NELG

Right now, Obama is trying to push a minimum wage increase through Congress that would icrease minimum wgae to $10.10.

Personally, I don't like this. I think that increasing the minimum wage by this much will hurt smaller businesses. Some businesses may not make enough to pay their employees this much.

I think that minimum wage should be on a tiered system based on company size and company income (Like. my local grocery chain only brings in XX,000 a week, where as Walmart(I'm talking about a single store, not the entire franchise) may being in at least 10 times more and employees more people, therefore, I think that Walmart should have a higher minimum wage.

I have a question. Is the minimum wage for the exact same job for a 16-year old the same as for a 55-year old in the US?

LaLou wrote:I have a question. Is the minimum wage for the exact same job for a 16-year old the same as for a 55-year old in the US?

Is that different where you are?

Wouldn't older people requiring more money make them less hirable?

Also, younger people should be able to make enough to save for college. Paying based on age is discrimination, just as paying based on gender is.

Clarence wrote:

LaLou wrote:I have a question. Is the minimum wage for the exact same job for a 16-year old the same as for a 55-year old in the US?

Is that different where you are?

Wouldn't older people requiring more money make them less hirable?

Yes, it's very different where I am. When I worked at Mediamarkt (an Electronics megastore) I was payed a little over 10 euro. A 16-year old would get about 3.50 per hour. This is regulated by law, once established (Hope this is the right word) to force back youth unemployment. I think it's unfair. It diminishes the job opportunities for older people. Age discrimination is against the law, but it happens everywhere. Every shop, every restaurant, everywhere you go, you will see mostly younger people at work. I would love to work in a shop, but it's not going to happen. I'm too expensive.

Im not sure what the question is. But fast food workers should not be asking for a higher minimum wage. Instead the wage of our service men/women should be raised

Why should fast food workers not have a decent wage?

Because apparently working a tough job, often with demanding turnaround times and rude customers, isn't important.

I don't remember this thread, but the minimum wage here is strange. I understand having a different minimum wage for under 18s and over 18s, but why do over 21s have a higher minimum wage than over 18s?

They've introduced a minimum living wage now, which is marginally higher than the old minimum wage, but it only applies to people over 25.

How do I not remember that yahoo's post? That attitude is pretty sad. I'm so smurf sick of all the "othering" that goes on. Why get pissed because fast food workers joined together and worked to get a raise?

I've been a military spouse. We were well taken care of. Health care... Leave... Separation pay when he was deployed... Housing help... A raise just for getting married... We were able to afford shiny new electronics, and could go out to eat.

Now I'm a single mom working fast food. No health care. No paid time off. If i have to call in because one of my kids get sick, my paycheck will suck. I just took two weeks off because my father died and I hit a childcare snafu (within minutes of each other). Hooray for no paycheck, amiright!? No housing help. No extra pay for dependents. Oh, and I'm on public assistance for childcare because my job doesn't pay enough to cover childcare, let alone a mortgage I'm floating on my own, and feeding four mouths. Without child support, I couldn't afford to live.

But sure, let's continue the hero worship of the military and demean the people who make that cheeseburger and fries you have to have on your lunch break.

You don't get compassionate leave?

Nope. No paid time off. The managers at the store I work at are wonderful and gave me no crap about needing the time off. They were very compassionate and told me to take the time I needed, they would cover me, and my job would be waiting for me when I got back. I had managers and coworkers messaging me on Facebook, telling me if I needed anything, to let them know. My store is wonderful but corporate sucks and they're the ones who make policy.

That's basically my store.
The local employees are wonderful, corporate is terrible.

On the flip side, I'm about to apply for a better job as soon as as I refinish my resume and ask my last reference

It's ridiculous. I have huge respect for people who work in fast food because I worked in a cafe for not even that long, only a few months part time, and it was the worst and most stressful job I've ever had (though the issues were more with how the cafe was run rather than customers). Fast food must be much worse - many of our customers were decent, most were pretty patient. Fast food is much more of a mix.

GreatZot wrote:I think minimum wage should also be partially based on need. Like, some 16 year old kid does not need to earn 400 a week while he/she is still living at home and going to high school, and is covered by his/her parents insurance and stuff. Scooping popcorn into a paper bag should not pay ten bucks an hour.

Afore said job at cafe was minimum wage and because I was 20, I got £5.30 an hour. I didn't mind, i had my student loan/grants and the cafe were broke (they shut down for good earlier this year). But the most experienced worker who had been working there full time for a year was only 17 so she got a measly £3.50 ($4.50) or thereabouts, just because of her age. Having left education at 16 that was her way of supporting herself AND her train fare was a good £10 a day - how can you support yourself on that much? you can't in the UK. It's ridiculous to me that two people doing the same job should get paid differently.

What about college students?
Because if I am a full time student, I have school payments as well as rent, but until I'm 24 my parent's can still claim me

We have a system here where the amount of money students get loaned (used to be a grant but they changed it) is dependent on your family's income. If you want to be assessed as an individual, I think you have to be 21 and supporting yourself financially (with evidence) for three years.

The problem with saying that people who are financially responsible for themselves should be the ones to get the full wage is that people who aren't might not be able to afford to until they can get a job that pays enough for them to be able to. That's another thing in the UK at the moment - more and more people are living with their parents well into their 30s because they can't afford to move out. Admittedly, by then they'd be earning at least the £7.20 wage. But you also get cases where people lose their jobs when they turn 21 because they have to be paid more and companies know they can find someone else to do their job at a lower wage.

My opinion is that if the job's worth a certain wage, everyone doing the job should get that wage.