So where to begin about the Federal Minimum wage...to begin the Federal minimum wage here in America is $7.25 a(n) employer cannot pay you any less than this amount. Now recently there has been much discussion on raising this amount to $15.00, here's where I disagree with most people on this topic. I believe we should not raise the federal minimum wage to $15.00 because the price of resources (goods and services) will skyrocket to offset the business costs and I also believe you will see about maybe half the workforce in America laid off in an effort to maintain the new wage standards and still be able to make profit from a employer standpoint. Now being that if this wage increase was to happen you'd notice even more of your paycheck being taken in the form of taxes because your essentially making more money but while your making more money the costs of resources(goods and services) would increase and you'd be expected to work harder given they'd have to cut there workforce in half to pay for such a increase. For example when I was a manager at mcdonalds we were paid $12.00 an hour, now as a policy mcdonalds(or atleast the franchise we worked) for required two managers per shift, so two individuals paid at $12.00 an hour along with 4  regular crew members being paid around $7.75-$8.00, now since we were being paid $12.00 it was costing us monthly on our labor goals so to keep our franchise policy inforced we would have to send home 3 regular crew members in order to offset the labor costs, essentially that is what would happen on a larger scale in the federal minimum wage was increased yes you would be paid more, but you'd end up paying more in taxes, paying more in costs of resources and also paying more in good old hard labor as due to your pay increase you'd have to preform better and work with less to offset the costs of paying you more. But this is just my opinion on the subject let's hear yours reply below ^^

Mandating a federal minimum wage is idiotic. You can't mandate something like that to a country as large and diverse as the United States.

If individual states or even cities want to do it then so be it. They should have a better idea of what would work in their area.

A federal minimum wage simply can't account for the vast difference between a place like New York and a small town in the midwest.

There is something to be said about "oversimplifying". That is, the process of making things so seemingly simple in the short run that the long run is thrown out of wack. There are those that this law would benefit, and there are those it would hurt, and who knows which is best?

One thing we can say for sure: There ought not to be such a disparity between the rich and the poor. All people ought to prosper, and while personal prosperity is determined by the individual, richness itself often is not. Billionaires ought not to hold onto their billions for long. They ought to use that money for the good of mankind. All those with money are obligated to help those who do not.

Help isn't "spoiling" someone, though. To simply handout money and not require someone to learn personal responsibility is to deprive them of opportunities for personal success. Anyone can eat a gourmet meal. Not anyone can make one. But even so, that so much money is concentrated into the hands of a few men (largely) is troubling. How can someone learn to invest, how can someone choose what to spend their money on if they don't have money? How can someone enjoy those gourmet meals if they cannot afford them, whether it be the ingredients or labor involved or both?

It's not OK that so many are impoverished because of not having money. The world has plenty and to spare! So much food goes to waste because it is not given to someone who needs it or even wants it! There are benefits to a consumerist society, but too few if we don't take care of the needy. What use is it to have consumable goods if they are not consumed?

The solution is easier than we might suppose, but it will take millions of little actions, accumulated day by day. Simply raising the pay for people who have or will get jobs isn't enough. We must require those with power and money to give more, to be put into a position where they must give, or they will hold onto their money and their consumables in the pursuit of more, even if a large portion of that goes to waste. And most of all, those who are most rich ought to be the ones who give the most, without being compelled by a government or a person or a reason that ought to agree with them in the first place!

I don't know much about America's economics.. For obvious reasons.. But it seems some people just assume that raising the minimum wage will magically make everyone better off.. It might do for like a month or two.. But inflation literally makes it all pointless and probably leaves the country in a worst state. 

It might also have the affect of just lowering the value of the US Dollar in total... which is never a good thing... Just look at the GBP (UK currency) I know that's brexit based.. But still is super bad for the economy.

I'm firmly against raising the minimum wage, for a number of reasons.

The first reason is that the price of goods will go up. If a business has to pay their employees more, they will need to charge more for their good and services, otherwise they will not be able to remain in business. Increasing pay won't help much if the price of everything you need or want to buy increases as well.

The second reason, and the biggest reason for me, is that increasing the minimum wage will result in less jobs. Businesses aren't going to magically have more money to give employees. They're going to have to do a combination of raising prices, like I mentioned in the first example, and laying off workers. Let's say a business can afford to pay a total of $100/hour to their employees. Paying more than that will result in their business no longer being profitable. That means that, at $10/hour (for example), they can afford to hire 10 employees. However, if the minimum wage is raised to $15/hour (for example), they can only afford to pay 6 or 7 employees. The first thing a business will do in this situation, before raising prices, is cut any employees that they don't deem completely necessary. So what's better? Having 10 people making less money, or having 6 people making slightly more money, but 4 people making no money at all? I'd personally prefer for all 10 to have at least some source of income.

The third reason is the elimination of employee positions. As the minimum wage increases, switching to AI and computer controlled options becomes more and more appealing to business owners. Why pay a human $15/hour to take orders when you can purchase a machine for a one-time price and have it take orders for free? As the minimum wage increases, total job availability will decrease as human employees are replaced by robots. We're already seeing this in stores, as self-checkout becomes more and more popular.

Geeogree also made a great point. The United States has way too many different areas to have a federal minimum wage. In some areas of the country you can buy a house for $50,000 and gas costs $1.50 a gallon. In other areas, apartments cost $2000/month to rent, and you'll have to pay $3.50 for a gallon of gas. To have a federal minimum wage in a country with such drastic economic differences between regions doesn't make any sense.

Honestly the higher the federal minimum wage goes up less chance small businesses can succeed especially in the restaurant business. People see McDonald's think deep pockets. Guess what? The company own 0 stores of their own now it's all franchisees now which means part of the "owner"'s profits go to corporate, still have the razor thin margins, and if minimum wage goes up the automation looks extremely good if they can afford and if not well time to close up.

Then there's the issues of people working their tail off for years and every time the fed min wage goes up. Every raise they had? Yeah that's gone because joe schmo off the street now makes the same. This hurts morale and gets the employees who worked hard in the mindset of why bother going above and beyond when someone off the street makes the same as me.

The more I think about it the more it is a bad idea.

First off, it works like this. Employees get paid more. Price of goods go up to compensate. They are right back where they started in this war for a better wage. I see no way in which this will work.

Then, imagine small businesses. Let's say the minimum wage does go up. All of a sudden the job you had won't exist anymore. The owner cannot afford it so they had to fire you.

Raising minimum wage in big increments will never work and I don't know why people like Bernie Sanders think it will give everyone a living wage.

Patrick Star : There are laws in many states that give special minimum wages to small businesses. McDonald's can afford $15/hour. Small businesses cannot. Why should we give multi-billion dollar corporations the same laws as family-owned small businesses?

The federal minimum wage was set to $7.25 back in 1991. In 2019, through inflation and change in buying power, that equates to about $13.50. Small businesses did fine back then. The minimum wage in New York City for businesses with 10 or fewer employees is, in fact, also $13.50. They do fine. Larger companies are $15/hour. The excuse that raising the minimum wage will put them out of business is ridiculous.

Seriously. We haven't increased the minimum wage since 1992, not even to adjust to inflation. Shouldn't it be common since that we have a dynamic minimum wage? It's a crime that it's not even $10/hour.

I would argue that the US is more than due for a raise in the minimum wage. I understand that raising the minimum wage risks increasing unemployment but this assumes free competition in the market. The US is to a large extent characterized by having a competetive monopolistic market where the biggest corporations get rid of any potential competitors (just look at Amazon). Allowing them the ability to manipulate conditions to some extent. Given the fact that wage standards are woefully low compared to most other western countries and income inequality is only increasing as time goes on I don't really think that holds as much ground in this case. The truth is the vast majority of wealth in the US is held by a very small part of the population. Plenty of other countries have a considerably higher minimum wage within most sectors yet a lower unemployment rate.

With that said I think it would be preferable to have separate minimum wages for each sector, I agree that assuming the same conditions will work for every sector and part of the country is naive. This has been solved in many other countries by unions creating deals mandating the minimum wage within different areas of work. Unfortunately, the US does not really have the same strong union tradition that many European countries have, leaving the government to take action in their place.

The issue is that wages haven't been rising to inflation. Sure, states could pass wage holes, but not a lot of them will. Big company's make a handy profit off of their employees not having enough money. Wal-Mart barely pays its workers, how are they supposed to go out and buy luxury goods from local stores? Wal-Mart has a lot of those goods cheaper. So the money just goes back to your employer. I don't think a wage hike will do more damage than not having one has done to the working class of America over the last couple decades.

Edit: Let me be clear. The argument about the work force taking a hit was also made during the introduction of the minimum wage. But before its inception, many families were even more impoverished than they are now. The economy continued to be a powerhouse for many years after it recovered from The Great Depression.

I believe the issue for raising the minimum wage lies in reality vs idealism. Perhaps small businesses would need to raise some prices on goods to keep up with it, but for the vast majority (i.e. corporations) of employers the idea is the wages should be increased... and that's it. The idea that everything will thrown out of whack is likely true, but the point is that it probably shouldn't be the case. These corporations can more than afford it and wage inequality is far too high for them to say otherwise. But since they won't WANT to take a hit in any fashion, goods will rise too. That's why I think raising minimum wage is more a band-aid fix. It's fixing a symptom, not a the problem. And such is usually the case with immediate solutions vs long-term plans

It's like a trick question, because you'd think /more or less money/ would be a good thing.
Most would stop paying attention at that point, but prices can scale to meet the new wages, then, we're back at square one.

It's only going to get worse if... when automation in the industry really takes off.

This system doesn't support people living independently, what everyone becomes when they are no longer with a job or business.

There was a time in history, where people were working towards having knowledge, food, and shelter.
Now we have more resources than ever, for more people than ever, who have never been in more dire need.

Screw it, I'm outta here, Tim Curry style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niZpcdp2v34

To put at it to my point of view, I don't want to see the minimum wage to increase.

The reason why is, even know on how I love to see a bigger paycheck (who doesn't love to get paid more money, seriously), but the thing that these people that wants a higher minimum wage doesn't realize, if you increase pay, you have to either lay off some employees and/or raise some prices of your products & services, there is a such thing as "consequences"

Now imagine that if the minimum wage does go up to say, $15 per hour, which isn't too bad, like who doesn't want to work for $15 an hour. But the problem will be is that the $15 per hour will be pointless because the price of merchandises has to also has to go up as well to keep up with supply and demand, for an example, you would normally spend $60 for a video game, but the thing is that if the minimum wage goes up, then they going to have to increase the price to $120 just to even out that $15 per hour payout, which makes it completely pointless.

As for me, I make $10 an hour at my job, I work 8-10 hours a day for 5 days a week, and personally, $10 a hour is perfect for me, because if I get paid less, means that I get a smaller paycheck, but chances of losing my job decreases, but if I get paid more, means that I get a bigger paycheck, but I'm risking my employment, especially in the modern world where they can replace me with robots, which robots doesn't have to worry about getting paid, as long as I stay $10 per hour, I'm happy.


So all and all, I do not want the Minimum Wage to increase, I rather it stay where it's at.