mabe eventually it will all work out. when were all broke and living in cardboard boxes behind wal-mart, well have to make our own shoes out of straw so then we will be wearing american made shoes.

When I had my first real job, I earned $1.65 an hour as a teller in a bank. I have seen minimum wage increased many times and I think what used to piss me off about it the most, was this.

I remember on raise that went into affect. I have been working in the banking industry for sometime. I was a senior teller. After several years of experience and several classes for certifications, I had to hire someone NEW at .15 cents an hour less than what I was making. Until I entered management at no time in 15 years did I make much more that any new employee, because MY salary never increased, just because minimum wage did.

So now here we are again. Men and women who have held a job for several years who are making $7.00 an hour and the new kid on the block comes in at the same wage - WHAT HAPPENED to all the salary increases the first person received? Now these people are back at the bottom of the pay scale AGAIN and this, after they have merited raises for their previous service.

its all so much B.S.

yup i know. it all goes back to supply and demand. theres too many workers and too few jobs so we just take it and smile because we have to.

there are plenty of workers and plenty of jobs

what the problem is

is that the federal govt want free trade around the world

so no import tax means they ship out the jobs and ship in the product

how can a company compete paying 7 and up here when they can send
the work to another country and get it done for a dollar a day
if they pay good

then spend a little more to ship it

and not have to pay to bring it in to the country

these other countries do not have the osha regulations to contend with or half the ss tax

as long as we permit it to happen it will

yup.

Lulu I find your responses to be very articulate, factual and educational. Unfortunately some people will never grasp the concept but keep trying to enlighten them anyway. For some reason a lot of people think the world owes them a living and actually they are right. Unfortunately what they fail to realize is that you must work your butt off to earn it.

ehh im pretty sure raising minimum wage means prices of everything goes up along with it! even though i think 10 bucks should be minimum wage bc no one can make a living off of 7.25!

Lulu24:

My feeling is this.

If a company can't afford to pay it's employees a decent, livable wage, they don't deserve to be in business. It IS pretty sad when Govt. officials deny raising the minimum wage, while at the same time, voting themselves raise after raise. Check the voting records of the Senate. Anyone happen to notice how the ONLY times there's a 100% vote is when they're voting themselves a raise? Hell, even Fred Thompson, by his own admission, the laziest senator in history, made it a point to show up to vote himself a raise. Sadly, we need minimum wage laws. Without them, employers would pay even less than they do now. And to all of us who make above that, and think we're immune, what's to stop our employer from letting us go, and replacing us with someone they can pay a LOT less to? Anyone who thinks their employer won't do that in a heartbeat needs to take off their rose-colored glasses and join us here in the real world. And don't think your employer CAN'T get rid of you. They're your employer. If they want you gone bad enough, they'll easily find a way. That's why a "personnel file" is kept on every employee. Everything you do at work is documented. That's called ammunition. When someone higher up than you wants you gone, they "refer to the file", and, volia, just like that, there is "justifiable cause" to let you go. Another favorite tactic is those pesky annual "performance reviews", that's supposed to determine your annual raise, but in actuality, lists your perceived "shortcomings" on a piece of paper. How convinient. "We feel you haven't reached your goals we set for you this year" is a sure precursor to "We have no choice but to let you go. Good luck in your future endeavors". I'm usually against an over-reliance on the Govt., but in the minimum wage issue, it's necessary-for ALL our sakes.

knoxman....FYI ...Ron Paul has always voted no to congressional raises...
and has refused to participate in the congressional retirement fund...
and returns a portion of his "office expense allowance" to the treasury
every year...a congressman that cares...

davinci,

I was talking about the Senate, but I guess I didn't really make myself clear. Sorry about that. Where's the best place to go to find out more about Ron Paul? I've heard Alex Jones say good things about him.

garden, its economic theory versus fact. the fact is that we are loosing our good paying jobs over this disease called outsourcing.

it is all moot. americans only care for themselves. we need to start caring for our fellow americans for a change. if it can happen to them it can happen to us. i see it every day. i work for a major company. they are outsourseing jobs like crazy and replacing perminet jobs with temporary workers. the last severel years i have gotten a 2% raise while reducing my benifits and health care skyrocketing. all the while my CEO made over 5 Million last year. so far this year he has cashed in over 3/4 of a million in stock options. i really feel sorry for my kids. i dont know how they will make ends meet in the very near future.

... the world dont owe me anything. i work hard for my wage. im lucky as my customers are all rich. here in the real world the good jobs are gone. the middle class is almost gone as well.

Knoxman you are completely off the mark on the 100% attendance when voting on raises for the senate and congress. They do not have to vote themselves a raise anymore at all ever! They enacted ligislation that automatically gives them a raise every year unless they specifically vote NOT to get a raise. It's been that way for at least 15 years so there is no 100% attendance only every year when they have to vote on a raise. They can all be fishing in Hawaii on that day and the raise will happen automatically. Oh and I might add that this little piece of legislation was enacted when there was a Democratic Majority in both Houses so if the actually gave a damn about people they could have stopped it.

well barbie i hear ya sista..i have to budget gas,childcare and grocerie.i also have the laundry mat and god forbid my van breakdown.My child support hasn't gone down and thank goodness for subsidized housing or I would be hanging outside home depot for a refridgerator box.When you have little ones your work options are limited which sucks.

One word, lots of effects--Tariffs

Calm down, garden, I'm not making this partisan, much as you'd like it to be. News flash, sir:Everything isn't defined as Dem or Pub. Follow that advice sometime, you'll be a happier person for it. Too bad you only focused on one sentence in my post. Now be a good boy and read the rest-you know, the workplace and all. That's your homework assignment for today.

I read the whole post, I only felt on commenting on one portion of it. The portion that was wrong. You seem to be able to take a slap at Fred Thompson in it by name oddly enough he is a Republican running for president. Why didn't you name a few Dems in the process.

minimum wage in California is $7.50 hr.

I wanted you to do it for me. Seriously, Dems are every bit as greedy as their counterparts across the aisle. I used Thompson because he has been honest enough to admit he wasn't crazy about showing up to vote, thus his poor voting record. Not too many politicians have the courage to admit anything like that.

Back to the post. It would be good if we didn't need Govt. interference in this matter. But you can't trust most employers to pay a living wage. Without a federal minimum wage, I could see jobs being handed out not to the most qualified, but to the lowest bidder. I agree with an earlier post. I received my annual 2%raise, but my medical deductions skyrocketed. Bye bye extra money.