To anyone voting in oregon:
When a person who (even as an offhand remark) floats the idea of lowering the minimum wage.
here is some basic math:
If the wage is 8.50 (as it will be if nothing changes).
full time 40 hours (a minimum wage worker will never be allowed to stay on the clock long enough to be awarded overtime, if it happens, it is a very rare occurrence, and definitely not in a corporate setting, all end earnings should be seen as maximums.)
340 a week, 1360 a month, 16320 a year.
take out 1/5th for taxes, or not at all, since you are too poor to pay any anyway... -3264 whatever.
13056.
what is your rent? without roomates you will be paying 600 dollars a month at the least with averaged utilities (low estimate). 7200 a year.
leaving 5856.
the only point of the minimum wage is to avoid slavery. 497 dollars a month.
can you start a business? can you invest?
what can 500 dollars buy you? besides what you need to live?
if you lowered it by one dollar where would we be by the same math?
7.50, 300, 1200, 13200
10540
3340
279 dollars a month.
this does not include: food, communications, clothing, transportation, entertainment, education, health care, children, etc.
5856 is what a full time employee makes in a year on minimum wage in oregon if they manage their own household, before anything besides housing is payed. lowering this amount is unnecessary and insane.
If you were to believe that lowering the minimum wage would allow more workers to be hired, at what point would you lower it to? 2 for the price of one? or -56 dollars a month for all expenses? buy two get one free? or 133 a month?
Of course at some point you would stop taxing the poor right? or after lowering the minimum wage would you still demand that someone who has no ablity to provide basic services for themself/family should still subsidize a government or private system they have no financial ability to use? if you lower the minimum wage will you automatically make them tax exempt? because if you dont they will most definitely be homeless.
Anyway. I would love for someone to correct me, or explain exactly how lowering the minimum wage wouldn't create a permanent welfare/slave class.
i guess he was talking about waitresses, and instituting a kind of wage redistribution based on tips being averaged over all waitresses? or maybe where a waitress must report to their employer what their tips were so their hourly wage could be docked?
ReplyDeletei understand that it is disconcerting that waitstaff can make so much money, but if that is alien to you then perhaps you also think actors or artists should be payed less? the current rate being whatever they can make on the free market..
most restaurants encourage or demand that the waitstaff shares tips with the back of house, dishwashers, prep, line, etc.
at the least the comment shows a lack of understanding of an entire sector of business (hospitality) which would be ignored under this "businessman"s administration.
anyway, whatever.