Massachusetts Mini Wage Experience

[kimba1]

It's a standard tactic that helps keep the pay low. In my first job that's completely legal I didn't even know what my pay is till my 1st paycheck. Thankfully it's was still more than my previous job. A friend of mine got a job that paid 10k less then it should of been. She knew this because her asking price made a big smile and she asked the other staff later on what it should of been. I remember some people got the impression it's illegal and or not allow to talk about salary. This has helped business save huge amount of money.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The management at my university  claimed that they could not reveal anything about salary because it was all "confidential".
Unfortunately for them, the guy in Institutional Research was on our side and gave us a list of not just faculty salaries, but those of all the management as well.
Those who belonged to one fraternity and one sorority were paid on average 30% more.  The place is crawling with Vice Presidents that do nothing and have no actual budget or authority.

One recently hired instructor who has a total of 50 students in all his classes was [paid more than a couple of full professors who averaged over 160 students who had taught there for over a dozen years.

That is why people need unions.

[Plane]

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.

Yes they do.
So how does inflation push the other way?

[Plane]

But is the key word is value . The primary doubt about raising pay is it worth the job.

That is my point.

Some jobs just cannot create minimum wage already, those jobs are gone.

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.

Right now a small percentage of us are making minimum wage , the very day that the wage rises to $15 there will be three times or more that number stuck at minimum wage.

Because inflation will adjust itself this means that tow thirds of these people are getting an invisible pay cut , gradually , as the economy catches up.

[Plane]

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

It would be just as correct to say that the worker decides because he owns all of his future work.

So , not correct at all.

The bargaining position is stronger for the side that owns the shortage.

Since the minimum wage reduces employment it bolsters the argument for the money.

On the other end of the wage scale , a shortage of engineers and doctors means that they can get what they ask.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Hungry people have far less power than greedy corporations and those who own them.

[Plane]

Not in mass.

I don't mean the state.

Anywhere the people organize they wind up with tremendous power, which draws leadership, which becomes the new elite.......

Oh dear , I am writing Animal Farm again.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Workers deserve a say in their fate just like everyone else.

[Plane]

  Each one of us is the captain of his own destiny , few become also their own paymasters.

[kimba1]

I will cast doubt increased wage is the sole reason cuts jobs. true the employer will cut staff due to labor cost but if it`s done I say another factor is involved like housing . what I`m getting at is such businesses will like go anyway. another issue is at the beginning it was brought up the worker did not earn the increased pay. the flaw in that is most of the jobs is food service and food service is actually one of the hardest jobs around so that would be flawed. fastfood has such a burnrate that if you notice it`s a very rare person who works thier way up the ladder. i believe alot of minimum wage jobs are not setup well for promotions

[Plane]

  The difficulty of a job is not what determines what it pays.

   A lot of factors must be considered , but none are more important than the commonness of the needed skill.

   If only difficulty and danger made for high pay , diamond cutters would make almost nothing, and police would draw better pay than quarterbacks.

[kimba1]

Difficulty and many factor may rule out. If inflation presist and wage keep not catching up some jobs will have a harder retention due to pay. Earlier I think you or somebody  else state minimum wage was never meant to be lived on then that means fulltime work will be harder to fill since the financial incentives will not be there. I got the idea from intern programs and found only the wealthy can afford to work without pay  to gain work experience which caused alot of students to be at a serious disadvantage .

[Plane]

   Good point.

    The jobs we used to have here picking peaches and sorting -packing peaches .

     Are gone as far as US citizens are concerned.

     Even the high skill pruning is fading.
     
      So one result is fewer local peaches on the market, and these are dependent on imported labor.

      No one ever supported a family year round on harvesting peaches, that happens twice a year and lasts a month each.

[Xavier_Onassis]

You could live off a peach business if you could freeze, can and market your own peaches.

[kimba1]

In san francisco the city expect the homeowner to hire arborist to prune thier street  trees or face fines. Lets just say many homeowners do not voluntarily have street tress.

Lets just say alot if lowcost labor will go the way of the buggywhip.