Minimum wage debate: The arguments for and against raising it to $15

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[JHEntertainment]

The fact that wages are so low is the reason a lot of places can’t seem to get people to work for them.

[BigDReal.]

They keep using this word inflation and not asking why is the dollar being inflated. Fiat money and government spending is a huge problem in this country. Please read a book called Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.

[theshadedshadow]

Are they they going to freeze prices on everything too?

[colewilliamson]

Capitalism is the issue. Even if we raised the minimum wage to 20$ an hour in the long run we would be having this same argument in ten years.

[nthperson]

Here is a fundamental problem with increasing the wages of all workers to at least $15. That problem is that market forces will result in an increase in the cost of rental housing owned by private investors and real estate companies. There is already a serious shortage of affordable rental housing in the United States. Increase the ability to pay by tenants (i.e., a demand side increase in disposable income) without a significant increase in the supply of affordable housing, and the increases will in just a few years end up in the pockets of the owners of rental housing. Communities need to invest in the construction of affordable housing. Millions of new units are needed.

[TomSuntotheMax]

I am sick of doing all the work for nothing while the bosses vacation for four months of the year and sit in the office surfing the net for the rest. Raise the employees wages and cut the useless CEO's who is paid far more than he is worth.

[neowo]

If your company can not afford $15 wage, it is not a business, it’s a money laundering opportunity.

[pharaoh]

I see it like this if you don’t wanna raise wages then the cost of everything else shouldn’t be allowed to constantly continue to increase as much as it has! In cali $15 became standard in 2020 but was a yearly increase within those years to get to $15 everything has damn near tripled so $15 is basically like 10$ an hour

[sputnut]

I worry more about the massive pay cuts that people who have worked hard for years to get to $15 / hour will be taking. Someone who worked their way up to 15 over 10 years will not be getting their pay doubled like new hires at minimum will, so once the cost of everything comes up to match the new minimum wage, what they are making in spending power will be cut in half. Very unfair. Someone now making 15 won't go to 30, and someone now making 25 won't be going to 50 so it will be a pay cut for all of the rest of us because our money will be worth less than it was because it won't buy as much as it does now.

[casienwhey]

What you are saying when you want to arbitrarily increase the minimum wage is that you know best what a person should work for (rather than them). If someone has no skills but is willing to work for minimum wage to learn a trade so they can get started in their career and move up, why should they be denied? Because you feel it's not enough money? That is their choice. It's their life. An employer will only pay what the job is worth and be able to make a profit. If you set the wage higher than that, the job simply wont exist.

[roarshackstudios]

Why would anyone want to work for a wage that they can't live off of?

[SgtJoeSmith]

they can live on that where im at cause they turn down $100 an hour from me

[marquisejohnson]

I don’t know why people think $15 an hour is a lot of money that someone can live comfortable off of if you’re trying to make the argument it’s a living wage you’re apparently not factoring in the hours worked, personal expenses such as car payments, gas, food, kids and other bills cause a 40 hour a week check with 15 an hour isn’t a lot of money to make at least $1000 you’re going to need to pull a 60+hour work week and that’s without overtime

[gigi]

If the rich wer not so greedy we wouldn’t need a raise, but this is what they get!

[SgtJoeSmith]

the US did keep up with inflation since min wage increases raise inflation

[colewilliamson]

Maybe Jeff Bezos the owner of the Washington Post, and Amazon should pay his workers a living wage. Just saying.

[Ninjalive]

wage is going up to $16.55 . Oct. 1. In Ontario.

[CenterThePendulum]

Title suggests a balanced unpacking of the issue.

[pun_gr]

Im a business owner. Minimum wage has increased over 5 years in my state. I pay my workers well. The problem is that I cannot afford to give raises to people who are full timers with families. The increase has gone to youths with no bills. That is a shame.

[neilfox]

The bigger problem today is finding good workers. Average rent is $1400 a month and a new home is out of the question for most starting out. I pay my people well because they will outperform my competition and I want to retain them. Much of my business is automated, but that is about QC and Q & A. Some things can be done by machine that people can't do fast enough or accurately enough.