California Governor Jerry Brown signs bill that will increase minimum wage to $15/hour by 2022 - Polidicks

[QUOTE=apierce1289;50071834]I hear that I'd rather deal with a computer than a person that doesn't even care about the job they're doing. That attitude they give you and stuff like that is so immature and stupid. Not everyone does it but seriously if you can't do your job with a smile on your face find something else. It's doing shitty jobs that motivated me to go to college and that's why I think low paying jobs serve a purpose. If someone fails to even want to improve their own life then why is it some corporate business's job to make sure they skate through life with no problems on minimum wage? You should be able to make enough to live on minimum wage but that's it in my opinion. You shouldn't be able to live like a king on minimum wage. If you want to do that then you need to figure out how to get more than minimum wage skills via school. You need to have a passion and love what you do to be successful.[/QUOTE] Nobody is saying that minimum wage employees need to live like kings. Also, minimum wage employees are a fact of life. Not everyone can get into higher paying jobs, even if they all worked equally hard at it. Furthermore, in this country, the unfortunate truth is that knowing the right people is more important than your actual skills. See: every The Daily WTF story involving a boss hiring a nephew for an IT job because 'he helped with that one computer related thing one time, so he's obviously a computer GENIUS and knows better than everyone else!'. Hell, a friend of mine landed an IT job because he mentioned to the interviewer that he helped Stan Lee do something with his Mac (which is true, btw).

[QUOTE=kyle877;50071921]Yeah, I'm actually quite familiar with how much our military gets paid, and what they get other than wage. More than you think. Please though, try and justify those benefits for underpaying people that live and die for the country. Edit: Yeah, and that's pretty cool, but what about the people that don't want to make a life-long career out of that? Fuck them?[/QUOTE] My friend who is in the military himself may speak about this but I'll simply throw in my few cents. Most soldiers are not active deployment combat service, most like my friend are reserves or non-combatants. A lot of guys in the army are just goofing around doing their office jobs and jerking off with nothing to do. While their pay is low, their every need is taken care of. Food in bellies, soap on skin, bed to rest. Its easy to save up money or spend it on stupid shit. They get all kinds of benefits for the rest of their lives like a lot if not all, of their college loans paid for. You want to know what combat deployments get? Hazard pay. I respect the military but don't be a chest-thumper about it. The guys stuck in a warzone are not the majority and they get their bonuses. Most military service involves very little to no action. This is real life, not a video-game.

[QUOTE=doommarine23;50071964]My friend who is in the military himself may speak about this but I'll simply throw in my few cents. Most soldiers are not active deployment combat service, most like my friend are reserves or non-combatants. A lot of guys in the army are just goofing around doing their office jobs and jerking off with nothing to do. While their pay is low, their every need is taken care of. Food in bellies, soap on skin, bed to rest. Its easy to save up money or spend it on stupid shit. They get all kinds of benefits for the rest of their lives like a lot if not all, of their college loans paid for. You want to know what combat deployments get? Hazard pay. I respect the military but don't be a chest-thumper about it. The guys stuck in a warzone are not the majority and they get their bonuses. Most military service involves very little to no action. This is real life, not a video-game.[/QUOTE] You nailed it better than what I would've said. He's right, I've told him basically what he wrote down. I don't do shit but jerk off and say my life sucks because I'm stuck in Korea but I get a very comfy pay while I get all my utilities and food taken care of for me while I just do what I did before I joined the US Army. I've saved over 5000 dollars within a year, while a typical civilian working a minimum wage can barely scrounge up 2000 dollars within the same timeframe as I.

[QUOTE=sgman91;50071942]~2% of the working population works at minimum wage and is over the age of 25, and that includes tipped workers who end up making far more than the minimum. ([URL]http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/characteristics-of-minimum-wage-workers-2014.pdf[/URL])[/QUOTE] Thats a very misleading way to frame that however. Making over the minimum wages varies state to state and some have quite low minimums. Making over those amounts can mean various different things like the difference between poverty and not.

[QUOTE=doommarine23;50071964]My friend who is in the military himself may speak about this but I'll simply throw in my few cents. Most soldiers are not active deployment combat service, most like my friend are reserves or non-combatants. A lot of guys in the army are just goofing around doing their office jobs and jerking off with nothing to do. While their pay is low, their every need is taken care of. Food in bellies, soap on skin, bed to rest. Its easy to save up money or spend it on stupid shit. They get all kinds of benefits for the rest of their lives like a lot if not all, of their college loans paid for. You want to know what combat deployments get? Hazard pay. I respect the military but don't be a chest-thumper about it. The guys stuck in a warzone are not the majority and they get their bonuses. Most military service involves very little to no action. This is real life, not a video-game.[/QUOTE] You're right, and I'm not gonna argue that some of the benefits are great, but I still think the pay is way lower than it should be. Even with hazard pay. Edit: [QUOTE=MastaChief34;50071971]You nailed it better than what I would've said. He's right, I've told him basically what he wrote down. I don't do shit but jerk off and say my life sucks because I'm stuck in Korea but I get a very comfy pay while I get all my utilities and food taken care of for me while I just do what I did before I joined the US Army. I've saved over 5000 dollars within a year, while a typical civilian working a minimum wage can barely scrounge up 2000 dollars within the same timeframe as I.[/QUOTE] See, that sounds nice. I kinda got fucked on my end, so I guess a lot of this is just personal bitterness.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;50071976]Thats a very misleading way to frame that however. Making over the minimum wages varies state to state and some have quite low minimums. Making over those amounts can mean various different things like the difference between poverty and not.[/QUOTE] Sure, but to say that the current minimum "resigns" people to poverty isn't any better. The VAST majority of people work a minimum wage job as either a stepping stone to a better job or a first job as a kid in school. The people who work a minimum wage job past the age of 25 generally have some inherent issue like not speaking very good english, not being responsible enough to hold a job down, or having a bad criminal record; or they are a second income in the home and don't need to make very much money. The number of people who are in poverty because they just can't get a job better than minimum wage while also not having any other big issue is so tiny as to be irrelevant.

[QUOTE=sgman91;50071990]Sure, but to say that the current minimum "resigns" people to poverty isn't any better. The VAST majority of people work a minimum wage job as either a stepping stone to a better job or a first job as a kid in school. The people who work a minimum wage job past the age of 25 generally have some inherent issue like not speaking very good english, not being responsible enough to hold a job down, or having a bad criminal record; or they are a second income in the home and don't need to make very much money. The number of people who are in poverty because they just can't get a job better than minimum wage while also not having any other big issue is so tiny as to be irrelevant.[/QUOTE] Have you ever worked at a minimum wage job? I've met MANY hard working middle aged white English speaking folks who have been working minimum wage all their life. If you ask me, most people who work minimum wage are those who never had opportunities like others did. Maybe they didn't have parents that could put them through college or let them borrow a car to get to an interview. It's gross that you have this mindset that the vast majority of minimum wage workers are kids or stepping stone jobs, because most minimum wage jobs are actually lifelong careers for millions of Americans.

[QUOTE=cody8295;50073903]Have you ever worked at a minimum wage job? I've met MANY hard working middle aged white English speaking folks who have been working minimum wage all their life. If you ask me, most people who work minimum wage are those who never had opportunities like others did. Maybe they didn't have parents that could put them through college or let them borrow a car to get to an interview. It's gross that you have this mindset that the vast majority of minimum wage workers are kids or stepping stone jobs, because most minimum wage jobs are actually lifelong careers for millions of Americans.[/QUOTE] Yes, I've worked 2 separate minimum wage jobs. Everyone working at the minimum (not managers) were kids and/or Hispanic people who didn't speak very good English. Your final statement is just factually wrong based on the stats.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50069353]If you can't produce labour worth $15 an hour maybe you shouldn't be in employment to begin with.[/QUOTE] said the 19th century factory owner to the fucking children

[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;50074016]said the 19th century factory owner to the fucking children[/QUOTE] See my later post for a more detailed explanation of my viewpoint.

[QUOTE=sgman91;50073990]Yes, I've worked 2 separate minimum wage jobs. Everyone working at the minimum (not managers) were kids and/or Hispanic people who didn't speak very good English. Your final statement is just factually wrong based on the stats.[/QUOTE] Do you have a source that claims the 'vast majority' of minimum wage workers are kids and non-english speakers? Most minimum wage workers I've worked with are middle aged white folks who have worked for minimum wage their entire lives.

[QUOTE=cody8295;50075393]Do you have a source that claims the 'vast majority' of minimum wage workers are kids and non-english speakers? Most minimum wage workers I've worked with are middle aged white folks who have worked for minimum wage their entire lives.[/QUOTE] Sadly, comprehensive stats about individual state or city level minimum wages doesn't seem to exist, but when looking at the federal minimum we find that 3% of workers over the age of 25 are making the minimum. So I tried to find some studies on wage mobility of people working minimum wage. I found a couple: 1) The first states "Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the authors examine the earnings mobility of workers employed at the minimum wage. Results indicate that over 60% of workers who were earning the minimum wage in the mid-1980s were earning higher wages one year later; for those with gains, the typical rise was nearly 20%. A significant minority of workers, however - most of them lacking a high school diploma or working on a part-time basis - did not advance beyond the minimum wage between the two survey dates." ([URL]http://www.jstor.org/stable/2524739?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents[/URL]) So the majority of people who didn't see regular increases in wages were those without a high school diploma or those not working full time. It would also make a lot of sense that other low skill or high risk employees that I listed previously would also fall into that category. 2) The second study I found was a bit more recent, and it showed a continual increase in wages for full time workers categorized as "low-income" (making less than $18,000 a year for 3 continuous years). In 5 years their average income had gone from ~$14,000 a year to ~$23,00 (~$31,200 in today's money) a year. It also interestingly shows that those working full time at the beginning of the study generally continued working full time, those not working at all at the start continued not working, and those who started working part time split almost evenly into all three categories after the 6 years. ([URL]http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/07/art4full.pdf[/URL]) My conclusion is that a good education is the ideal way to get out of poverty, but continually working a full-time job will also do the trick if you stick with it. So it's extremely unlikely for a person without any real employment issues working for a long time at the minimum wage.