Something occurred to me as I was reading this - the argument about cost of living. The example given quotes rental rates. They're on a supply and demand basis too - and often landlords can (and do) raise rents more to line their pockets than to cover their expenses and make a modest profit (let's face it, no landlord does it to break even). It becomes a vicious cycle - landlords work out that their tenants are earning more, so they up their rent to take more from them, pushing out potential new renters, who need to demand a higher living wage to have somewhere affordable to live. The system is broken all the way through. And the argument that this will break other small businesses - it is a cost of doing business to pay your staff sufficiently. That may mean raising your prices, or it may mean your business is no longer viable. But to keep paying a pittance just to keep your business going should never be an option.

The GOP has a simple solution: Just cut all financial support to poor people so they have no other option than to work as an underpaid wage slave. That's how you fix the economy.... Remember this when you're voting in 2024.

Them: "It was never supposed to be a living wage!" FDR when he established Federal Minimum Wage: "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...and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level. I mean the wages of decent living."

I love the people saying EVERYTHING will go up with prices. People were being exploited and things were going up anyways while people were earning the same. Since 2009 or so? That's not right. $7.25 per hour is nothing close to trying to live on it. That's the problem. For years people worked on the same wage while cost of living was and still is going up. Wages should keep up with raising prices of living.

UGGGGHHH the people saying "get a skill set and a better job!!!" are hurting my brain. PEOPLE ARE DOING THIS. So there is a shortage of low-wage workers. So now what, Einstein?! F*****g ay, why are people against other people living decently? Not rolling in cash, just DECENTLY. If you don't want your fellow humans to thrive you're a monster.

1. The people talking about 'getting an education' sound a bit silly - a nurse is an example of a job that requires qualifications and long unsociable hours but doesn't pay much, same with being a car mechanic. We can't all be CEOs/tech workers or investment bankers. This is before we even get to the point that not everyone is capable of doing a degree (either because of financial implications or simply aptitude). Do these people not deserve a living? 2. The roofing company argument only makes sense if we knew what the owner makes in relation to his workers. If he takes home 150k while the workers get paid peanuts, then he can afford to pay the 5 workers 10k more and still take 100k home. Different if he's barely breaking even and genuinely can't afford to pay his workers...

People are so dramatic. "Enjoy your $20 Big Mac meal" is not an effective counterpoint, it just shows there's yet another person who isn't interested in facts and data.

Conservatives: "we hate the liberal elite and their stupid college educations". Also conservatives: "gO To sChoOL"

Another thing, when your wages increases, food stamps decrease and income based rent increases.

Denis Tymulis comes off like a shitbag for including all that anti-living-wage bullshît at the end there. Why include obviously wrong talking points? So you can “both sides” something that doesn’t have two sides! FOH

Complaining about the inability to fill empty positions in your company because people make more on unemployment is an interesting way to admit that your company pays poverty wages...

This is excellent, I'm a health care aide and my wages are really low

The problem with jacking up wages this high, in one go, is that companies are going to jack up prices on everything to compensate...........so you aren't any better off than you were making the previous wages. This country is already seeing prices jacked up to ridiculous amounts as it is. In order for people to actually MAKE more money, the government would have to put a 5 year price freeze on EVERYTHING in this country!

fastfood is a career path, where do you think their managers, general managers, regional mangers, etc come from?? in some area, those also the only jobs available.

crazy that you dont want people paid better because they didn't go to uni or some dumb sh1t , get a fkn grip , they still do 40+ hours a week and have to deal with jerks , like the ones above

The movement should demand a LIVING wage, not a number. Greedy corporations want to seem like they're "with the people" by raising the wage, and then they raise costs, and everything else goes up, and we're right back where we started. The goal should be that if you're working, you should be able to pay your bills and provide for your family. Period.

I hope for every $1 they increase wages, they make it 5x easier to fire slackers. You want the money, earn it.

I ran a small business and did most of it myself until I could afford to hire. Work your way up isn't an employee responsibility it is also the employers responsibility to build their business to AFFORD employees

I get it, when fast food boomed in the 70's it was mostly teenagers working part time jobs for spending money so who cared if they made $2.75 per hour? Now, it isn't teenagers working part time for spending money. They are adults with families and they are working 2 and 3 jobs to pay their bills. It isn't right. Pay people a living wage for working.

We all need above livable wages and not rely on tips. But, we don't have a good system to do it without inflation, so I think this could backfire. When my state raised several dollars (we have higher paying min wage than most states) mom and pops had to lower hours on the employee so take home was the same. Costs went up to pay for this raise.

I saw a place yesterday whose help wanted sign proclaimed "competitive wages." Competitive with what, or with whom? Are all the other employers in town competing to see how low they can keep wages?

The employers will pay it because its a cost they have to bear until self-service ordering kiosks and robot line chiefs are brought online (and you better believe those are on the drawing board), and the customers will pay for it because they/we won't/can't give up the convenience of immediately available meals. But even if higher wages resolve the labor shortage, the housing shortage will still eat up any wage increase. The suburbs are not legally zoned and built with the high-density housing and transportation infrastructure to sustain the workforce that makes life livable for the more affluent suburbanites whose money comes from outside those suburbs.

So let me get this straight: McDonald's is FINALLY raising its salary, not just to the proposed $15/hr minimum wage people have been asking for, but OVER that to $16.50/hr, and this guy's first response is basically "Well, it's not as high as it should be or could be, but it's headed in the right direction!" Really? So, as soon as they give people what they're asking for (and not just that, but 10% over what people asked for) the first thing we're going to do is "Sorry, not good enough. We want more!"? How about give it a little time to encourage more businesses to do this before we start complaining that what we ASKED FOR isn't good enough.