Over the last few months I have heard many thoughts and opinions on the issue of raising minimum wage to $15 an hour. I have several opinions on this subject. First off, I do not have an issue with people earning more money. It is not a bad thing to want to earn more money. There are several issues that I do have. Seattle is one of the first areas that has raised their minimum wage.
One of the effects of this is the debate over tipping servers. Here is a little bit of what is being reported on this issue. http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/07/13/seattle-minimum-wage-increase-ignites-tipping-debate/30113825/.
In New York a paramedic posted something in support of the increase. In that the paramedic made a point that businesses want us to fight and argue about a wage increase in hopes that it wouldn't happen. http://www.someecards.com/news/politics/paramedic-minimum-wage-fast-food-workers/.
Do I believe people should be able to make a decent living? Yes. I do not believe that a kid that is working at McDonalds in high school needs to make $15 an hour to ask me if I would like to get my order as a combo.
There are so many of these workers that absolutely have no clue what they are doing. You don't have a clue when you start working. People fresh out of college a lot of times only know what they have learned in their course of study. It has taken several years of experience AND a college degree to get where I am today.
I understand that it is impossible to live on the minimum wage of today without assistance. I get it but raising the minimum wage to $15 and hour is not going to make it any better. There are aspects of it that will be worse. If you know anyone that is in management in a fast food restaurant you may know that even they do not make the wages that workers are claiming they deserve.
I am only barely above the requested minimum wage amount and I have a degree. People don't realize that in the event the wages are mandated to be increased, business will raise prices and/or employ fewer people. Corporations are not going to give up their profits to pay people. Most corporate goals are to make as much money possible with the least amount of money. Seattle raised their minimum wage to $11 and it has already had an impact on their job market. There are fewer jobs available because restaurants are not able to pay more money without cutting labor costs. Here is an article that shows some of the effects of the increase. Read through more than the first few paragraphs. Restaurants are closing and that is just one of the effects.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/03/16/we-are-seeing-the-effects-of-seattles-15-an-hour-minimum-wage/
I know this isn't going to change the mindset that all these people deserve more money. I am sure that many of them do deserve it. Make an effort to better your life though. Don't just expect it to be handed to you. People that deserve more money are more than likely not people that cant understand what to do when your order comes to $4.76 and you hand them $5.01 that you get a quarter back. sometimes you can see the distress on employees faces when presented with this type of situation.
You don't have to have a college degree in order to make a decent living but you might have to be willing to take a job that is less than glamorous. I have worked in extreme conditions as well as disgusting, stressful jobs. At this point I have a great job in a field that I am very happy with. I was not satisfied many jobs before this one. I didn't make enough money to cover expenses. I received assistance for food and lived in metropolitan housing. I used the assistance while I was educating myself. That is a whole other story that I may go into another time.
For now, I have exhausted the thoughts that have been floating around in my head over this. I don't know how many will see this, but if you do, think about the whole picture. A lot of the response to the subject is based on emotion. Decisions based on emotions often do not have good results.
