This is great. Now make all the companies that profited from cheap labor and government assistance pay back all the Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare that their employees had to use.
7
A raise to 15 dollars, but, currently paying 10, with health insurance and 401k. To not lose employees , I would have to cut benefits.
At 15 would you lose government assistance for insurance, food stamps, housing?
1) Does anyone remember why iPhones and Nikes are made in the USA? Oh ya, bc increased wages get passed along to the public in the price of the end product.
2) If you are going to mandate a minimum wage, it should be the same across the board. It is unfair for a business with 10 employees to have to pay its employees more than, while competing with, its neighbor across the street who happens to have 8 employees.
3) The process for calculating the number of employees is not defined anywhere. Is it 10 during any given pay cycle? What if you hire a temp? What if someone quits after one day? What if someone gets caught stealing and is fired? The Department of Labor considers a company as having 10 employees when the total number of people employed during the prior year equals 10 or more. This means if a business had 10 different employees during the course of a year, despite never having more than one or two at a time, it is considered a "large employer" having to pay $15/hr (again, while competing with its neighbors who may have just been luckier w/ the same number of employees who didn't quit, get fired, get caught stealing, leave to move elsewhere, etc.
No one should rely on minimum wage to feed their families. If you can't earn more, don't have kids.
11
Oh Yeah!!!! Everythings coming up roses!!! First raise the minmum wage. Next legalise
Its all good NY. First raise the minmum wage. Next make weed legal. So you will have alot of stoned teenagers make people fast food. Yummy! Good luck with that. Thanks flip flop cuomo and Half n half De Blase blase
Every great idea eventually falls prey to scams various predators and political cranks thieves and ideologues. Ancient Greece and then Rome were corrupted by a gradual loss of loyalty to the state and replaced by vulgar self interest. The United States is almost 250 years old and is rotten to the core. The Republicans are oblivious to everything except the rich who finance them. Democrats cling to 1930's social liberalism or flawed 1960's social enlightenment. What is needed is revolution, not necessarily in the streets but within government. A serious reform era that wipes away 200 years of corruption. Regrettably sensible talk will probably get nothing. A $15 minimum wage sounds great in 2019. In 2030 it will be a dead weight just as $7.25 is now.
Should more realistic wages mean smaller tips?
2
Well, at least we won’t have to tip when in NYC anymore.
1
Actually, the real wage is $13.85 once the FICA taxes are deducted from the employee's paycheck.
1
And how many jobs will be lost when businesses can not afford to pay all of their workers this new wage? How many employees will have their hours cut?
8
I know someone who works at Rite Aid as a shift supervisor. The reason this person works there is because they had a terrible health problem that made them go bankrupt. They had to move in with relatives to an area where a car is needed and this person did not have a car. This person makes 9.50 an hour in a supervisor position - has keys to the store, counts the money, had previous experience doing the same exact job at cvs 20yrs ago and yet the HR dept comes back w 9.50/hr when this person was hired. This person works ft and any ot that is offered, but still qualifies for food stamps and medicaid. They can’t afford a car either. The CEO of rite aid and the top execs make millions a year. This person has education (a college degree) but needs a vehicle to take advantage of better paying opportunities farther away. This person walks 2.5 miles each way to work. If this person made $15 an hr, their problems would be solved (enough money for a reliable used car) within a year. So no, not everyone who works a low wage job lacks education. What they lack is opportunity and/or enough money to do something.
26
The fake fear market is a lie sold to the unsuspecting and the ignorant. The problem is that all the middle and upper middle classes will lie about how well it works - they are the soldiers for the corpocracy.
A real democracy would squelch capitalism and bend it to support the democracy, not the other way around. Richer and richer is not working and people are too stupid to realize that.
3
The correct minimum wage is, and always has been, zero. See https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/14/opinion/the-right-minimum-wage-0.00.html
3
Thank you to Bernie.
7
Conservatives: Remember the halcyon days when a man with a high school diploma could work in the factory and support his stay-at-home wife, two kids, two cars, big house, vacations, etc.? That's when America was great!! Now you need both parents working three jobs just to make ends meet!
Liberals: Excellent, let's raise the minimum wage to a livable $15 per hour so working class people won't have to struggle so much and the economy can return to a more equitable distribution.
Conservatives: And cut into billionaires' corporate profits? Get out of here with that socialist nonsense!
6
This ridiculous minimum wage increase to $15 an hour will only result in higher costs to the consumers of the products sold by minimum wage workers. The net result to them will be a big fat zero as they themselves are forced to pay more for their groceries, fast food, and convenience store purchases. When will people realize that minimum wage jobs were never meant to be lifetime employment. They are entry level jobs for unskilled workers who are moving on to better paying jobs when their skill sets and education improve.
8
What is unconscionable is when someone like Jeff Bezos of Amazon who is worth over $100 billion, had to be exposed, shamed and cajoled into finally paying his workers a decent wage.
Capitalism does not have to be about greed. But too many CEO's and corporations treat their employees like modern day slaves while they walk away with pockets bulging with cash and stock options. Because greed is so woven into capitalism employers have to be forced to pay their staff a decent, living wage.
14
This is just another example of government passing on its obligations to the private sector. People who can't afford to live on what they make in a free market economy should receive government assistance. The government should tax everyone to provide these benefits, not merely businesses by requiring them to pay more than free market wages. This is the same as rent control. If someone can't afford housing they should receive rent subsidies from the government. The government shouldn't require one class of citizens, i.e. landlords, to subsidize poor tenants by limiting rents to what tenants can afford. This is what is done with food. If someone can't afford groceries they are provided benefits through SNAP. If the government tried to limit prices that could be charged for staples such as bread and milk, there would be no grocery stores, since unlike landlords, store owners could pick up and leave.
2
Why should taxpayers support businesses that are unwilling to pay living wages?
18
People shouldn’t encumber their lives with responsibilities that they cannot afford to support, including a spouse, children, a home, car(s), education, vacations, etc. Unless you’re going to posit that every minimum wage employee with a family got there due to failed birth control, the fact is that we cannot act in ways that result in a need for support from our employer or the taxpayer. If my labor is worth X to my employer and it costs 2X to get by and 4X to live comfortably, the fact is I will barely survive. That’s how free markets work.
6
@Stan
The elephant in the room not mentioned in this article is the exponential growth in compensation for a small % of people compared to most of their workers.
Why should I pay for Wal-Mart workers public assistance while their C and C-1,2 level people make millions a year?
9
The importance of giving "Labor a seat at the table" cannot be overestimated. For publicly traded companies to continue to be run as if the only stakeholder that counts is the stock owner is a disgrace as well as a brake on long-term profitability.
All too many companies which had viable paths to profitability were killed by the debt loaded on them by vulture capitalism adherents looking for a quick buck which often went off-shore away from US communities. Tax policies encouraged this action which damaged the security of the US.
The union-killing agenda of Republicans has been harmful for the US because it upset a check on crony boards which practiced poor governance and failed to curb harmful executive decisions. Much of that philosophy has been on display in the Trump administration as one industry executive or executive wannabe after another has publicly shown their propensity for scandal and their inability to make good decisions outside a rigid ideology.
The movement towards a $15 wage may unfortunately stress those workers whose employers refuse to pay a living wage and still depend on the government safety net (or what is left of it after years of Republican control). The support for Labor to expand its voice and continue to share in the profit of the output of its labor should not end until the goal for a living wage is entrenched as part of the normal goals for a healthy, secure nation.
12
the problem is that it takes years, from the day the campaign begins to raise minimum wage to the day it gets passed - IF it even happens. and by then, the new wage is already inadequate. i understand the opposition. but let's all try living on $15/hr and see how we do. and then try surviving on LESS, which is how many workers live.
5
My first job, in high school, paid me the minimum wage of $1.00 per hour. Prices, of course, rose steadily, until we were back to being poor and unable to afford a loaf of bread. So the minimum was raised, to great fanfare. Prices, of course, rose steadily, until were were back to being poor, etc., etc. So the minimum was raised, and -- surprise! -- back to being poor. So ...
On and on, round and round.
Isn't it time to come up with something intelligent?
8
@Rea Tarr
You can thank the central bank for printing more money than "requisite" all to goose asset prices.
Other prices (food, shelter) also rise, which the poor can't afford.
For all the commentators who are saying how awful raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour is for businesses and prices: Do they realize that that's still only equivalent to 2,760 dollars a month before taxes, assuming an 8 hour day and a 40 hour work week. How many people can live on that in New York City, much less raise a family?
8
@Gary
I don't agree that every job ought to provide for enough money to raise a family. People with no skills who can only get minimum wage jobs don't have to be the sole breadwinner for a family.
6
My manicurist just told me my manicure just incresed from $15 to now $21 because she need to pay her employees more an hour. Also my son's haircut went from $20 to $30 in once day to cover the minimum wage increase. My coffee just increased to $4 from $2.80. Watch out everyone price increases.
10
@Lee The labor costs did not increase by 40 or 50%. You are being gaslighted by your barber and manicurist.
7
@Lee You can cut your own nail, cut your sons hair, and make your own coffee. Or you can let someone else work for slave wages.
9
Ok Lee ... I’ll watch
1
@Arif - your comment is about the social contract is excellent and should be more widely seen - can you click the option in your comment confirmation email to submit it as a letter to The New York Times?
@Margery.yang - please see Arif's comment - also, not only is the social contract now ignored and openly laughed at by people like our president, who commissioned a painting of himself and paid off legal bills with his more shuttered foundation - many companies with low wage workers use scheduling software to dynamically allot work hours to employees (based on that day's weather, number of customers etc.) Where it's not restricted, companies using that random scheduling destroy any possibility of an employee working their way up through education, a second job, or even scheduling childcare because they don't even know their hours the following week, let alone planning for a semester. So the wealthy abdicate the social contract AND yank up the ladder to be sure nobody follows them up. And those companies rely on you and I to subsidize them with social services when they don't pay them a living wage or assign them predictable hours.
7
Can you provide a signed hard copy of the “social contract?” I didn’t think so. It’s an artificial construct to advance an agenda. That you support that agenda does not make it real nor legitimate.
5
The $15/hour minimum wage is the beginning of the end for the restaurant business in NYC. Even a large successful Manhattan restaurant can't pay unskilled workers $31,200/year to hand out cheese danish. Let's say a big Manhattan restaurant has 40 employees. That's $1,248,000 in wages right there. Which in turn means that same restaurant has to make a profit of $3419/day just to pay their staff. And that's before rent, taxes, utilities, food and everything else.
This is not sustainable and the people behind $15/hour know it. The well-off Manhattanite may pay $20 for a burger and fries but outer-borough New Yorkers surely won't.
Self-service ordering equipment may help defray some labor expenses but he restaurant business in NYC is ultimately doomed.
4
@NYC Taxpayer you are confusing profit and expenses. And your hypothetical employee can hand out about 200,000 cheese danish in a year, accounting for about a million dollars of sales. So, sorry, wages are not the major expense.
5
What is dooming the restaurant business in New York is exorbitant rents demanded by greedy landlords.
If you don’t want your server to earn a living wage, stay home.
7
In general a wise thing but here it how to do it:
1-Do it gradual over time, don't double the rate in one yr.
2-For small businesses, make the increases slightly less and spread over more time and offer more relief if the gov't sees it is unduly hurting them.
3-Give businesses tax breaks, as least in the short run, that do it.
4-Encourage increase in productivity by workers in companies that do it, including automation but protection of the jobs of current employees.
5-Don't have the company rob Peter to pay Paul, ie to get the increase, drop out medical or other benefits.
2
One thought that is not being addressed here is that when a business does not pay its employees a living wage, it means that the taxpayers are going to have to subsidize that employer's labor.
30
That’s a constant lie perpetrated by the left to attempt to support their anti-business ideology and solidify their belief in the lack of personal responsibility. I agree that the taxpayer mustn’t be on the hook for the cost of a workers choices if their wages do not support a family but neither should an employer. If I create a personal situation that requires a certain level of income, why does anyone else have to underwrite those choices? What input did the employer or the taxpayer have in the decision that left them exposed to this expense? Wages reflect the value of ones labor to a particular employer for a particular task at a particular point in time. Nothing more and nothing less. The cost of living while an economic issue is entirely separate and unrelated.
5
Without a union employer and employees are not equal. Wage slavery should be illegal. If you can’t pay your workers a basic living wage, don’t go into business.
12
@Zejee
Labor and capital are only equal on the pages of the Communist Manifesto.
We all know it's more expensive to live and work in some cities than it is in others. It follows that workers must be paid enough so they can live within commuting distance to their jobs. If that requires local employers to raise prices, that should be expected by consumers. But it's also reasonable to expect that higher costs of living will encourage many to depart for states and cities and towns where it costs less to live and raise a family and very possibly enjoy a better quality of life. Each to his own.
Now get rid the that ridiculous law allowing tips to count towards minimum wage. That’s not only an insult to the workers who earned the tip from the consumer, not the business. It’s an insult to the customer who paid the tip.
23
@Scott Spencer I don't get it. tipped workers will earn less than 15$?
From the comments:
Re: "Where are the raises for the [other workers]"
A higher minimum wage, will raise wages for those making above minimum. A livable minimum wage is a good thing for the economy generally. And yes, it should apply to all workers.
Re: "Our jobs sent over seas."
The trade deficit is something that concerns voters, and something that neither major party has been willing to address - other than with lame offers to train workers for jobs which don't exist, and which will never exist, without an increase in aggregate demand. Aggregate Demand, which is decreased by trade deficits.
Both establishment parties (and the press) keep coming up with lame excuses why decades of trade deficits will never lead to problems. Trump's ham-fisted tariffs may not be the answer, but it is ludicrous to deny the negative impacts of putting US workers in direct competition with workers in foreign nations making a small fraction of US wages.
A higher minimum wage is necessary, but not sufficient. Businesses forced to compete with low wage foreign companies, while paying a US living wage, may well be forced out of business.
Similarly, competition with low paid foreign workers, makes unions powerless, if Union shops paying a living wage, are driven out of existence, or move operations to foreign nations.
6
Although the minimum wage on LI has risen by a dollar a year now for the third year, my pay hasn’t moved a cent and with the 12/31/19 increase, a rookie fry clerk will be making double what I do as a 1099 contractor. The funny thing is, when they suddenly quit, call in sick or just fail to show up, I have to cover their shift without any additional compensation.
2
For those lamenting about 30K let’s do some math. Subtract state tax rate in CA is 7.25% (2,175) Federal tax of 3,932 for single person. So take home is really 30,000 - 6,107 = 23,898. I am sure Medicare will take it’s piece out of this pie. So could you live on roughly 2,000 a month? Average rent in CA is 1,200 a month, in LA CA its 1,800!
16
From the comments:
Re: "google "fast food automation" and see exactly what $15/hr for flipping burgers results in."
That is another way of saying, that low wages, are preventing us from becoming more efficient (increased productivity), because wages are so low it isn't worth the trouble to automate. Increased productivity is how our standard of living gets raised. Unemployment is currently very low. Automating these low end jobs, would free up those workers, to do higher productivity jobs, such as building green energy manufacturing, fixing our broken infrastructure, improving quality of health care - or just more leisure time. A single income could once support a family. Why shouldn't that be the case once again? And for all the fretting about "robots taking our jobs"? Well, the best way to deal with that, is to share the benefits more equally, by paying workers more, so each can work fewer hours, and still survive. The alternative (a dystopia where half work many hours for low wages, just to scrape by, while others are unemployed and starved), doesn't really seem like a smart plan.
7
@A Populist
How is a living wage obtainable when the workers most affected by an increased minimum wage are part time employees? Explain to me why a part time worker would not just work fewer hours to maintain the freebies they are already getting? My brother owns quite a few fast food restaurants, and many workers know what level of income will reduce their benefits. Do you realize that an employee offered a qualified ACA benefit is not eligible to get coverage subsidized by the federal govt, and that 9% of their gross income, plus a $4,500 deductible qualifies? That is for a single employee. I am willing to bet the average work hours of part time employees will go down dramatically for workers that receive government benefits. Work hours will go down for those that want more hours too. There are many disencentives for employers to offer more than 30 hours a week, starting with the ACA. Incentives for companies that hire full time jobs is a better solution than a mandated rate of pay. Part time jobs can never support a living wage.
4
@A Populist
Low-end workers are, in the main, unable to do higher productivity jobs. When automation takes over the jobs of dishing out of fast food, raking leaves and ringing up groceries, those workers who are now freed to enjoy increased time with their families will be sitting watching them filling out Extra Help, HEAP and SNAP applications.
4
@Rea Tarr,
Re: "Low-end workers are, in the main, unable to do higher productivity jobs."
False.
In the Great Depression of the 1930's, that was one of the same excuses used to try to prevent any action to fix the broken economy, and get people working again.
But as soon as the massive Demand of WWII was applied, then companies had orders they couldn't fill without workers. So, they *trained* them as needed - which is the most efficient way, actually. Wanda the welder, Rosie the riveter - suddenly employers were forced to be less choosy, which was very good for classes of workers previously denied opportunities, which included women, older workers, and POC. A high-Demand economy favors workers. A high-demand economy creates profit opportunities, and smart business owners will do whatever it takes - move heaven and earth - to get their hands on that profit - including training workers, automation - whatever it takes.
So-called "supply side" policy has been overdone to the point of dysfunction. College grads working as baristas and Uber drivers. Law graduates who can't find jobs in Law. Rampant over-credentialing.
A high Demand economy is actually much more efficient than what we have today, where workers desperate to escape lives of multiple part time jobs that don't pay enough to survive, pay for training they *hope* will get them a job.
Change is hard. But current policy is dysfunctional. We need to learn from history, and do what has worked before.
6
A related issue is how increased automation is going to eliminate more and more jobs regardless of minimum wage increases.
When the means of production (the machines) are owned by Capital and Capital requires Labor to operate the machines, it is possible to obtain a mutually beneficial balance in society.
But what happens when the means of production no longer require labor to operate them?
Everybody is out of a job while the Capitalists reap ALL the wealth. But this in unsustainable, because without customers to buy the products of the machines, there is no market. And there can only be customers when there is a means for Labor to obtain wages ... $$$
There are 2 obvious solutions. The means of production are owned by the State (i.e. all of us) and we are all paid by the State (yes, Communism, or at least a very strong form of Socialism if private ownership of land is still allowed) ... OR ... The owners of the means of production are heavily taxed and those taxes are distributed to all citizens as a universal basic income, so that there can still be a market for the products of the automated machines. This would be a milder form of Socialism.
In short, Automated Capitalism or Capitalism without labor is unsustainable. We must move towards some form of Socialism. The more the softer form is resisted by the owners of the machines the greater the urgency will become and the more likely a violent move towards Communism. Marx was mostly right but 200 years too early.
10
Obvious to who? For the owner of machines to be successful, there has to be a market that can afford their products or services. Calculators and computer programs didn’t reduce the need for accountants. Laws didn’t eliminate the need for cops, lawyers, judges, prisons, or guards. Automation doesn't eliminate engineers, the people who build machines, the hardware, or the programmers needed to supply the software to run them. The buggy whips or wagons replaced by cars needed assemblers and fuel. The electric cars replacing them, or the electronics that replace the drivers will create different jobs, not eliminate them. American ingenuity that advances technology to increase productivity also advances the other 95% of the worlds living standards. As the population of the world increases, so does the need to advance affordable solutions. Technology is improving the lives of billions of people. Any idea that a utopia is near completion is unrealistic. I haven’t even mentioned medical advances, which can never be automated by machines that invent cures or push a button and get a heart transplant. You look forward to a society run by taxing machine productivity, while I see a society that can never reach an unlimited potential. The unemployed and poor in America are rich by the standards of billions of people. When do you think the mission of lifting those billions living standards will be accomplished by machines taxed to level the standards in Americans?
4
I made $20 an hour working for the post office after 25 years. I have congress type health coverage and a modest defined benefit pension plan. My wife worked as well. Two people working for this $15 number might be able to make it with some national health help.
15
@charles
The median family income in America is less tha $60,000 a year. Are you saying over half of Americans need financial assistance from government to “make it”. You need to evaluate what you spend vs. what you need. Two people living in an apartment with utilities, say it’s $1,000 a month. A new car lease, with insurance, say $600 a month. Food and clothing, another $600. That leaves a couple with half their income left after income taxes. Without having to pay for health insurance, what do you think people with higher incomes should have to pay for a living income? I think you feel intitled to more than a majority of Americans. Greed is not becoming to those who have to pay for others to “make it”.
2
@Jay That's a very unrealistic estimate for most places in this country. You don't even include health insurance or taxes. What about people with kids?
The fact that median income in the U.S. is less than $60,000 per year demonstrates why the country is in such big trouble and why so many people voted for Trump (even if their trust in his policies helping them was misplaced). People can't live on it, most live with substantial debt and most are one illness away from bankruptcy. People turned to Trump because they saw their American dream collapse and because they see that their kids are going to live worse than they have.
6
More than half of all Americans do not have an extra $400 to cover an accident or illness that keeps them out of work for a few days or to get their car fixed if it breaks down. That’s what it looks like when you have a median income of $60,000.
8
If full time, $15 is a livable wage in smaller cities at $2600/mo, probably $2000 after taxes, also in cheaper big cities like Houston. I'm retired, with a car, and live comfortably in an apartment for $2000, all living expenses included. I would not, however, go into debt for a car, Take Uber of Lyft or public transport until you have the cash for your own car if you want one. If you're stuck in NYC with such a salary, I suppose you can share a decent apartment in Queens or Brooklyn and still make do.
@globalnomad
Based on $2,500 a month gross, you would take home closer to $2,250. Not a biggie, but that is 10% more take home pay.
@Jay @globalnomad where did you get your figures? @Jay ... Social Security and Medicare take out 7.65 percent. Then you have federal and local taxes. The federal rate alone is 12 percent for a single person's income past $9500 annually. So 70 percent of this person's income would be taxed at 12 percent. We are still not counting local taxes.
Granted, deductions for health insurance, if the employer provides it, would be untaxed, but the premium contribution does reduce take-home pay. @globalnomad failed to account for that. Is that because, as a retiree, he or she is on Medicare?
3
@Mary K I just did a guesstimate based on many years of employment. I don't think somebody making $31,200 a year will be taxed more than 23% at the federal level including FICA deductions. There are such things as personal deductions. To quote neuvoo.com/tax-calculator/Texas-31000, "If you make $31,000 a year living in the region of Texas, USA, you will be taxed $4,461. That means that your net pay will be $26,539 per year, or $2,212 per month. Your average tax rate is 14.39% and your marginal tax rate is 19.65%." TX doesn't have a state income tax, but you can itemize state income tax on your federal returns in other states that tax you.
The ROI justification for automation and robotics just got much easier.
7
@Shaker Cherukuri - It's bound to anyway, regardless of these MODEST increases in the minimum wage, which have very little impact on a host of other jobs which will soon be automated as well.
It's not just the baristas and supermarket checkout clerks whose jobs are going to get automated.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/26/jobs-future-automation-robots-skills-creative-health
1
Where are the raises for the machine operators,forklift drivers,warehouse workers and the mill workers.While our insurance goes up,no paid sick time”PTO”paid time off.Our jobs sent over seas.We have played by the rules,we have pay our mortgages and scrimp to get by.We are the forgotten ones.This is where the focus is on minimum wage workers.Not the family owned farmers and hard working families.
6
@Blue Collar 30 Plus Don’t worry, it will be your turn soon. A higher minimum wage will ripple through into higher wages for more skilled workers too.
7
@Maria
Yep. Good old ripple effect works every time. Until that newest minimum wage is no longer adequate to live on. Once again.
2
Business models that have the government to subsidize their labor through SNAP, Section 8, and Medicaid are exploiting their labor force at the tax payers expense. Expose corporate welfare Instead of vilifying the labor force for demanding a living wage
The minimum wage hasn’t been a living wage for decades.
36
A business model that depends on impoverishing its employees in order to profit is a FAILED business model in a capitalist, free market economy that is supposed to create more wealth than alternate economic structures.
That's a mouthful for 1 sentence. Thanks for your patience. Some things just don't fit into 140 characters.
$15 for NY seems like the bare minimum. It's still poverty wages, for a city with NYC's cost of living. But at least it's an improvement.
I'd like to see DEMS promoting a Federal minimum wage that is based on the cost of living on a state by state basis, instead of a single figure for the whole country, which really makes no sense. Then let states like NY and CA push for higher minimums if they want them.
7
$15 an hour minimum wage? This is great! No more tipping in NYC.
6
@MDB
I have a feeling you never tipped anyway.
30
Why is that?
4
@MDB It's not $15 an hour for tipped employees.
4
In the 1950's my parents owned a restaurant-bar-hotel in the San Jaoquin Valley in California. My mother paid our maids 25 cents above the minimum wage. One of the local growers, worth millions, told my mother she would have to stop paying above the minimum wage because it would ruin it for everyone else. My mother told her that no one could live on the minimum wage, and she would pay her employees whatever she chose (her language was a little more colorful). By the way, my mother was a staunch Republican, and she believed in the dignity of labor. She also believed that people should be fairly compensated. I trust that she would support increasing the minimum wage to a living wage.
40
“You toil and I eat”;how uniquely American. Capitalism is failing. Fix it now or the underpaid masses will eventually drop out, as they already have begun to do. One way to start is by ending corporate welfare. A living minimum wage is a good start. Why not continue with a mandatory benefits package?
Speaking of trade: get trading partners to do the same. Level the playing field.
5
@JTBence
Your mom sounds great.
A Republican in the 1950s was a different animal than a Republican in the 21st century.
4
Increasing minimum wages gradually is a better solution. People mention McDonalds as an example, not knowing simple facts. The corporation McDonalds, owns about 10% of the restaurants, while individuals own the rest. The doubling of wages will exceed the amount most restaurants make a year. Prices will go up, automation will accelerate, and jobs will be eliminated. Kiosks have already begun to eliminate jobs. Most retirees rely on far less than the previous minimum wage. How about a living wage for those on welfare and unemployment? It is foolish to move this fast without being able to determine the consequences that are going to occur. Has NY determined which other programs need to address a $30,000 a year paycheck to support the people’s lives dependent on them to survive? Are the disabled and elderly exempt from a living wage?
8
@Jay
I do not understand your point or points. The only thing I get from your comment is now is not the time. I wonder when is the time?
Working people should make enough to at least have a roof over their heads, food on the table, and a dime or two for anything they want all without constant worry.
29
@Jay - "It is foolish to move this fast without being able to determine the consequences that are going to occur."
Exactly how fast do you propose we move. For the last 30 years minimum wage has been outpaced by inflation considerably.
Various places around the country have been moving in the direction of $15 in the last 2 years or more. Seattle comes to mind. For cities with a cost of living as high as NYC I really don't see how anything less can be justified. It's still a poverty wage. $30K per year before taxes will barely cover rent and transportation.
If a business depends on impoverishing its employees in order to make a profit that business is functioning on a FAILED business model and needs to collapse. As far as automation, that's inevitable regardless of wages. We've been seeing it in big box stores and supermarkets for quite a while. It will continue to grow unless customers push back and insist on human contact (which I do).
14
@Dan G
Shouldn’t the poor, elderly, disabled, and unemployed have enough for a roof over their head and food on the table too? I’m not being sarcastic, but it doesn’t cost less if you are in those groups of the poor. Isn't their a concern for those people? Is the amount someone needs to live on less when working? If it isn’t, shouldn’t NY increase the incomes of those who rely on social programs, or are they being ignored because of NY’s inability to pay them a comparable amount? I believe it is fiscally impossible without drastic tax increases nobody would be able to afford? Nobody seems to care if companies that can’t afford the raises go out of business.
3
15 an hour in NYC goes as far as 8 bucks in a place like Kansas City. You can’t compare the cost of living of a major city like NYC sand SF and middle America.
Minimum wage has to be way higher in NYC otherwise who would do those jobs?
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@Brian I live in Asheville NC and rents, food, etc. are all going up here - just like most places in the U.S. $15.00 an hour is fair, allows lower income workers to better feed their families, pay rent, etc. Now if those at the top of companies just paid themselves alot less (no needs a $20 million "salary" - or a $180 million "package") Americans could return to being a better place for ALL.
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@Barbara
The reality, is that the companies that require skills have always paid their workers well. The best and brightest in all fields can choose their employment opportunities. There are reasons thousands of workers at Amazon are highly compensated, while others are drastically paid less. Same at Walmart and even McDonalds. I question who are the people you mention with the salaries of $20 million. Most people with those types of income don’t have high salaries. Bezos, Zuckerburg, Buffet and others rely on stock for their incomes, not the dollar a year they get in salary. Taxing their assets will do nothing to increase their workers pay.
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@Jay - call it "salary", call it "stock option", call it whatever you want. It's all the same thing, the people at the top, the people with power, sucking as much out of the system for their own personal wealth as possible. There's no reason why people at the top shouldn't be paid extraordinarily well. But there's also no reason why the rest of us shouldn't demand a bit more equity in the system.
For reference, Jamie Dimon's 2017 compensation was $28.3 Million. Warren Buffett's wealth increased by $8.36 Billion in 2017. Buffett makes in 1.5 days as much as Dimon makes in a year. If Dimon had to work at minimum wage it would take him 943 years of full time work to make what he did in 2017.
Maybe to you that's alright. But to me that seems just a bit out of whack.
14
It is amazing how positive change can rapidly happen in the face of seemingly intransigent opposition. The idea that you could eat and work in a smoke free environment once seemed impossible, but is now the norm throughout most of the country. The idea that McDonalds and the other fast food places would stop using Styrofoam, to hold their Big Macs and such? Walmart is trying to go all green power in all of their stores. Change can happen when regular people call out for it in a strong enough voice, while politicians run to catch up.
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People who claim minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage are dead wrong. Minimum wage was created for the sole purpose of being a livable wage. We still have a long way to go. $15 an hour is not a livable wage in NYC. Should be more like $24 per hour.
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@kay - why is it society's job to make sure everyone has a standard of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world?
Where does that expectation come from? In life there will always be competition, valuations, and pockets of wealth will always follow high value producers. If you want to take a communist approach, then yes no matter what we all do(or don't do) we all deserve the same, but then we have to be consistent and can never complain about those doing wrong, or unrecognized right.
Otherwise, a meritocracy seems to be in order? I certainly don't want to set expectations that one can live in Manhattan or expensive areas of the world just for flipping a burger.
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@marjorie.yang: And yet people who live in those expensive areas want people to flip their burgers, open their doors, and do other 'menial' tasks for them.
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@marjorie.yang somebody has to flip those gourmet burgers and toss that quinoa salad you eat. Others need to hold the door to your midtown condonand sweep the commonnareas
Your post implies that these people should either commute daily from Missouri, or don't deserve a living wage.
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Don’t work for anyone or any company paying less than $15/hr regardless of how GOP controlled legislatures decide to not support by blocking cities from ensuring family-supporting wages.
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@Truth Today, it's a wonderful idea, but it doesn't fit with the reality. If I'm a person who has no savings and wants to support myself then I'm going to take that job that pays less than I need because I'm figuring that I can always pick up more work elsewhere in this godforsaken "gig economy" world. On the flip side, when I'm working for that company that doesn't pay me what I think is a reasonable wage, I can organize. That's what happened here.
5
Cuomo has been doing some really great things lately. Glad he's our governor. He gave us free college tuition, is legalizing recreational marijuana and pushing for universal healthcare, fighting climate change, taking on the crooks and traitors and doing it quickly. Just one thing I ask for; an escape route, via a bridge to CT from LI or a tunnel for when the big one comes. We need a way to evacuate Long Island come hurricane hell and high water. And it's coming.
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@kay
College tuition is NOT free. What you meant to say was that somebody else is going to pay for that education.
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@kay
You can never "evacuate" an island as big as Long Island, delusion! How about aggressive laws that remove insurance protection that covers all structures from within at least 1/2 mile of high tide line. Prohibit residences within 1/2 mile as illegal squats and demolish. Most of south shore is a sandbar, we need to face that reality, define it as parkland and stop living there. Then: add in stringent building codes for hurricane resistant structures. The job market will boom, and those with safe homes will see their equity skyrocket.
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Maybe I did not read this well enough, but is 15/hour, which would correspond with something like 30.000 a year (maybe a little more), make it possible to have one full time job only? Not saying you could feed a family of two adults and two children, but will a single mother still need a second job?
@Ole Petter Pedersen - 30k a year in a place like New York City is most conclusively not sustainable even for a single independent.
In about 2007, the City of New York released estimates, for a child outside of Manhattan, recommended 22k/year, 33k/year for Manhattan just for bare basic costs for raising a child properly. Education not included.
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@Ole Petter Pedersen No, but a husband working 50 hours a week between two jobs plus a wife working another 30 hours at one job (as an example) would be making $60,000 a year. If they have a rent-controlled apartment in say the Bronx or Queens or live across the river in New Jersey they could probably swing it.
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@Big Steve
Living in NJ and working in NYC comes with pretty hefty commuting costs. When you are already near the bottom of the earned income scale, it is a huge bite. Not to mention the time involved that makes it hard to have a second job and a life.
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I am sure that the workers are happy with their higher wages,but maybe their results are not as wonderful as they think.
I live in Charleston, SC where the state minimum wage is $7.25. But that is a pretty meaningless figure in Charleston. Dunkin’ Donuts starts workers at $10, McDonalds at $11, Walmart at $12, and Lowe’s at $14. Even a teenaged babysitter makes $12-15. Given the considerably lower cost of living than in NYC and the west coast, that means Charleston lower wage workers make more in real terms.
The reason they are able to get better real wages without having to pay union dues? It is really impressive what a 2.5% unemployment rate does to an employer’s willingness to pay more.
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@luxembourg, Agree. NYC minimum wage should be more like $24/hour.
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@luxembourg It's currently a strong labor market and many employers have been embarrassed into giving these raises (when they didn't really want to). When the labor market begins to soften it will be a very long time before wages go up again in these states. Like Chris Rock says, the minimum wage exists because most businesses would pay even less if it was legal for them to do it. It prevents a race to the bottom for wages between the states and helps to make up for the fact that most min wage workers in "right to work" states don't have the power to unionize (they'd be fired for trying). The $1.60 min wage of 1969 when I was a kid would be worth about $11.50 today based purely on CPI. If you factor in the increase in worker productivity over the last 50 years the min wage should be around $22 an hour. I think $15 is a good compromise. Now index it to the CPI and be done with it.
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@luxembourg - I'm glad that Charleston has that 2.5% unemployment and the less powerful in society (as easily measured in $$$) are benefiting from it while it lasts.
The problem arises when there is a downturn in the economy. Who is the first to suffer and suffer the greatest?
It may be that this is a good time for the good citizens of Charleston to legislate for a higher official minimum wage, even it it's only to the Dunkin' Donuts level of $10. This would at least allow for some future protections instead of leaving its weakest citizens' economic fate ENTIRELY in the hands of its employers.
5
In the general election of November 2016, the voters of Flagstaff, Arizona approved a raise in the minimum wage paid workers inside the city. Opponents, including local lbusiness owners and national right-wing organizations, sought to eviscerate the law in the election of November 2018, but their efforts were soundly defeated by the voters.
Our minimum wage increases to $12/hour tomorrow, and will increase in one dollar increments every January 1 until it reaches $15.00/hour in 2021. After that, it will rise with the cost of living. Tipped workers' minimum wages will also rise, until reaching parity with non-tipped workers' wages on Jan. 1, 2026. To the best of my knowledge, Flagstaff is the only jurisdiction in the nation doing that.
I'm proud of my city and its voters for supporting a living wage for its poorest workers, and I'm glad to see that the process is working here and is spreading to more and more parts of our nation.
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“This demand was from the fast-food workers who explained that was the minimum they needed for a decent life.”
Working in a fast food joint is not a career.
It's an entry level job for high school and college kids.
For elites to claim that raising the minimum wage to provide a "decent life" is disingenuous. Inflation will eventually eat at that $15, and we will then face demands for $20 and then $25. Ultimately, businesses will not be able to afford those wages, and such businesses will cut back or close. You are offering an "easy solution" when no such easy solution exists.
This will just placate the workers for a while, while providing liberal politicians a short-term boost in their ratings.
But you cannot regulate prosperity.
It has to be earned.
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You will only ever get what you're willing to fight for. Whether it be a job, a promotion , or as a group, perhaps higher wages, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
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@G, Agree, google "fast food automation" and see exactly what $15/hr for flipping burgers results in.
We should push for elevating the middle class with meaningful jobs, not try to raise up entry-level temp jobs as family wage earners...
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@G
A system of combined wage and price controls is the only way to achieve greater resources for low-wage workers.
As G points out:
"... For elites to claim that raising the minimum wage to provide a 'decent life' is disingenuous. Inflation will eventually eat at that $15, and we will then face demands for $20 and then $25...."