Minimum wage increased...feeling rich yet?
Sorry for the delay in posts, but I've had a lot going on lately and hope to be getting back to normal now. So, as is normal, here's my first complaint of the week.
This whole minimum wage issue on last year's ballot really took away from the faith I had in the people of this state.
These people who think that by increasing minimum wage you are going to bring home more money are just simply wrong.
For the few people in Missouri earning minimum wage, that is a few extra bucks. The vast majority of minimum wage jobs in this state are both part-time and held by young people who still live at home. Even Wal-Mart pays more than minimum wage to its full-time employees.
The problem is, when you raise minimum wage the companies have to make back that expense somewhere. Where? The products they sell.
You can't buy a value meal for under $5.50 in Dexter now and the prices changed at the beginning of the year when their cost for labor went up.
Here's my other issue. I make more than minimum wage, but I'm nowhere close to wealthy. I didn't get a $1.35 per hour wage increase, but I still have to pick up the increased cost because of minimum wage.
So, basically while you might have helped a few high schoolers make a little more money to burn on the weekends, those of us with families to care for who work long weeks get punished.
As a former boss told me once, raising minimum wage doesn't move PEOPLE farther up the economic ladder. It just raises the ladder. Those same people are still on the bottom rung.
The key is to make yourself as an employee worth more than minimum wage. Learn, study and educate yourself and make yourself worth more than minimum wage.
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I may not make minimum wage, but I have a family to feed and clothe, too. To people like me, a minimum wage increase is no different from a decrease in my pay.
Not to mention that fact that on minimum wage you can still qualify for welfare. Free food, free insurance, free money, discounted electricity and even cable. When you factor those things in, heck they're making more money already.
And I agree. I wish I was a Walton and not like John Boy. More like Sam, Jr. or something.
Our "Community Reflections" (used to be "Progress") edition of the NSC is coming out on August 29 (hopefully!), and I did a story on the CNA's (Certified Nurse Assistants) who work at the Advance Nursing Home. I really feel they fit this year's "Making a Difference" theme. They have to work so hard to make so little! I know I couldn't do what they do, and they get so little recognition or respect for it! It's truly a thankless job.
What we need to do is increase the work ethic of people at a younger age and that would work as an aid better than raising the minimum wage.
My other point is about working with jerks. Never ever quit a job because you work with (or for) some jerk. No matter where you work that same jerk will be there so don't let them dictate your life.
They'll always have a different name and look different, but they will always be that same jerk. He works at every job you will ever have. Don't let them dictate your life.