alberta the NDP increased the minimum wage to $15 an hour.All this did was make everything more expensive for society in general.Way back you could buy a big mac combo with a $5 and get some change back now that same combo is just shy of $10.
At the same time those making the minumum wage just ended up paying more in income tax as well as all other payroll taxes such as EI/CPP leaving them actually worse off as the cost of everything has increased.
SR
At the same time those making the minumum wage just ended up paying more in income tax as well as all other payroll taxes such as EI/CPP leaving them actually worse off as the cost of everything has increased.
SR
The rich just want to keep getting richer. It’s not because they need the money, it’s simply a game to them!
“How much more can I make compared to last year?”
I think it’s a goal for everyone, no amount of money is ever enough!
You make enough money to buy the new Toyota, then you’ll want the new BMW then it’ll be the Maserati, then Ferrari up to finally the Bugatti....only to have someone plow into it 15 min later in their 6 year old Honda, like what happened to Tracy Morgan.
“How much more can I make compared to last year?”
I think it’s a goal for everyone, no amount of money is ever enough!
You make enough money to buy the new Toyota, then you’ll want the new BMW then it’ll be the Maserati, then Ferrari up to finally the Bugatti....only to have someone plow into it 15 min later in their 6 year old Honda, like what happened to Tracy Morgan.
Minimum wage increase works by making business owners pay into that minimum wage benefit.
Governments that offer GI are usually more efficient or have ways of generating reliable income. That being said, sometimes it can be applied as a tax to all of society, in which case it can suck.
They're both not very good.
If raising the minimum wage a couple of bucks doubled the price of shitty fast food, somebody is screwing you, and it's not the NDP or the workers.
Which research is this?
Most studies I've seen conclude trickle up economics works a lot better than trickle down.
I'll bet some of you also believe corporations are altruistic and, say, lower crude prices would lead to lower gas prices because those caring, unselfish CEOs would pass the savings to us.
How did that work out?
How did that work out?
Trickle up doesn't work because supply and demand doesn't work in reverse.
The papers that support wage hikes are written by social scientists. The papers that do not are written by economists.
I favor the latter. The reality is, when wage increases, the demand for Labour decreases.
While I agree that Corporations aren't altruistic, gas prices do fall when crude prices fall. What remains is the 40 cents a litre governments charge in taxes and excise.
Taxes are awful.
Harper gave tax cuts to the wealthy and $60 billion worth of tax cuts to the corporations. The economy stagnated because the rich didn't spend, and the corporations didn't invest.
The rest of us got saddled with $160 billion of debt to pay for that boondoggle.
Trudeau gave the middle class tax cuts and greatly increased the Canada Child Benefit. The result?
The rest of us got saddled with $160 billion of debt to pay for that boondoggle.
Trudeau gave the middle class tax cuts and greatly increased the Canada Child Benefit. The result?
When you figure out a way to pay for roads, schools, hospitals, health care, police and firefighters without taxes, let me know.
I'm sure many perberts would say gas is not cheaper now than it was 6 years ago when crude was $150.
