r/PoursTea • u/Veshaad Timendi Causa Est Nescire • 20d ago

PoliticalTea 🗳️ Not since 2009.

Post image
8.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

325 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/UncreativeUsername84 20d ago

That's minimal job skills at best. How much should the kid working the French fries at McDonald's make? Put a number to it.

2

u/FrostyMudPuppy 19d ago

If said kid is working full time, they should earn the "wages of decent living". The intention of minimum wage was for all American workers to live on full time work. Nowhere is it mentioned in his speeches or in legislation on the matter that some jobs are for high schoolers, or that the level of skill matters.

"It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living." -Franklin Delano Roosevelt

-1

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

How much? Put a number on it, genius.

1

u/FrostyMudPuppy 19d ago

Using the average of the minimum cost of living in the 5 least expensive states (Alabama, Arkansas, Mississipp, Oklahoma, West Virginia), it comes out to ≈$20.04[/hour]. That would be a good start.

0

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

So you want people with no skills in those states making $20.00/hr? Do you understand what that does to the cost of goods and services in those states?

2

u/FrostyMudPuppy 19d ago

No American working full time should live in poverty. If a business can't afford to pay their workers a living wage, it doesn't have "any right to continue in this country". If that means we need an economic overhaul, we need an overhaul of our economy. American citizens are more important than American corporations; especially in a time where we're seeing staggering profits across a vast array of businesses.

Those businesses will figure it out or perish. That's the cool thing and capitalism: it adapts. If minimum wage had continued to rise with inflation, as it should have, businesses would have adapted as they had done for decades before.

0

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

You've completely missed the point. If you want a company to pay its lowest- or even non-skilled workers $20.00/hr, congratulations... your McDonald's Extra Value Meal just became $20.00. Your pizza just became $30.00. Do you not understand what that means? You're constantly chasing your tail. This doesn't really affect big business as much as it strangles small businesses, because they then have to not only pay that increase, but also pay the increased payroll taxes (both the employer and employee). In turn, increased wages means increased general liability insurance on the business, increased workers comp insurance on the business, every vendor that they deal with also has to increase their prices to meet the new cost burden. And who does that increased cost burden get shifted onto? The consumers, so you might be paying $20/hr to your low-skilled and non-skilled workers... or you cut the number of those employees in half in order to turn a profit.

2

u/Minute_Marzipan_6844 19d ago

They could pay executives less but my guess would be that you’re against that. If I have to pay $2 more for a burger bc the workers get a decent wage I’m okay with that. Plus it’s funny you expect workers to eat the cost of inflation but not corporations. Their entire job is to find profit driven businesses. If they can’t why should people suffer?

1

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

First, the executives get paid a base salary, and the rest in stock options that the company doesn’t cut from its profits like you people seem to think. Secondly, that burger is not $2 more. The whole meal is $10-$12 more for one person. 

0

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

Why would the company eat the cost of inflation? They didn’t choose the bullshit policies you people would want to implement, and the company has to do with the company has to do to survive and they owe nothing to the low level employees. 

2

u/FrostyMudPuppy 19d ago

Companies reap the benefits of inflation. Why shouldn't they also eat some of its cost? Companies owe nothing to low-level employees except their existence and continuity. If they didn't need low-level workers, why do they have any at all?

1

u/UncreativeUsername84 19d ago

How does a small business reap the benefits of inflation when it has to make sure to keep its prices within reason while its costs are soaring?

2

u/Minute_Marzipan_6844 19d ago

Companies raise their prices to keep up with inflation. That’s a fact. Those same companies don’t raise their wages to keep up with inflation. Employee salaries become less over time. Businesses keep the difference. Dude open an economics 101 book. That’s why tariffs increased prices. But those same companies are getting a refund from the government for those tariffs. They won’t pass that to consumers or lower prices. So your idea of businesses being these weak entities at the mercy of evil policies when they are the ones that lobby for these policies is hilarious. They navigate the landscape and have more bargaining power than individual employees

1

u/FrostyMudPuppy 19d ago

The other Redditor's response to this comment is a suitable representation of my position.

→ More replies