ChetOS.net

The current minimum wage is $5.15.  They want to increase it to $7.25.  That is a 40% increase.

I wish I could vote myself a 40% increase in pay, which is to say, I wish I could vote myself into being 40% more valuable to my employer.

Also, while only 2% of all labors actually make minimum wage, when it is increased, it is going to scoop up everyone who makes up to 7.25.

How is this fair?  I don't know.  Consider this scenario:
Employee A starts working at Acme Hair Products 4 years ago at minimum wage, he is making 5.15.
He gets a promotion and a 10% raise every year, that is $.51, thus:
      Year 1: $5.66
      Year 2: $6.17
      Year 3: $6.68
      Year 4: $7.19
At the same moment that he reaches $7.19, two things happen.  1) Minimum wage goes up, 2) Employee B starts working at the same job that Employee A started at originally.

They both make $7.25, minimum wage.

Automatically, Employee A, with all his experience, is worth exactly the same as Employee B.

As employer, what do you do?  Do you give Employee A a 40% increase so that his "value" to the company increases at the same rate at which it was decreased (it was automatically cut by 40%).

If so, he now makes $10.15.

Or, do you "reset" his base to 7.25 and give him four $.51 raises?  That would give him only $9.29.

Now, 10.15 is only $.86 off from 9.29.  But what about all the other employees in the company... they should also have their relative "value" increased at the same rate.

Take an employee who makes $50,000/year.  That is $24.04/hour.  Increase that by 40% and you get $33.65/hour which is $70,000/year, $20,000 increase.

That is a pretty penny for the employer just because the government isn't happy with highschool students and unskilled labors making so little that they cannot buy iPods.

Maybe I am just too critical because I have never made minimum wage, nor do I know anyone who has.  Even Winn-Dixie (where I have worked) started their 15 year old baggers off at $.10 over minimum wage.  And all they did was goof around out in the parking lot.

My first job, doing Internet technical support, paid $7.15.  If this had happened while I worked there, I would have gotten moved up to $7.25, and I would have been paid the same as a bagger (not that there is anything wrong with bagging, I am just saying).

I have to throw in some Γρεεκ because it is φυν and I haven't had a chance to yet.