Talkback: Making it on minimum wage

I would like to advise President Obama of a definite way to stimulate the economy and create jobs for unemployed Americans. President Obama can award all taxpayers their 2008 tax income in one lump sum payment. Give each taxpayer his 2008 income for that year, in one lump sum non-taxable. People will use this money to pay off medical bills, student loans, car loans, credit cards..etc. Instead of giving money to banks to stimulate the economy, give the money directly to the source that will really stimulate the economy and that is the hard working taxpayers. It is a definite gaurantee the taxpayers will spend the money and jump-start the economy. The government has tried everything else, so why not try this easy, sure method of getting money circulated into the economy. Bailout the taxpayer!!

I work for Burger King in Washington, I live in Washington, but for some reason Burger King decides it’s ok to pay me OR min wage.

I can’t live off any minimum wage, but that 15 cent difference would make a difference in the long run. So, I need to find out if the BK I work for has some sort of exemption, because if not, I’m going to make a court case out of this.

It’s all well and good if you live in some heavenly place that actually has jobs of any kind and when you miraculously DO find a job they actually give a raise after a YEAR of working there, but for the rest of us completely stuck where we are, education goes nowhere. (I have a college education and make minimum wage in a grocery store I’ve worked at for nine months, doing multiple positions).

I hear all the hate, but all in all, I couldn’t ask for much more. After a re-work, my mortgage was reduced by $400 month, I received a stimulus check, my taxes are lower, I just got $4500 for my clunker trade in, my unemployment was extended to February, and free medical is in the works. And to top it all off, a minimum wage increase for all those who do work…

For a down turn, I’m just not feeling it…

Let me tell you of my nightmare with Wells Fargo Morgage Co. I have tried 3 time to get a modification with Wells Fargo and they refused to do anything to help me with my morgage. I’m not behind on my payments but my wifes hours have been cut back on her job and she has lost $700 per week in income and I have tried to be proactive with Wells Fargo and explain to them that I was started to have a hard time making my payments and I needed to get the payments lowered and the refused to help they put me off for at least 1 month before letting me know that I was not approved for any help. These Banks dont care about helping any one they just want there payment. Thanks for nothing Wells Fargo..

I am sure the reason for the plans failure is that allot of people fall into my category. I called about refinancing and was told I don’t qualify: I have a 10 year interest free loan and since I took out the loan it has been sold as a non “Freddie Mac” loan thus placing me in the “you don’t qualify category”. Even though my payments are more than 25% of my earnings and the value of my home has dropped well below it’s original loans value. So I am stuck continuing paying a mortgage on a home worth well less than the loan and I cannot even sell it. My guess is that most people are in the same boat!
Obama please adjust your plan to include this category of people.
Kurt

Our government is not addressing the main problem: Unemployment.
Many of us are(were) Self-Employed. This so-called Recession has been happening to us since 9/11. We have lost our businesses, drip by drip. We have been forced to spend our savings, investments and retirements, and sell our home to survive. We had no credit card debt, almost full equity in our home and plenty of savings for the past 20 years. We lived modestly, and still lost everything. Moreover,We DO NOT GET UNEMPLOYMENT. The result:
We are in our mid-fifties and we are ruined. Who will bail us out? The unemployment numbers they are using are ridiculously low Try tripling that number. Get a grip.

Raising minimum wage hurts both the business owner and the hourly employee. The winner in all of this is the government. With an increase in minimum wage, the amount of payroll taxes collected goes up. In most cases this hike in minimum wage is passed on to the consumer in a small increase in the price of goods and services thus creating more sales tax revenue. The worker that received the small increase in hourly wage now has to pay more for the necessities such as food and clothing. Their quality of life has not improved and our government has found a way to increase the tax revenue and have us say thank you.

I live in Portland and I have to say that people who think like Vicki represent the norm in this state. They don’t understand a labor/wage supply demand curve. Oregon has the second highest unemployment in the country just behind Michigan. Unlike Michigan, we haven’t had a large industry blow up (we have major umployers such as Nike and Intel, relatively healthy companies). Interestingly, we have the highest minimum wage in the country and it was just raised January 1st in the middle of the deepest recesion in decades. Our legislature decided to not include a provision which would have only raised our minimum wage (now tied to an annual inflation index) if our jobless rate is below the national average. It’s sad that Jan in Lebanon Oregon can’t even find a minimum wage job in our state. Imagine if our minimum wage were $6.50 rather than $8.55. Think of how many people currently WITHOUT A JOB who would like to have A JOB even at $6.50 could have one without the excessive minimum wage. Minimum wage was never meant to be a “living wage”. Arguments for raising minimum wage always trot out some people truely struggling to live on minimum wage as the norm. We all feel for them buy they are not the norm and shouldn’t we also feel bad about those that lose their job because of minimum wage increases?. The majority of people earning minimum wage during normal economic times are teenagers, retired persons, and single persons. Higher minimum wage means fewer jobs. This is basic economics. Everyone, have fun with Obamanomics. It comes from similar thinking as seen in Oregon’s legislature (dominated by Democrats for over 25 years). It’s all about “intentions” and “feelings” based decision making rather than cost/benefit and REAL impact based decision making.

Vicki that is the most ridiculous, uninformed post I have seen in quite some time. What you are advocating is requiring that fast food jobs pay a minimum of $42k a year? What’s next, free healthcare for everyone?

Tanya, one secret the credit card companies don’t want you to know is that you can cancel your credit card and keep your 10% APR. This should be no problem if you have other cards or good credit and can get another card. The card company will lie and make it difficult but you’ll save on interest if you absolutely cannot pay it off quickly and need to carry the balance for a long time. Ask them about canceling the card and retaining the same prior terms for all cureent balances.

No minimum wage here. Nobody could live on it, hanks government for outsorcing all the manufacturing jobs. Without them we are right where you want us. Thanks again.

Require everyone getting any kind of state of federal aide such as WIC, Housing Vouchers, Foodstamps etc. to take or be given birth control and a large chunk of our economic problems will be solved. If you can support yourself on min wage you sure don’t need to be spitt’n our offspring!

Haywood wrote “the people making minimum wage are not reading news here”.

Why do you say that? I make minimum wage and so do several other people who have replied.

I work in fast food right now. The increase in minimum wage will raise my salary, but it is far from a living wage, especially considering that it’s the policy of the particular fast food restaurant I work at to keep everyone working less than 32 hours a week so they don’t have to pay benefits. This has become a common policy among retail and fast food places it seems.

I cannot believe the arrogance and attitude in the previous posts, especially givin the state of our current economy. Apparently you are not reading the news here, or you live under a rock. CEO’s are working as janitors, and pizza delivery drivers, and yes, they are making min wage.

Wow! I earn minimum wage and I can actually read. I bet you are shocked I am reading the news here, in such a prestigous place. Oh, minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage! Oh the travesty! If you haven’t heard, millions of people who used to be as special as you people have lost their jobs, even with college degrees. I think the point of this was to enlighten other less fortunate people who may be stuck working a min wage job right now as to how to get by on a major decrease in salary, not to advocate minimum wage as a stopping point on the career ladder. Thanks for turning it into a bash session for the people trying to get by. God forbid you should ever lose your income and have to stoop to the level of minimum wage just to feed your families. Pathetic.

The minimum wage varies by each state. Are you wondering about the FED minimum wage earners or the states that have a much higher minimum wage?

I am currently unemployed and the only wage earner in my family. If I could even find a minimum wage job in Oregon (minimum wage here is $8.95 an hour) my family of 3 could survive until something better came along. As it is I am competing with at least 200+ people for every job listing there is here.

5 years ago we saw the writing on the wall and paid off everything and only have a very small mortgage, utility bills and living expenses. We planned ahead to be able to survive on a minimum wage job.

Sorry. You can’t interview anyone living on minimum wage. They have all dropped into comas from working three jobs.

It’s not too often I have to resort to this type of post, but the comments made by Vicki in Portland are idiotic. Why stop at $20? Why not make it $50 and we can wipe out poverty in our lifetime.

Please understand that labor is a cost, like any other material or expense an employer must pay. When you raise the price of labor, you will invariably get less of it. It’s simple economics. If we can’t get people to understand that simple concept, this country is doomed.

Minimum wage is meant to be an entry-level wage, not a livable wage. Why would a 16 year-old need a livable wage? Wages indexed to inflation cause inflation to increase. The key to getting this country back on track is to change the culture from victimization and “blame the other guy” to accepting personal responsibility and accountability, and community. Instead of lowering the bar for “disadvantaged folk,” our government should empower them by encouraging them to seek further education (anyone can afford community-college), open small businesses, and say “Hey, you are a free individual with the power to create your own successes. You are the only one holding yourself back.” End of my slightly off-topic rant.

Minimum wage index to Inflation is over $20, I’m going to highly doubt that. You are telling me that the lowest income in this country should have is $40,000. All That would accomplish is mass inflation. To Pump wages to $40,000 all employers would need to raise their prices to match. The price of a burger king meal would probably be raised from $2 –> $20 over night so what you are asking is really quite pointless. Econmoies have a balance of money supply to price. Companies fix prices to make a return. Higher cost means higher prices i.e. inflation. If you really want inflation to be reduced ask the goverment not to kill the value of the dollar by borowing unescesarily. Yes, I understand someone cannot support themself on minimum wage. If you wish to drive prices down focus on increasing production to reduce the price of goods.

I received my Master of Arts degree last August right around the time the economy was starting to deteriorate. I had a full-time job for about 2 months and got laid off. Since November I’ve been back at my parent’s house working two minimum wage jobs to pay for my student loans and car payment. It’s tough but it’s manageable if you are smart with your money. The worst part is having two degrees (M.A., and B.S.) and working for little money just to survive. I know it’s temporary due to the horrible state of the economy but my current situation really is making me humble. I keep job searching and hoping that soon enough I won’t have to live off of $7.25 anymore.

hey Mark, provide a link, because the maps I found seem to have very little coorelation… At least there is no where near the coorelation between per capita GDP and how “blue” the state tends to vote.

I work for cash and it’s less than 2 dollars an hour. How can I get min wage

This will never get anybody to talk about minimum wage. People on minimum wage cannot afford the leisure to look at CNN Money, nor even the internet access to do so.

I would like to comment. I resent persons insulting hard workers that work every day for a low pay check. It adds insult to injury. Some low earners make less than persons on government programs, and yet they have to work for every cent of it. They deserve respect. I come from a low earner family. We don’t have cable, eat out, buy new clothes, eat meat, buy things on credit etc. We live within our budget.
Many around us don’t work at all, and yet seem to have the same standard of living. It is hard to toil for your food, when others eat for free.

Nice fake name Haywood in Jablome…

The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, released in a report by the Heritage Foundation on 5 Jan 04 entitled Understanding Poverty in America:

1. Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

2. Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

3. Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

4. Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

5. Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

6. Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

7. Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

8. Twenty-six percent have a cell phone.

9. Twenty-four percent have a computer.

Everything in bold text is a luxury. Read that again LUXURY. If you are having trouble making ends meet, try cutting back on some luxuries.

lux⋅u⋅ry -noun
a material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity

If people living on minimum wage are having trouble making ends meet, maybe they should cut back on luxuries.

I grew up without A/C, TV, cell phone, or an automatic dishwasher. In high school, I worked minimum wage jobs. I chose to go to college and get an education (which I afforded working summer jobs and student loans). Following college, I chose to serve my country in the US Air Force, and money was tight. However, as PFC Mueller states, “just take care of your bills, save a little, and the rest in enertainment money.”

To this day, I still choose not to have some luxuries like cable television, big screen TV, or A/C. I have higher priority financial goals.

The biggest thing is understanding the difference between a NEED and a WANT.

Minimum wage is anethema to capitalism. Raising it is just stealth taxation through inflation on everyone. There’s no free lunch. People who survive on it right now either do so by having inherited wealth (housing etc.) or by moonlighting in cash-only business that allows them to cheat taxation while still having a “real” job to report to the IRS. Minimum wage should be abolished.

One more comment (assuming my previous post makes it onto the site):

Working minimum wage taught me that I needed to continue with my education, get educated in something that actually pays good money, and work hard. Working for minimum wage was awful.

My husband makes $15.00/hr. after 25 years at the same job. He is a welder, mechanic. I resent the fact that people put down low earners. My husband and other’s at low paying jobs work extremely hard EVERY day at their job. My husband is certainly not lazy. His boss can pay him less because they have no union. He also took a 10% cut in pay recently to bring him down to the $15.00/hr. I think it’s wrong to insult hard workers that work every day. We could do better on welfare or disability.
We eat spaghetti, live in an 1983 trailer, never go out, never eat out, never go to movies, don’t have cable, don’t buy meat, don’t buy clothes, but all our bills are paid. Why don’t you pick on the people who get paid for not working at all, and at least are not exhausted all the time, and get to enjoy these beautiful summer days, visiting the neighbors or going out to the beach.

Tanya,

With reference to the $2500 on your Citibank card: If you don’t want to accept the new interest rate, then I *believe* you can close the card and pay back the money at the current rate with some kind of payment plan over time. Please check with them to see if this is the case. Of course, you won’t be able to use the card anymore to get into more debt, but it was only for emergencies anyway, so perhaps you can get another card for emergencies and close this card to prevent the rate from hitting you. Call them back and ask them if you can do this without having to pay it all back at once.

Another option is to sign up for a new card with a promotional rate (0%, or low APR) and do a balance transfer for a 3% fee. You’ll have 6/9/12 months to pay back the debt at a substantially lower rate. You can do it if you try.

Both of those options actually require you to PAY BACK YOUR DEBT so if you don’t actually plan on doing this then you’re probably financially better off not paying anything and defaulting on the cards now, rather than letting the interest suck you dry over a year or two. Your credit rating will go to hell, but I’m guessing that your credit rating isn’t that great right now anyway otherwise they wouldn’t be increasing you the “you just defaulted on another debt” rate.

If you’re living on minimum wage I really feel it’s better to have a terrible credit rating and no debt, than lots of debt and a 750 FICO score. It’s not like you should be heading out there and buying a house on that income, nor should you be financing a car. If you can’t *service* the debt then there’s no point in having it available.

”

I recently looked at a map of the states with the highest unemploment and a map of the states with the highest minimun wage, they are almost identical. The Republicans said, when minimum wage increases were being debated, that it would cause unemployment. Now it has come to pass and I have not seen anyone saying “I told you so.” It makes me furious.
Posted By Mark, Cody,WY: July 20, 2009 11:39 am ”

Cody, and take no offense to this, but you are exactly what the GOP has in mind when they say things like “Sotomayor is a racist.” or “The terrorist will win!!” They count on critical thinking to take a back seat to overt emotionalism and kneejerk reactions.

Which states? What industries are in the states? What percentage of people actually make minimum wage in that state? I think you would agree that if a state has the highest minimum wage, but the lowest percentage of workers making minimum wage that the minimum wage most likely has had no impact on the employment of that state.

Instead of getting furious, get to thinking and stop behavior like an automaton.

Tanya, you need to cancel the Citibank card and get another job to pay it off ASAP and stop depending on credit cards? Start to listen to Dave Ramsey and it will change your life.

If you are over 25 and working Minimum wage, you have to look at your life choices and see why you are being paid minimum wage. If you didn’t finish high school, getting a GED will get you a raise. Try a cheap community college or trade school to get out of the MW trap

I do not make minimum wage; however, I am a payroll admin. Minimum wage is paid for lower skilled type trades-ie fast food, etc. If I walked into Burger King, I would expect to make minumum wage. I do accounting and payroll and therefore earn a wage reflective of my skills and experience. Minimum wage is part of the labor law to help younger workers get fair pay and not be taken advantage of. There are familes that live on minimum wage, but, however ruthless this may sound, their skills and expereince do not support a higher wage. The taxes that are paid by employers on behalf of employees is staggering. Why don’t we ask Uncle Sam where all the Federal Unemployment is? All businesses pay it, but where does it go? I think they could kick in a little to help the unemployed right now!

If there weren’t poor people, there wouldn’t be rich people. The rich prey off the poor…The strong prey off the weak. Survival of the fittest. That’s how it is and that’s how it is always going to be. Like everyone else, I stopped making Min Wage the minute I showed some inniative, dedication, and hard work. I was making 10 bucks an hour tossing pizzas while still in high school (1996). I now make a 6 figure salary and as far as I am concerned, min wage should stay low and people should simply pull themselves up the ladder if they have what it takes.

Just look at the Bureau of Labor stats and you’ll see that the vast majority of minimum wage earners are teenagers/young adults, working part time, living in homes at 2-3X+ the poverty level.

This has always been a falsely (politically) hyped issue that primarily affects the number of summer jobs available to students… They’ll “make it” just fine.

Switch to using Debit Cards, they have 0% APR forever!

Haywood’s comment is, of course, exactly right.

Regardless it is dangerous to think that you should ever raise minimum wage to be a solid living wage. The only proper use of the minimum wage is to prevent the creation of a slave class that has no hope of prosperity (as happens with many illegals today who effectively are exempt from minimum wage laws).

Trying to make the minimum wage a living wage would severely exacerbate unemployment and drive up inflation.

I earn minimum wage, guess what i do for a living? I make millioners…

PFC Mueller, like others, I commend your service, but $19318 is above minimum wage of $15080 (@7.25 per hour for 2080 hours per year) and you are given housing, food, and utilities. Move off base with what you make and do not take BAH or BAS and see how much it hurts your “entertainment” fund.

To Vicki, Portland, OR: Minimum wage based on inflation would only be $8.44. Assuming 4.5% annual inflation over the past 20 years. Actual inflation has been closer to 3.25% over the past 20 years. No where near the unrealistic wage of $20/hour some claim.

Claiming that one should go to college to find a better paying job is also wrong. I know several people who never finished High School who do pretty well for themselves. Some own their own businesses and make more than I do with my MBA.

Those who see that minimum wage raise the cost of living are right on. Every time minimum wage increases so does the cost of living. As such, minimum wage will never be a solution for people who want to exit poverty and have a better life. If every time minimum wage increase, the cost of living does, people will always be chasing the false hope raising the minimum wage brings. Minimum wage is a starting wage of last resort. You are not meant to be on it for life. My personal experience taught me this well. I was making $4.75/hour when minimum wage was raised to $5.15/hour. I was making more than minimum wage and had more buying power. When the new $5.15 rate took effect, I found myself making $5.15/hour. Some managers said that I had gotten a pay raise because I was making more than $4.75. When I pointed out that my buying power dropped, that I went from making more than minimum to minimum wage, they found a fast excuse to leave. I was not alone. Hundreds of Thousands, if not millions, of people suffer this every time minimum wage is raised.

Raising minimum wage does nothing to help those making minimum wage. It’s just a feel good measure people take to feel less guilty and more helpful. Instead of raising minimum wage, the government should mandate annual cost of living raises. This way people already in the work force would see their income rise, with less impact on the overall cost of living. The same minimum wage would be in place for new workers entering the workforce. Ideally, you would have a mix of inexperienced and experienced workers making different levels of income for all companies. As a person’s skills and experience grew, so would their pay.

Most agree that minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage.

So someone please tell me why it is that so many jobs that look like they are intended for adults working full time only pay minimum wage?

For those who whine because “the cost of my goods goes up” every time minimum wage does, I say – do your own $hit. Don’t want to pay the cost of a burger to pay a real wage to the person who cooks it? Cook it yourself. Don’t want to pay the cost of having a (legal to work in the US earning a fair wage) gardener to tend your landscaping? Pull your own weeds.

It is easy to say that if people who are earning minimum wage want to do better, they can just “Get an education and get a better paying job.”

But yet we still have a large %, and a growing % of the work done in this nation that we don’t want to pay a real wage to do. Who does it if we all get educated? We already have a lot of people with BS and higher degrees flipping burgers for minimum wage.

We pay people minimum wage to process our millions of pounds of hamburger and then complain that the quality is at issue. We pay a minimum wage to people raising pigs in mega barns and then are shocked when they lack compassion. We are starting to pay our “health technicians” minimum wage, and those caring for the elderly and caring for our kids.

With the exception of short term, part time, no training positions one expects high school kids to do, any job that you want to hire for should earn a living wage. (I wont try to define here what that is.)

If it isn’t worth paying a living wage to have someone else do it,

DO IT YOURSELF!!!

I agree with the prior comment that talks about how minimum wage is not intended to be an income that you live your life on. If someone is too lazy to get an education and get a higher paying job there is no reason he/she should be making $20/hour. As for supporting a family on minimum wage….someone working at a McDonalds making minimum wage should not be starting a family or reproducing. It called responsibility.

A raise in minimum wage *will* cause either unemployment or higher prices (if not both). Say a business allots $90/hour of its profits to pay 9 employees $10/hour. Now, because of a minimum wage increase, they have to instead pay each of them $15/hour. Where does the extra $45/hour to pay those employees come from? The company can either lay-off 3 of them (and pay $90/hour to the remaining 6 at $15/hour), or increase their prices to such a degree that the business takes-in an extra $45/hour.

Obviously, this example uses nice, round, and inflated numbers. But the math behind it applies to any example. If a business suddenly has to pay their employees more money, then their only options are to decrease the number of employees they have to pay, or charge more to make more money to cover the difference.

Minimum Wage should be the “minimum” amount of money to survive (i.e. housing, medical bills, food, etc) if working full time at the wage. Unfortunately in this country, that’s not the case. In many states, even if you work 40 hours at minimum wage, you are below the poverty line. This was not always the case.

In the 1970s, the average executive was making 25 times the average production worker. Today its more than 90 times the average production worker. I speculate the money is shifting from minimum wage (or the lower spectrum of wages) to the executives. Minimum wage is laughable, and its not shocking more and more people use social services instead of looking for employment.

Why bust your butt to barely scrape by while the upper echelon of execs are profiting off the fruit of your labor? I’d just sit on welfare, which is sad.

Its time we start compensating people for the jobs they do. Often, lower paid jobs are in some ways the least desirable, and people need to be paid. Wouldn’t a minimum wage of $12 an hour motivate people to actually work? The only thing is, the hits need to come from the top, but execs would be reluctant to cut their own salaries, so they would just higher fewer works…

Sad

Minimum wage doesn’t equate to living wage. I don’t know how people could support themselves on minimum wage jobs. I realize they pay no income tax and in fact often receive a refund under head of household status or earned income credit, thereby effectively earning/receiving more than minimum wage, but it still isn’t a lot, and hardly enough to support anyone and still provide for a future of anything but living hand to mouth.

A more interesting question would be how do people get by when income is below the poverty line? Cash jobs under the table, dealing drugs, engaging in some other form of ilicit income generating activity? Seriously, how do they get by?

If the minimum wage is moved to $20/hr, then the cost of EVERYTHING will go up an equivalent amount, resulting in the new $20/hr minimum wage still being an insufficient amount to live on, along with the wages most other people are now making.

If the APR on your credit card is not satisfactory, you should feel free to shop around. Credit Unions and Community Banks are a very good option not just during economic slumps, but they are a very good option all the time. Credit Unions will normally be a part of a network of other Credit Unions. Check out your options and decide what is best for you.

Minimum wage indexed to inflation is supposed to be over $20/hour now. It’s still way too low. People need money in their pockets to get the economy rolling again. 25-30 years of declining income has caught up with us in this crisis. A higher minimum wage is more labor expense for business, but one company’s labor expense is another company’s profits. Prime the pump – raise minimum wage to $20/hour now!

Minimum wage was NEVER meant to be a living wage. There is a cycle of employment. You turn 16, get a job that pays min wage and realize “This job stinks, I want to go to college and better myself”. You go to college and that job is opened for another High Schooler or retiree who wants to work to get out of the house. This country will be in trouble if min wage is turned into a living wage. Think about it…if people in the work force get in at a fast food place and think they have “peaked”….then there goes the dollar menu and here comes $10 happy meals…every time the min wage has increased, so has the cost of living….since I don’t make min wage, I didn’t get a raise, but my family sure felt the pinch in the rise of consumable goods

Tanya: If you have a 2500 balance on a credit card for emergencies, you are using it more than just for emergencies. If you pay off what you charge each month, the interest APR is a moot point anyway.

Every time the minimium wage goes up, the purchasing power of my own income goes down. The minimium wage is nothing but welfare moved onto the private sector.

PFC Mueller, while I applaud your service I don’t think that it is fair to compare your military salary to those making minimum wage as you are also receiving many other benefits including housing, food, healthcare etc… that if you were paid for would easily double your salary.

We are working for minimum wage and I have to say, we are getting punched in the gut by credit card companies. WE currently have a credit card with CITIBANK, at 10% APR with a $2,500 balance. We received notification today that they are raising that APR to 30%!!! 30%!!!! WE have never been late on the card, use this card for emergencies and now they are going to charge 30% APR on our balance. After speaking with the Supervisor, she says it is due to Economic times. Well, the greed of the large corporations are the ones that got us into this mess and they continue to do so!!!This is BIG Company/Corporation robbery AT IT’S BEST! I thought the government was putting plans in place to stop this. Well, government WHERE ARE YOU??????? They are stealing money right out of the “little” peoples hands! WE will not be able to afford the new minimum payment and Citi Card basically said, well “too bad”. How professional is that!!!!

I’m a PFC in the Army, it’s actually pretty easy for a single guy (paid 19,318 pre-tax). Just take care of your bills, save a little, and the rest in enertainment money.

I recently looked at a map of the states with the highest unemploment and a map of the states with the highest minimun wage, they are almost identical. The Republicans said, when minimum wage increases were being debated, that it would cause unemployment. Now it has come to pass and I have not seen anyone saying “I told you so.” It makes me furious.

Lazy journalism at it’s best…

When I worked minimum wage, I lived with my parents. At one time gas was 3-4 dollars. The only job I could get was 20 miles away. I was basically paying to work. You cannot care for yourself on minimum wage unless you’re really frugal. Raising a family on minimum wage would be hell. I hope my B.A. will help me avoid another min. wage job, but i’m not so sure these days. I feel sorry for the under-educated. I hope someday we’ll realize the value of knowledge and it’s link to the bottom line.

I vote for Haywood’s comment to be best of the year!

I agree this is not the right forum to reach people who earn minimum wage.

Since they keep raising it, I’m getting closer too it! I really dont think that employers cut back when they are forced to pay more, I do see that prices go up every time they raise min wage. Seems useless to me, even the people making min wage also have to pay more for fast food and other products of min wage work environments.

I haven’t worked for minimum wage since I was 15 years old. Heck, after two months of bagging groceries I got a raise. By the time I went off to college, I was making 3x the minimum wage at that grocery store (not including overtime and Sundays time and a half).

During those years of working low-skill jobs, I always had extra money in my pocket. I focused on priorities and saving, and always had plenty of money left at the end of the month.

I have climbed the ladder and gotten away from low-skill jobs and retail. My income is 8.6 times the minimum wage.

The people who I saw not getting raises were lazy, unreliable, careless, slow, and had mediocre attitudes.

All you need to do is show up, work hard, and avoid the behaviors of poor people, and you will likely be more than okay! America is full of opportunities… just stop running away from them.

Employers are more than happy to pay for VALUE.

The people working for minimum wage are not reading news here.