Hi there, Mrs. 1500 this fine Labor Day Morning with a timely question about minimum wage. But before we get into this week’s question, let’s look back at last week, when I asked you if you repackage your food. I was surprised at some of the answers I received.
Many of you repackage your bulk-purchased meat into single- or family-size servings. (I do this too, but didn’t even think of it when I asked the question.) Alicia over at Financial Diffraction does this, but says that sometimes it gets freezer burned before she can use it all. But wait. Here comes Grumpy Granny to the rescue with her anti-freezer-burn double wrapping concept. She buys the large portions of meat, rearranges them into smaller portions, then wraps them tight with plastic wrap before putting them into freezer bags. She says this works even better than the double-layer freezer bags because the plastic wrap really keeps the air away from the food. Thanks for the tip, GG!
Even more of you repackage items like flour and sugar. (Again, this is something I do and didn’t even think about before all the answers!) Allie at Allie’s Everyday Adventures repackages these items to help keep the kitchen clean, as does Meg over at Chocolates and Woolens.
Angela at The Clutter Box and Mom at Three is Plenty actually have to repackage almost everything, due to bugs and humidity. Living in Colorado for the last year, I have almost forgotten about humidity ruining all food. However, my mind still vividly recalls the time I got pantry moths in Wisconsin. It took absolutely forever (and the tossing of most of my food) to rid myself of them. I feel for you two.
Anna from Are Ya Gonna Eat That? repackages for portion sizes, which is an awesome idea. Long ago, a favorite co-worker, Rose and I had a lively discussion about one bag, one serving. We both agreed that a bag was a single serving, no matter how big the bag. If you bought the family size bag, you just got a bigger serving – UNLESS you could somehow repackage them into smaller bags before you sat down and ate the entire thing. (Rose, I miss you and our conversations.)
I think by now, we can all agree that those few clever segues from last week’s answers to this week’s questions were anomalies. So without further ado, here is what I want to know this week: What do you think of minimum wage?
In the news this past week were multiple stories from different locations around the nation of fast food restaurant strikes. The minimum wage workers went on strike to protest their low wages, asking for increases to $15 per hour. I have conflicting views on this. My first “real” job was for a graphic designer. She had mentioned to her friend (who happened to be my dad’s boss) that she was thinking she needed an assistant. Her friend mentioned my dad had a creative daughter (meaning my sister) and she should talk to my dad about it. My dad talked to my sister, who is directionally challenged and would not have ever found her way to this woman’s place of business, more than an hour away, and she declined. I stepped up and said I would do it, went up for an interview and was hired. I don’t think I had any competition for the job, to be honest.
She paid me a whopping $9 an hour, which was a king’s ransom back then (possibly giving you insight into my real age) and that Christmas, she gave me a raise to $10 an hour. She was still making a pretty penny herself, because she billed my time at $25 an hour, but this arrangement worked for both of us for quite some time. I was making significantly more than any of my friends were, I was learning a very valuable skill set, and my days were varied enough to keep it interesting.
The fast food workers today are making $10 an hour. This seems to be a fairly good wage to push buttons on a screen, gather ready-made food and put it on a tray for people to consume. This is not a difficult job, nor does it require specific skills to complete these tasks. In short, you can be replaced easily.
On the other hand, in today’s economy, there are many people who have been downsized or their employer has shut down entirely, leaving them with no source of income. Regardless of how they got there, the fact remains that they do not have any way to make money, and have turned to the fast food industry in an attempt to pay their bills, put food on the table, etc. I can understand their desire for a living wage.
But let’s look at their employers. Consider the McDonald’s franchise owner. They put the money up for the franchise. They are taking considerable (well, maybe not considerable – it is McDonald’s after all) risk by opening a restaurant. (Remember the absolutely ridiculous lines at Krispy Kreme stores when they first opened up? Then, the Adkins diet craze hit, and there are Krispy Kreme stores that are completely closed, their investors have lost a ton of money.)
I have more opinions on this than I will share at this time. There are many different ways to look at this issue, and I truly want to know what you think. What do you feel about minimum wage?
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I have a friend who worked off the books for below minimum wage to gain experience and open his own business. His employer couldn’t have afforded to pay the full minimum wage. I thought that was a really good arrangement for everyone involved, and he’s since found investors and struck out on his own. It was a private arrangement between him and his employer, and they both seemed happy, and he wasn’t collecting food stamps or other welfare programs to supplement his income. In a case like, that, I’d be leery of the government stepping in to protect his “rights” when he was very happy without them. I’m not sure about a larger social policy, though.
Meg recently posted…Monday Sundries: Terrifying Midwestern Cookery!
From my own experience, I look at the minimum wage today and see that it has grown at about the same rate of inflation since I earned it back in 1998 (5.15 then, 7.25 now), which feels about right. Perhaps the easiest thing would be to index the minimum wage rate to CPI or chained CPI to ensure it continues to be that way. In general, I think people shouldn’t want to stay in minimum wage jobs, so motivation to keep them looking for something better or to improve their skill sets is a good thing.
As for franchise owners, I’ve heard that many franchise owners in non-prime locations end up earning very low effective per hour wages, especially considering the capital and time they have invested in the businesses.
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…PoP Income Statement – August 2013
I think this is a tough debate. If food workers start making $15 an hour, then people with degrees will demand more as well, because if you can work at McDonald’s for $15 an hour, why get a degree? Of course not everyone wants to work at McDonalds, but you get my point.
Michelle recently posted…August Goals and Life – Wedding Dress Picture Too!
A “minimum wage worker” may simply be pushing buttons, but they are creating vast wealth for a select few. While I love this about America, I see that people should be able to enjoy life at a reasonable wage for their work. Inflation adjusted, the minimum wage is far less than it was in the 70’s and 80’s. It needs to increase. Everyone deserves to enjoy life at least a little.
Tony@WeOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted…How To Begin To Let Things Go
I don’t have stats to back up my position but I tend to agree with this quote: “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value YOU bring to an hour.” – Jim Rohn
There are a lot of jobs offering the minimum wage; you don’t need to bring much in the way of value to get that. So, here’s my next Jim Rohn quote to cap off my position on the minimum wage: “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn
Why bother arguing about the minimum wage when there’s so much room over the minimum wage for anyone who wants to earn more? Learn a skill, make more money. Simple.
Ree Klein recently posted…Survey Sunday: What Will You do Today to Improve Your Financial Picture?
Here in the UK minimum wage is £6.19 per hour (about $9.50 per hour)
My sister in law (age 25) earns min wage, she can rent a room in a shared flat, eat, buy clothes and socialise quite well. However – owning a home and starting a family is impossible on minimum wage.
There is a call in the UK for whats called “a living wage” – of about £9 an hour (about $15) it will never happen. Big business makes the rules, and the most of us are just slaves to our employers.
Thats why taking control of your own destiny and becoming financially free is such an appealing goal.
GetRichWithMe recently posted…Monthly Budget August 2013
Perhaps you should look at the net profit of McDonald’s before attempting to argue the fact they are “right” in paying what they do. I know two families that own McDonald’s franchises, and their MANAGERS are only paid slightly north of $8 an hour. It may behoove you to do some calculations on what the take home pay of a fast food worker is vs. national rates for rent and living expenses – which is why most fast food workers have two and three jobs.
The average age of a fast food worker is either 26 or 28, and something like 70% of the fast food workforce is over age 35, with a college degree – which blows any argument you can make about fast food work being “easy” and $10 an hour “enough” right out of the water.
There doesn’t need to be a minimum wage, there needs to be a living wage – and it needs to be more than $15 an hour.
You might also look at research that shows the COS index vs minimum wage. If minimum wage had moved proportionally to COS, minimum wage would be well over $25 an hour as of today.
Wendy recently posted…Save Money: Gas Mileage Tips That Work
The problem with raising the minimum wage is you price the current workers out of their jobs. If I owned a fast food restaurant and was required to pay $15 an hour, the first thing I would do is fire everyone that doesn’t have a college degree and make that a requirement for the job, because at that rate, I can afford to.
Also, the current demographic of workers doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that fast food jobs are easy and that any high school student could do then.
I predict that McDonald’s and the like will automate a large amount of jobs in the near future if forced to raise their wages. The technology exists and they aren’t required to employ any more people than they need.
As the title of our blog suggests, my husband and I have lived on welfare and minimum wage jobs. If there is an upside to earning minimum wage, it is that you CAN’T live off of it. Therefore, it gives you the kick in the pants to figure out something else that will support your family.
I was a mother at 20. Today I am a CPA that prepares financial statements for one of the largest universities in the world. My wage (not including benefits, which I’ll admit are better than average) is under $29.81/hr. This doesn’t include unpaid overtime in the summers (I’ve done 90+ hour weeks before).
You suggest that a fast-food worker should make a ‘living wage’ of $25 per hour. I disagree. First, I assert that you can live well on far less than that because my family has done it. Second, I know teachers with Master’s degrees that don’t make that type of wage. So if we pay fast-food workers $25 per hour, my hourly rate (and perhaps that of teachers) would need to be over $100 per hour, or we wouldn’t go to college. Everyone’s wage would have to go up. And your kids’ happy-meal would now cost $18.50 instead of $3.50.
Raising the minimum wage would have no net positive affect on workers on the lowest rungs of the ladder.
Robin recently posted…From Welfare to Well-Off: About Us
Everyone gets emotions involved with this debate. I hear about a single mom with three kids not being able to live off min. wage.
The best answer to that is:
“Economically, pay should be based on the job duties, not the individual situation of the worker.”
I wish everyone made whatever they wanted to be happy in life, but that is not going to happen. Minimum wage is for people with minimum skill in my opinion. Fast food is not a career. Quality of workers barely makes a difference. If you raise fast food wages then you will find even more lifers, and our economy needs those starter jobs for our youth. A pay increase would hurt everyone on many levels.
The reason the average age is so median is because the jobs are for highschool / college kids and the elderly. Don’t think about numbers so much, but instead think of the last 20 times you went in a fast food joint. Basically if you go in the morning there is old people and after the morning the young kids come in. Stats do not say it all.
Brian recently posted…Lazy Labor Day Weekend
One thing that does strike me as odd. People will gripe that a fast food work is just mindlessly pushing buttons. A skill that doesn’t deserve more than minimum wage. I don’t know how different that is from someone who works on an assembly line in a factory. Much like the fast food work (who was trained to flip burgers, use a register) they are trained to perform a monotonous task all day long. Yet, a factory worker can expect $12 an hour in the south and higher wages in the north.
I view fast food as a position that requires customer service skills, not something that can be easy. I’m pretty sure most of us have stories of dealing with “that” customer. You know, the one you would punch in the face if it wasn’t illegal, instead you just sit and smile like a good company representative. I don’t think they should be paid enough to support a family of 4, but I do think they should be paid enough that a single person could “live” off the wage.
Micro recently posted…Less people are resting on Labor Day
1500! What an issue, a huge cumbersome issue. If there were fewer people, I wonder if it would be such an issue.
Have a nifty one!
cj recently posted…Speaking Your Language of Love
I have mixed feelings on the minimum wage. On the one hand, I see it as encouragement to go find other work (aka get trained, learn a new skill, etc) because it *can’t* pay most of your bills. But at the same time, many minimum wage workers also are very dependent on social assistance in various forms, and indirectly we all pay for that. I tend to lean towards the “go get a real job” side most of the time though – I have a very strong libertarian philosophy, and while it’s nice to have those minimum wage jobs available, I don’t think they were ever intended as a career.
Mom @ Three is Plenty recently posted…Saving Money with Baby – Breastfeeding
As many have commented, this debate usually gets heated pretty quickly. Personally, I think there should be a minimum wage that is locked in or chained to inflation, or possibly even 25-50 basis points below. To me, minimum wage is the minimum amount to live…not live comfortably, but to have food, water, and shelter. It isn’t supposed to pay you all your bills and allow you to save. The problem with raising it, economically, is that if people are able to live comfortably under minimum wage then they have no reason to work their way out of it. It should serve as a way to get food and shelter, while also providing the motivation to learn additional skills or in some way shake-up your situation. If people are able to live comfortably on a minimum wage salary, then the minimum wage is already too high.
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I wrote a post about minimum wage and the fast food strike last week. I think minimum wage should increase in certain parts of the country (particularly in bit cities with high cost of living like NYC).
Minimum wage is not supposed to be the minimum livable wage. People aged 25 and under make up 20% of the workforce, but account for more than 50% of minimum wage workers. Also while I cant find the stats right now, I know that the also a majority of minimum wage workers live in the deep south, which does not carry the same cost of living as say NYC.
Also raising the minimum wage does not help minimum wage workers. This is due to the fact that whenever the minimum wage is raised, inflation merely rises to compensate for that fact. Minimum wage workers spend 100% of their incomes as a general rule, so there is more dollars chasing the same amount of services, pushing up the price of those services. So while it sounds like a good idea to help those making minimum wage, it does not in actuality help them.