Raising Min. Wage to $15

[Hondaracer]

Switzerlands minimum wage is roughly $30 CAD

Their society though has worked ways into it and their tax rates are crazy, but it's basicaly a utopia where there are absolutely no homeless, no graffiti, etc

Completely different demographics and population but they are definately a model of a society

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by 4444

U want more money, move to Alberta

Fixed.

[4444]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Switzerlands minimum wage is roughly $30 CAD

Their society though has worked ways into it and their tax rates are crazy, but it's basicaly a utopia where there are absolutely no homeless, no graffiti, etc

Completely different demographics and population but they are definately a model of a society

apples to oranges

[BoostedBB6]

Forget upping wages for people who are not willing to up there own standards to make more money.

How about more affordable education so people can better themselves to get jobs that pay more than minimum wage.

[GLOW]

don't raise min. wage, just get a job with translink

[Timpo]

Why are you guys complaining?

Poverty Line in Vancouver: $20.10/hr

You should make at least $20.10/h to live here | Vancouver 24 hrs

[Bouncing Bettys]

Youth unemployment numbers are sky high, the average age of children living with their parents past the age of 18 is up in the late 20's. I don't know about the rest of you, but the majority of people I encounter in customer service low-wage jobs are people in their late 20's and beyond. These people are working all the hours they can get its not a livable wage.

Meanwhile you have stories like this:

Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners(Canada was in the mid-100's if I recall)
Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners - Forbes

I'm not suggesting CEO's and such do not deserve larger earnings than many of their employees, but their earnings should be within reason. When minimum wages are increased, they often would rather increase the cost of living for everyone than reevaluate their earnings. Greed is a helluva drug. Hard-working people who put in 40+ hours a week should not live in poverty, should not have to get their groceries at a food bank, and should not be vilified for asking for a living wage while their bosses earn more money than they know what to do with it.

Simply increasing the minimum wage will only increase the cost of living until things like CEO pay is brought back to a more reasonable and societally responsible level.

[Hondaracer]

a CEO of a massive corp. probably assumes far more responsibility than 330 times the average worker though

but yea thats a little much

[Bouncing Bettys]

How often do we hear about companies performing horribly, laying off workers, cutting benefits, while awarding its heads massive bonuses?

[StylinRed]

Originally Posted by Timpo

Why are you guys complaining?

Poverty Line in Vancouver: $20.10/hr

You should make at least $20.10/h to live here | Vancouver 24 hrs

a living wage and minimum wage are completely different though
living wage campaigners are fighting for the minimum wage to = living wages

however there are government programs for those who don't make enough to make up for the difference if you will


perhaps a municipal level minimum wage should be considered but i can see that being highly problematic

[Alby]

i see it as this. if the minimum wage goes up, im pretty sure cost of living and other shit is going up along with it.

[MarkyMark]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

a CEO of a massive corp. probably assumes far more responsibility than 330 times the average worker though

but yea thats a little much

The distribution of wealth is a little fucked. Yeah being the head of a company is a huge responsibility, but when you're making more money during your morning shit break than one of your employees makes in a year then I think it's time to say "yeah maybe they make too much money".

All this talk of minimum wage, how about a maximum wage? How about after you make a certain absurd amount of money you get capped for the year...sounds outrageous doesn't it?

[7seven]

Raising minimum wage to $15 an hour, absolutely not, 100% against that. We should be reducing costs and hindrances to do business and providing more incentives to corporations and businesses to setup in BC and Canada if we really want to improve the job market.

I'm sick of all these people complaining that they can't make a living wage because they have 2-3 kids to support or can't find a better job with their BA degree. Those people have no accountability, who told them to have kids when they aren't financially ready for that responsibility. No one forced them to go to school for a general BA degree with not much of a career prospect.

IMO, the bottom line is, if you are worth more than minimum wage, your employer will happily pay you more than that to retain you. You want a better wage or career, be smart enough to specialize and choose an education or trade in a field where there is a need and demand. No "McJob" should be $15/hr.

[stewie]

Originally Posted by Alby

i see it as this. if the minimum wage goes up, im pretty sure cost of living and other shit is going up along with it.

along with unemployment, as all the small shops who will have to lay off employees because they cant afford to pay them that wage, only to have them run to mcdonalds and not get hired due to a thousand other kids applying there for 1-2 positions open. followed by another "hes a foreigner and was hired before i was!!!!"

[Bouncing Bettys]

The government would save a lot of money on social programs if people earned a living wage and didn't have to depend so much on these programs to get by. While companies would make more money if workers had money to spend. Many companies spend a lot of money to get governments to bend over backwards for them, find regulatory and tax loopholes, move profits offshore,etc so they can increase profits, often at the expense of society, the environment, etc.

[4444]

Originally Posted by Manic!

Fixed.

The whole Alberta thing is a bit of a fallacy.

[RRxtar]

Originally Posted by Bouncing Bettys

Youth unemployment numbers are sky high, the average age of children living with their parents past the age of 18 is up in the late 20's. I don't know about the rest of you, but the majority of people I encounter in customer service low-wage jobs are people in their late 20's and beyond. These people are working all the hours they can get its not a livable wage.

Meanwhile you have stories like this:

Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners(Canada was in the mid-100's if I recall)
Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners - Forbes

I'm not suggesting CEO's and such do not deserve larger earnings than many of their employees, but their earnings should be within reason. When minimum wages are increased, they often would rather increase the cost of living for everyone than reevaluate their earnings. Greed is a helluva drug. Hard-working people who put in 40+ hours a week should not live in poverty, should not have to get their groceries at a food bank, and should not be vilified for asking for a living wage while their bosses earn more money than they know what to do with it.

Simply increasing the minimum wage will only increase the cost of living until things like CEO pay is brought back to a more reasonable and societally responsible level.

Well in that case we should definitely add $5/hour to the minimum wage! That will surely close the disparity between minimum wage workers and CEO incomes!




or perhaps that is a conversation for not this thread

[StylinRed]

not really because 1 side of the argument is proposing continued repression of the minimum wage while bouncing is saying while this is going on management/upper management/ceo wages continue to rise and rise and rise but no one bats an eye because those calling for min to stay down are also the ones getting raises


anyway whether people like it or not minimum wage is going to rise and whether people like it or not its going to go as slow as possible

[Bahhbeehhaaaa]

For those who get minimum pay, they should think again. They won't want the $15, they rather keep their job.

[AAnthony]

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[123654123]

remember when mcdicks wage was $6/hr?

if the government really wants to help the people at the bottom how about lowering tuition fees so people don't think about the opportunity costs and the possible overwhelming debt so they don't decide to become a lifer at job.

and people have mentioned lowering taxes to promote spending. i would rather spend my money as i see fit and pump the economy/grow the community that way rather than have my income taxed like fck so it can assist the struggling community, which probably struggles cause said community is getting taxed like fck.

then again, taxes are a necessary evil to fund the nice things we have...but pretty sure it could be lower.

[SpeedStars]

Isn't this sort of like economics 101... Increasing minimum wage only causes inflation. Let's break it down...
>Jimbob, Dewbob, and Bob all work at mcdicks making $15 an hour.
>They all realize they have 45% extra dough to spend on merchandize that they may or may not need? They may end up buying 40% extra things.
>The increase in demand can only be rectified by an increase in price or an increase in supply. Which do you think the store would chose?
>BCFED implies stores will increase supply. But if stores demand more from a supplier, there may be price increases from the supplier
> PRICE INCREASES ALL OVER THE BOARD
---> tl;dr: raising minimum wage to $15 is pointless. Inflation is almost always the result

[- kT]

lol they just increased the minimum wage by $2 two years ago.. now people want a $5 increase? how about work a little harder to get up to a position where you aren't making minimum wage? not sure if srs

[jackmeister]

So a major factor in this is because we have skyrocketing house prices? Why do people feel it's their birthright to live in Vancouver and not in the suburbs?

Reminds me of one of my employees. He makes a livable wage but he's a single guy so he's only willing to pay 500/month max for housing. 20 years ago he rented a basement suite for 500 bucks/month in East Van, then moved to Burnaby for 500, then Coquitlam and now he lives Maple Ridge, drive 45 mins each day to work in Richmond, still 500 a month but now it's only a room with shared kitchen.

I don't see him bitching about a raise because now he can't afford the avg 1000 for a basement suite in East Van. I guess he's not like everyone else who feels entitled

[nabs]

Originally Posted by 123654123

remember when mcdicks wage was $6/hr?

if the government really wants to help the people at the bottom how about lowering tuition fees so people don't think about the opportunity costs and the possible overwhelming debt so they don't decide to become a lifer at job.

and people have mentioned lowering taxes to promote spending. i would rather spend my money as i see fit and pump the economy/grow the community that way rather than have my income taxed like fck so it can assist the struggling community, which probably struggles cause said community is getting taxed like fck.

then again, taxes are a necessary evil to fund the nice things we have...but pretty sure it could be lower.

thanked for agreement on lowering tuition, bottom line, people need affordable education for skills training. Train people, then pay them what they are worth.

I worked my ASS off at 14/hr starting off in construction when i was 17, then worked my ass of at 15.50 and was very thankful for it at age of 18. It was not easy at all for me to make. Getting dirty daily mixing cement, carrying heavy ass buckets full of cement up 2 storey ladders on scaffolding. Necessities cost almost the same as they did back then, maybe a dollar difference (other than fuel). Then at 18/hr I worked even harder. Taught me the value of money, taught me the value of my time, taught me that nothing comes easy, made me respect how hard my parents worked to give me a decent living.

Went to school because I wasn't satisfied working in construction, While going to school I worked part time at a retail job at the mall making 8.50/hr, probably the lowest rate I have ever made in my life BUT i compared it to how hard i worked making 14 - 18 dollars and felt it was justified.

People need to learn that they don't deserve 15/hr just because they live in Vancouver, they need to find a way to earn 15/hr because they work for it. I remember how hard it was for me, not saying it should be just as hard for them, but it should sure as hell be justified.

If you have a skill, yeah you should be paid according to the rate scale associated with the skill depending on your experience. But way the hell no to someone with a McJob should be making more than I made slinging 5 gallon buckets of cement when I was their age, I still even think 10/hr or whatever the min is right now is a lot.

/rant