Massachusetts Mini Wage Experience

[Plane]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/warning-massachusetts-losing-jobs-with-its-dollar10-minimum-wage/ar-BBrtiqT?li=BBnb7Kz

Massachusetts losing jobs with its $10 minimum wage.....

................longest stretch of net job losses since the recession in both the retail and the leisure and hospitality sectors, ..........

........employment at restaurants, hotels and other leisure and hospitality venues in Massachusetts, has fallen by 1,300 since ......

.....employers have tried to adjust to the $10 minimum wage in other ways. In a February earnings call held by Dunkin' Brands (DNKN), one analysts noted that a Boston franchise of Dunkin' Donuts was charging more for a regular coffee than Starbucks .....

.................While earlier figures had pointed to job losses, revisions to the data wiped those losses away. ......

Look at that last excerpt.", revisions to the data ".

Yes , getting the full story is a bit of work.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The boss never wants to pay the workers more. He will spend a lot of money to prove it.
You cannot pay rent and groceries in Massachusetts on $10 per hour as it is.

[Plane]

  Someone that needs more money should do what it takes to make his effort worth more.

    NOT including demanding more money for the same effort.

    It is the effort that makes the money worth having, when dollars are handed out plentifully and freely the value of the things are directly effected.

     Education , or greater effort , or a job of a different nature , might truly produce greater value, but calling an hours work by a different name does not change the value of the hours work.

     So changing the value of an hours work from eight units to ten or fifteen units does not change the value of the hours work, what is changing is the value of the units (dollars).

[Xavier_Onassis]

You are apparently illiterate of an important economic fact.

In order to prevent wild swings in the national economy (the booms and busts that afflicted the US economy between 1790 and 1940), it has become apparent that a small amount of inflation is necessary to serve as a buffer.  This is built into the system through the Fed and monetary policy.

If you are paid $10 an hour this year, next year the purchasing power is typically diminished by 2%, so now your $10 has only $9.80 of purchasing power,and this goes down each year. Rent, food, clothing and such go up. If the minimum is not raised, then the minimum wage earner  gets an actual salary REDUCTION each year.

I use $10 in order to make it more easily understood.

Inflation is a constant. A dollar this year will be worth 98¢ next year.
Workers have a right to be able to support themselves,

[kimba1]

But is the key word is value . The primary doubt about raising pay is it worth the job. All the data say yes because it's not a pay raise but a cost of living adjustment due to over a decade the pay did rise the same of everything else. The loss of jobs are likely due the businesses being too dependent on low wages and cannot compensate well. Now we're talking mainly the businesses that pay minimum wages here. People have brought up what about the higher waged staff and don't they feel cheat they made the same pay. yes and the truth they should make more not the same pay. Low minimum wage has a drag down effect on all pay. In my old town it's common to have two jobs. I had at least two jobs for over twenty years. Its not the make pocket change but go beyond break even.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Those who oppose raising the minimum wage always say that the worker is not worth it,
In other words, every year, his labor is 2% less.

The GOP has always opposed a built in Cost of Living  increase. They have also opposed all sort of rent and price controls.

[kimba1]

Rent control is tricky because in some places doable but in places with a rising economy a long term rental would potentially hurt the homeowner. The rent changes from income to pocket change after 10 years. The renter of course thinks thats great but the owner who responsible for the property it's not great at all.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Rent controls could stipulate a maximum rise in rent.  What we see in Miami is people DOUBLING the rent when owner A sells to a flipper and the next landlord doubles the rent because he has paid too much.

The government is nearly always on the side of the landlord.

[Plane]

Those who oppose raising the minimum wage always say that the worker is not worth it,
In other words, every year, his labor is 2% less.

The GOP has always opposed a built in Cost of Living  increase. They have also opposed all sort of rent and price controls.

That is what exactly none of them say.

 

If someone with little skill is willing right now to work seven and a half minutes for a dollar, then a dollar is worth seven and a half minutes hire, no more no less.
If someone with little skill is willing next year to work four minutes for a dollar, then a dollar is worth four minutes hire, no more no less.


What indeed makes a dollar worth having other than someone is willing to work to have one?

unpopular but irrefutable fact: Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, as some states are doing, will create both winners and losers. The winners will be workers who get paid more, of course. The losers will be low-skilled workers who don't get paid at all, because employers couldn't afford to keep them on.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/the-15-minimum-wage-will-kill-jobs-should-you-care

[Xavier_Onassis]

The worker is not the one that sets the wages, so your spiel is irrelevant.

Hungry people will do whatever they must to survive.

[Plane]

The worker is not the one that sets the wages, so your spiel is irrelevant.

Hungry people will do whatever they must to survive.

Who other than the worker decides ?

If someone offers me $20 hr for a job in California I definitely tell him no.

He won't hear a yes until he offers enough for me to pay my bills.

And he better pay for the move .

In the US the poor are obese , the hungry are in our past, our success is killing us and we do not understand.

[kimba1]

plane your not adjusting labor to inflation. Which would made a working poor like min. Wage employee will get government assistance at that low pay.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The employer always decides. This is because he is the one with the money.

[kimba1]

The more I think about it people should ask for more pay in general. I do believe one of the reason minimum wage is so low is the lack of outrage and us Americans are so timid about pay.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I have been to many job interviews in which the amount of pay was not mentioned by the employer at all, as though it was not even important.