Quote:
Originally Posted by 92bDad
To think, back when I started working hourly jobs, the minimum wage was $3.35 per hour.
I still laugh when I remember how much I was making a week and where I spent the money. Concerts, Parties...you know the typical High-School stuff.
After HS, I ran off to the military...where I really made Minimum Wage...trust me, you work more than 40 hours a week and when you calculate the hourly rate...$3.35 was freaking HUGE!!!
Look I empathize with those who rely on this for a living...the issue I have with it is seeing those who are grabbing part-time/summer/after school jobs just to have spending cash. MY KIDS INCLUDED. Why should they get $7.25 an hour?
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Because due to the inflation that's occurred in the last 25 years (and, as alexamenos pointed out, minimum wage laws are not the primary cause of inflation), there's not a whole lot of difference between $3.35 then and $7.25 now?
In 1981, when $3.35 was set as the minimum wage, its purchasing power was equivalent to what $7.55 is now (
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/).
I don't think minimum wage is necessarily the best solution to the problem. When corporations make profits, the executives reap the rewards. When corporations have to take hits, the workers take that hit. I think without a minimum wage of some kind, you'd simply see everyone who works part time getting paid dirt. I get paid minimum wage right now and can barely make my rent, because I'm limited in how much I can work. The increase that I'll now get will mean that I'll now be able to pay for utilities, as well, without borrowing from my parents, which is something I don't want to have to do.
I think minimum wage should be tied to the CPI so we don't see these huge jumps. But of course, I'd prefer a GMI, so what do I know.