$15 Minimum Wage proposal is arbitrary.

[Bread and Circus]

Shouldn't the candidates be proposing a formula based minimum wage (using local cost of living data) rather than a fixed $15 per hour wage?

Perosonally as a business owner I use a hybrid base pay revenue sharing model to compensate my employees.

The more we collect as a business the more bonus they get. That's my system and it encourages productivity and their bonus are substantial.

Point is fixed wages can be arbitrary and you need to base compensation on a variety of factors.

I don't see the candidates really adressing this.

$15 per hour in Seattle isn't the same thing as $15 per hour in a poor rural town.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. The challenge is to set the minimum wage as high as possible...

The challenge is to set the minimum wage as high as possible without causing more lost jobs than the increase in wages justify.

[Bread and Circus]

3. So then you agree there should be a formula instead of a number?

Would you peg it to local costs of living?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. I don't know...

I was trying to find the link...It was by a liberal economist and he said while raising the minimum wage is totally justified, raising it to $15.00 nationally puts us in uncharted territory.

Now we/I am picking arbitrary numbers...I would raise it to $12.00 nationally and states or localities can go higher if they desire.

I live in a rent controlled forty year old 450 square foot studio apartment in suburban Los Angeles. The rent is $1,258,00 a month. That same apartment would cost $600.00 a month in Vegas.

I am in favor of raising the minimum wage as high as possible without creating a net loss of jobs so great it dampers the gains by raising the minimum wage in the first place.

[Bread and Circus]

7. I agree and I own and rentout a 600 SQ ft apt for $410

$15 an hour in my area would be pretty good.

But lets say we did $15 nationwide... then what? We often have to wait many years for an increase to that.

With a formula it could go up and down from year to year depending on market factors.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. I don't know where you set it...

And then you will get some idiot conservative with a slippery slope argument that if you want to raise it to $12.00 an hour why not raise it to $25.00 an hour.

Raise it nationally, establish a floor, tie it to inflation or the median wage so it goes up automatically, and then let states or localities go higher.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Hopefully they'll be able to raise the minimum wage in Seattle so it will be

worth as much as in Selma or Little Rock.

[Fumesucker]

4. Indeed, in Seattle you have access to public transit and a wide array of government services

If you live in Flyover AR, then you will have to have a car to get anywhere at all beyond your own driveway because there aren't even any sidewalks and it's sixteen miles one way to the store anyway.

[LoveIsNow]

6. I agree that a localized formula would be best.

My question is would the Supreme Court be okay with it? That might be seen as an overreach into the domain of state and local governments.

Also, how would the formula be derived? Mightn't the formula itself ultimately be arbitrary?

I'm not saying no, just raising concerns that I have.

In an ideal world local governments would be responsive to the needs of their citizens, but that is obviously unrealistic.

[liberal_at_heart]

14. If it's anything like how they calculate the federal budget, deficit, or COLA for SS I don't trust

them to calculate a minimum wage formula. Multi-billion dollar corporations would lobby for a formula that would allow them to skew it in their favor.

[LoveIsNow]

15. You're very right.

And I stand corrected: the formula would in all likelihood be worse than arbitrary.

[Hydra]

8. We need a base number to start with

It should be higher than $15 in a lot of areas, but a lot of areas will only do what they are legally required to, and not a penny more. I happen to live in one of those states, and they are screaming for more workers everywhere I go... but refusing to pay more for them.

[Starry Messenger]

9. That's basically Clinton's position.

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/07/should-hillary-fear-the-15-minimum-wage-000180

"At the moment, she’s hedging her bets: she expressed support for New York’s plan to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 per hour, but is more cautious when it comes to the rest of the country. "What you can do in L.A. or in New York,” she said in New Hampshire recently, “may not work in other places."

She was criticized for this position by Sanders' supporters on DU:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251454450
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251454591

[Bread and Circus]

12. This is the kind of debate I wished they had at the debates. Instead it is a beauty pageant.

[Uncle Joe]

11. The minimum wage could be higher than that for high cost of living areas, but $15 an hour

and a 40 hour work week, works out to 31,200 a year, that would be a livable wage in most areas of the nation under Bernie's plan it won't top out until 2020.

As it is the minimum wage would be $21.72 if it had kept up with productivity and $10.52 an hour had it kept up with inflation.

The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a March study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. While advancements in technology have increased the amount of goods and services that can be produced in a set amount of time, wages have remained relatively flat, the study points out.

Even if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in the late 1960s, low-wage workers should be earning a minimum of $10.52 an hour, according to the study.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/minimum-wage-productivity_n_2680639.html

$15 an hour is slightly less than the middle of those two scenarios, the precise middle point being $16.12 an hour.

Thanks for the thread, Bread and Circus.

[Bread and Circus]

13. Yarr!

[JI7]

16. i think local and state govt can do that

But a national number is good to avoid cases like the republican govs opposed to health care.