Mike Lester for July 18, 2017

Yes, the job market regulates itself.

Scratchy18 hears that many people make 32k a year from welfare. That comes to $15.38 per hour. He must’ve heard that from the same place that Trump heard Obama’s birth certificate was fake.

That DARN minimum wage increase.

//

In years when minimum wages did not increase, there were no jobs automated out of existance. Zero. None. Zip. Nada.

Also, in those years, NO jobs were sent to China, Mexico, India, or any other nations.

AND, no illegals were hired in those years either, especially in restaurants, hotels, golf courses, meat packing, or anywhere really.

1) If 15/hr is fair, why not 20? 50?

2) Raising the minimum wage to 15 means that you’re now paying the guy flipping burgers almost as much as a dental, vet or pharmacy tech. Plus person who’s making 12 or 13 an hour now is relatively worse off since they’re back to making minimum wage now instead of having earned their way to raises.

BTW- I make just over 14/hour right now.

Any doubters should look into Seattle and what has happened there. And New York. Other cities as well.

If you have lived your entire adult life and have only achieved minimum wage jobs for your survival, then you have failed to live up to any potential that you have, and made a boatload of bad decisions. Regardless of your race, gender, sexuality, or whatever.

Cue the haters and their insults in 3…..2…..1…..

Lester hasn’t seen the long lines that form when Red State Americans struggle to use the self service kiosks. Machines can’t cook the burgers or bag the fries. Not as others pointed out, can they provide care in nursing homes or daycare centers.

The idiot right wing “entertainers” are claiming that Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is forcing restaurants to close. As one restauranteur put it when actually asked, “We do not know what our colleagues are doing to prepare themselves for the new law, but pre-emptively closing a restaurant seven years before the law takes full effect, seems preposterous.”

And, to add insult to injury.. the company gets to write off as a tax deduction the new technology.. And.. as there is now one less tax payer.. his contribution will need to made up by the rest of you.

Automation is going to happen regardless of the state of the minimum wage.

This is going to happen regardless of minimum wage. Automation is cheaper in the long run regardless of whether you pay your employees a working wage or not. Or are you suggesting people should work 60 hour weeks to barely survive (while you call them lazy)

Where I work we would like to hire 8-10 new employees.They would make $20+ an hour. When they find out a pre employment drug test is required by law,and random drug tests a couple three times a year or more.The Dems stop the interview and leave.Apparently weed is more important then a job that pays $900 + a week.

So they go to some place that does not drug test.Then demand that they get paid more while they smoke weed before work,at lunch,and after work.Stoned 24/7. Some wonder why Quality Control has fallen so much and the accident is so high that the factory gets moved to another country.

Of course it’s the Republicans fault.

Dennis, how do you know any of them are democrats and not republicans?Where is this place you work, I might want to apply.

Cris, ignoring what has worked in the past, how dumb is that?

Well folks, here is a little reality for you to chew on. I have seen these kiosks popping up in a lot of McDonalds since this article was written, and I’ve seen a lot of small businesses close up. You may not like the truth, but it’s out there. Unfortunately the people hurt are not the ones pushing the program. https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/11/29/thanks-to-fight-for-15-minimum-wage-mcdonalds-unveils-job-replacing-self-service-kiosks-nationwide/#4b1b88fa4fbc

BWR, you are only making $14/hr. because companies use “market research” to set your pay. They go out and find the lowest pay for anything remotely related to your actual job and then say their “good” wage is just above that. When the minimum wage goes up, so does the pay for the workers right above that because otherwise the company will lose their workers.

.Bringg back higher tax rates – then companies invest in their business, including training employees, so they have deductions. Charge the same rates for capital gains as income, especially for hedge fund managers claiming “carried interest” and execs who get stock options as income and we will have money for things like infrastructure and schools.

China is replacing their workers with robots and kiosks. How low do you want US wages to go?

.Whenever you listen to a CEO that complains about raising the minimum wage, they pretend that the rise will happen all at once and they plan to raise their prices to cover the $15 wages in the first year (plus some even admit to a little padding to boot). Then their plan is to raise their prices every year the wages go a little higher towards that $25, again blaming the wage increases.

What is interesting is checking with local business in the upper Midwest even place like Target already pay pretty close to $15 an hour, to start. So I suspect that this is really driven by the state government and union workers who’s contracts specify raises in pay when ever the minimum wage goes up.

Dennis, come on man, where are these $20+ an hour job you keep telling us about. I really want to apply.

It sounds like such simple logic, doesn’t it, A-L-Z ?

Too bad it isn’t borne out by studies.

^ Is she just being courteous or have you made such a huge impression on her?