Do you have to have poor people in order to have wealthy people? In the Sate of the Union Speech the President encouraged increasing the minimum wage to $9 per hour. Who works for the current $7.75 or so minimum wage? No one in Oregon, that is for sure. Our minimum wage is $9.40 per hour and that supersedes the minimum in every state. There will be a fight over this in Congress, mostly because that is what they do and because the Republicans are against this raise. I don't know why, it is all nuts. $9. per hour is $18,000 per year, you still can not buy a house and barely buy a car. I wonder if Henry Ford was a Republican or Democrat? He said he wanted to pay his workers enough so that they could afford to buy the cars they were making. I agree with that.
In Oregon we still have the McDonald's Dollar Menu and everyone thought the price of fast food would go through the roof if we increased our minimum wage. It didn't. In fact, sales increased.
More people could afford more crap. It is the American Way.
Someone made a chart on how much time one would have to work in order to buy a "Big Mac" all over the world. It is interesting to look at and available on the net.
So, what is the minimum wage in your State/Country? and how much time to work for a "Big Mac"?
In today's dollars I paid my workers $12 to $20 dollars per hour. Much more than minimum wage.
Fairness had little to do with this. Those were better economic times and my workers would just go elsewhere if I didn't pay them that much. Good help is hard to find and valuable to keep. Or at least it used to be.
Did you like anything about the President's Speech? Did you hate something? Did you bother watching it?
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In Oregon we still have the McDonald's Dollar Menu and everyone thought the price of fast food would go through the roof if we increased our minimum wage. It didn't. In fact, sales increased.
More people could afford more crap. It is the American Way.
Someone made a chart on how much time one would have to work in order to buy a "Big Mac" all over the world. It is interesting to look at and available on the net.
So, what is the minimum wage in your State/Country? and how much time to work for a "Big Mac"?
In today's dollars I paid my workers $12 to $20 dollars per hour. Much more than minimum wage.
Fairness had little to do with this. Those were better economic times and my workers would just go elsewhere if I didn't pay them that much. Good help is hard to find and valuable to keep. Or at least it used to be.
Did you like anything about the President's Speech? Did you hate something? Did you bother watching it?
4
5 comments:
The minimum wage in VA is the same as the federal minimum wage - $7.25/hr.
My husband who runs a business in waste water treatment, pays more than the stipulated wage for his factory workers, which he gives them in the manner of perks and extras. He always shares the profit of his company with them every year in the form of bonus, some time two bonus in a year. His employee take loan and buy motorcyles for themselves( for having a motor bike is very useful in India to beat erratic Bangalore traffic), and I have seen many of his mid level employees buying plots of land to build their own small houses in that. As the company grows so are the employees' benefits keep growing,keeping every body happy.
My husband says that his employees are very loyal to him and would do anything for his company, and it is his duty to share the wealth equally with all of
them, and getting good people to work with commitment is very difficult.
He would be 61 and still working, he can sell his business anytime and retire, but he feels he must work till he can, because he has to look out for so many employees and their families.
I think the idea of saving has been a part of our culture, we are always saving for the future, buying things only if and when necessary, we have our children staying with us even after they are married
sometimes in many homes, we take care of their education right from school to college level. To do all this one needs to keep saving from the very beginning.
I am sure all this must sound pretty weird to you.
No Rama, not weird at all, the way it should be! My employees were loyal to me for the same reasons and with loyalty comes responsibility. And the world should be about our children for they are the future. Thanks, Rama!
Ah, Anthony, that is Virginia's alignment with the poor Southern States. I think all of Congress should receive such wages! Maybe that would be too much considering the amount of work they do.
I loved the speech. I found it to be quite visionary. I agree 100% with the proposed raise in the minimum wage - it's hard for me to see how anyone could be against it.
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