I doubt many people make anywhere close to minimum, but no excuse not to raise it!
5-years ago? Yep, we had tons of clients paying rock bottom, or close enough. I’m not in the payroll business anymore, but the jobs my wife was looking at as a preschool teacher were $12+, and that job always pays shit. Walmart and Target start at $15, or more.
All this is a small town where you would expect small wages. I was in Manhattan in 1992 and was astounded at the prices. Ask my native friend how people survived on minimum wage. He looked at me funny and laughed, “Dude. No one gets minimum wage. $10 is as low as it goes.”
Good news on one of those shit paying clients! They were really hurting and the new CEO turned everything around in a couple of years. At that time, they started paying $12, paying benefits and paying for education.
I doubt many people make anywhere close to minimum, but no excuse not to raise it!
That’s in fact one of the best reasons to raise it as it’s a clear indicator it’s failing to perform its purpose. We know the are exploitative employers who will pay as low as they possibly can and nothing has changed in our economy or country to suggest that the market now naturally provides a baseline living wage, so it rarely being in effect is a big flashing red sign that it’s woefully out of date.
Economies work from the bottom up and never the top down. The more money people have, the more money they can spend, and thus the more goods and services they can buy, and thus the more demand there is, and thus the more supply there will be.
I doubt many people make anywhere close to minimum, but no excuse not to raise it!
5-years ago? Yep, we had tons of clients paying rock bottom, or close enough. I’m not in the payroll business anymore, but the jobs my wife was looking at as a preschool teacher were $12+, and that job always pays shit. Walmart and Target start at $15, or more.
All this is a small town where you would expect small wages. I was in Manhattan in 1992 and was astounded at the prices. Ask my native friend how people survived on minimum wage. He looked at me funny and laughed, “Dude. No one gets minimum wage. $10 is as low as it goes.”
Good news on one of those shit paying clients! They were really hurting and the new CEO turned everything around in a couple of years. At that time, they started paying $12, paying benefits and paying for education.
That’s in fact one of the best reasons to raise it as it’s a clear indicator it’s failing to perform its purpose. We know the are exploitative employers who will pay as low as they possibly can and nothing has changed in our economy or country to suggest that the market now naturally provides a baseline living wage, so it rarely being in effect is a big flashing red sign that it’s woefully out of date.
Economies work from the bottom up and never the top down. The more money people have, the more money they can spend, and thus the more goods and services they can buy, and thus the more demand there is, and thus the more supply there will be.
This has been my argument for years. If you want a strong economy have a strong middle class…they’re the ones with the disposable income.