4 ms·

I swear, most of this is PR. How about these mega rich people give their average worker a pay raise? Nope, even though that is within their power, they don't. B

I swear, most of this is PR. How about these mega rich people give their average worker a pay raise? Nope, even though that is within their power, they don't. But...instead they petition the public to do something not within their power. Come on. This is all PR. I wish all the mega rich would just DO something instead of these endless PR 'battles'.

andrewflnr 11y ago
In most companies currently offering minimum wage, raising wages to $15/hr without changing anything else would wreck the company immediately. They would likely have to do some combination of firing people who can't do $15/hr worth of work and raising prices and hope they still have a market after that. So no, it's not so easily "in their power". Further, a lot of companies aren't run by the "mega rich", but by regular people who are just trying to get by. These are not people you want to screw over.
- lumberjack 11y ago
  >In most companies currently offering minimum wage, raising wages to $15/hr without changing anything else would wreck the company immediately. In 2015 and with some data from IRS one could estimate the actual and not just speculative impact of raising the minimum wage. One could know exactly how many jobs will be lost and one does not need to speculate any more. Once one knows the exact impact it's easy to make the decision of exactly what the optimal minimum wage should be. Also, you seem to be alluding to small enterprises paying minimum wage. I highly doubt that. Small shops can exist only if they are doing something that is highly specialized/technical as the big competitors devour the rest of the general market. As such their employees are highly skilled and don't get paid minimum wage.
- heimatau 11y ago
  "So no, it's not so easily 'in their power'." Actually, it is. Not the utopia of minimum wage to 15hr. Let's do some quick numbers. 50 weeks a year, 35 hours a week. Equals 1,750 hours per year. Employers raise an employee pay by $1 an hour. Hmm. That's greater than most get from EITC. $3.5 an hour raise, and that's greater than ALL EITC recipients. Also, managers and top managers don't need their lofty salaries. That could change. Finally, I'd never propose an immediate change. There would be a lot of business structural change to rebuild the middle class. There are other ways to redistribute the money in a more fair way, than what is currently being done.

andrewflnr 11y ago

In most companies currently offering minimum wage, raising wages to $15/hr without changing anything else would wreck the company immediately. They would likely have to do some combination of firing people who can't do $15/hr worth of work and raising prices and hope they still have a market after that. So no, it's not so easily "in their power". Further, a lot of companies aren't run by the "mega rich", but by regular people who are just trying to get by. These are not people you want to screw over.

lumberjack 11y ago
>In most companies currently offering minimum wage, raising wages to $15/hr without changing anything else would wreck the company immediately. In 2015 and with some data from IRS one could estimate the actual and not just speculative impact of raising the minimum wage. One could know exactly how many jobs will be lost and one does not need to speculate any more. Once one knows the exact impact it's easy to make the decision of exactly what the optimal minimum wage should be. Also, you seem to be alluding to small enterprises paying minimum wage. I highly doubt that. Small shops can exist only if they are doing something that is highly specialized/technical as the big competitors devour the rest of the general market. As such their employees are highly skilled and don't get paid minimum wage.
heimatau 11y ago
"So no, it's not so easily 'in their power'." Actually, it is. Not the utopia of minimum wage to 15hr. Let's do some quick numbers. 50 weeks a year, 35 hours a week. Equals 1,750 hours per year. Employers raise an employee pay by $1 an hour. Hmm. That's greater than most get from EITC. $3.5 an hour raise, and that's greater than ALL EITC recipients. Also, managers and top managers don't need their lofty salaries. That could change. Finally, I'd never propose an immediate change. There would be a lot of business structural change to rebuild the middle class. There are other ways to redistribute the money in a more fair way, than what is currently being done.