“ A $10/hr minimum wage translates into roughly $21,000/year pre-tax income and about $18,400 after taxes annually. Its hard to even survive in NYC on less than $80,000-$100,000 year so I cannot imagine anyone objecting to such a minimum wage. At a time when NYC's big law firms just announced that the starting scale for FIRST YEAR associates next year will be $172,000/year plus about an $18,000 bonus, a $10/hr minimum wage seems the least we can pay to those who clean our offices, care for our elderly parents in nursing homes or serve us food and wash the dishes in our restaurants. ”

“ The minimum wage helps the few - if any - and hurts the many. ”

“ Who are you hurting by making sure that poor people might have enough money to put food on their tables?
People who are asking for a raise in the minimum wage are not asking for handouts, they are not taking government money, they are not raising your taxes.
I truly do not understand this bias against poor people that I keep seeing on VIN. ”

“ Who are you hurting by making sure that poor people might have enough money to put food on their tables?
People who are asking for a raise in the minimum wage are not asking for handouts, they are not taking government money, they are not raising your taxes.
I truly do not understand this bias against poor people that I keep seeing on VIN. ”

“ You are missing the point. If someone wants to work for me for less I should have the right to hire him or her. If I am offering an hourly rate and nobody will accept the position, then I will need to offer more. That's how markets work. Forcing employers to overpay hurts employers, makes us less competitive, and is proven to actually hurt employment numbers. This is not a bias against the poor, it's recognizing that politicians make big gestures that will get them reelected, not because they are right or make sense or will actually help. ”

“ That's how markets work in your idealized mythical fantasy land. Nobody "wants to work" for $7.25 an hour, but given the choice between being unemployed and working for slave wages, they will choose latter. When you consider the masses of immigrants coming from third world countries where wages and living standards are a tenth of what they are in the US, there is never a shortage of artificial "demand" for wages, depressing the general market rate. Poor people don't have the luxury of sitting around en masse waiting out lower wages.

At the end of the day, you are simply passing on the costs to state and federal governments. $7.25 an hour simply means higher taxes to pay for food stamps, section 8, Medicaid, etc, which you ultimately end up footing the bill for anyway.

You have no evidence -- at least no concrete evidence -- that increased minimum wages hurt economies. Here are some real world minimum wage numbers, in US dollars, for countries most culturally similar to the US, all with lower unemployment rates:

Canada: $9.40
New Zealand: $11.26
Australia: $16.76 ”

“ Wrong, if the pay is too low they won'e accept the job! If someone is willing to do it for less then that is all the job is worth. I am a small business owner, I have 4 employees, all of whom I pay higher than the minimum wage because I want to and my employees are worth me paying them more. But if someone came along who could do the same job or better for less, then opting to hire them should be my choice.

As for countries where minimum wages are higher, there are numerous articles from economists validating the fact that higher minimum wages equates to more pay for fewer employees, especially on the lower end of the pay scale. WSJ, Forbes, and others, publications by and for people who actually understand business and the economy (as opposed to bleeding heart feel gooders) have written on this one extensively.

But hey, don't let annoying little things like facts get in the way. ”

“ So I take it manufacturing jobs are only "worth" $2.12 an hour being as that's what Foxconn employees who build your iphones "accept"? I don't think I have to bother expanding on this.

Telling me about "numerous articles" without any citations other than some vague reference to your favorite right-wing publications, is hardly evidence of anything. Conveniently ignoring actual real world examples of parallel cultures and economies with lower unemployment rates and significantly higher minimum wages, is called denial.

"Facts" are hardly your forte. ”

“ Actually, yes, exactly! If manufacturing is cheaper in China then instead of artificially raising the costs and then being unable to compete, we need to refocus on what we can and should excel in. Industries evolve, and those who still want to keep jobs that are now inefficient or obsolete are doomed to fail. The introduction of electricity killed entire industries while creating new ones. Replacing horse and carts with trains and cars did the same. High tech and robotics are doing it yet again. There will always be jobs at the lower end of the scale that cease to be of value and become marginalized. The solution is not to demand higher pay for jobs no longer worth those rates, but to focus on jobs higher up the ladder.

As for the articles, VIN won't let me paste links, but read Forbes article "The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Youth Unemployment", or the more recent WSJ article "Wage Debate Takes the Stage" for starters.

To #13, no, what pains me are individuals so poorly educated and so handicapped by a system that discourages them actually getting ahead that they have no choice but to take jobs that can be outsourced or replaced by machines. ”