Save Social Security by Raising the Minimum Wage to $8

[G Edward Cook]

Save Social Security by Raising the Minimum
Wage!!

Raising the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $8.00 could not
only help millions of Americans but could save our Social Security.

I feel the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is immoral. A person
working forty hours per week, 52 weeks a year clears almost enough to
pay for medical insurance for his family. This is a disgrace! The
minimum wage hasn't gone up in years. We need to raise the minimum
wage to $8.00 per hour then raise it another 25 cents per hour each year
thereafter.


Raising the minimum wage to $8.00 would shore up Social Security
because of the added taxes paid to the Social Security Fund. This
amount would be more than you would think.

A worker earning the minimum wage of $8.00 would contribute an
extra $712.28 per year to the Social Security fund. The worker would
pay $364.14 and his employer would pay the same. The worker would
still clear an increase of over $100 per week in his paycheck.

The government is saying our Social Security Trust Fund will run out
in about forty years. I have estimated the extra money collected by all
the people working for minimum wage and the extra earned by those
earning less than $8.00 per hour over the next 40 years along with a very
modest interest would equal trillions dollars.

Please checkout my website GEdwardCook.com
My e-mail [e-mail]

Thanks for your support,
G Edward Cook

[Warpy]

1. Wages need to rise, that's true

but any increase in OASDI premiums from either a rise in wages or a rise in the percentage paid in or even a rise in the cap on taxable earnings will result in absolutely nothing but padding the general fund and giving a paper reduction to the Bush deficit.

The first step has got to be to get OASDI overpayments OUT of the general fund and back into a trust fund, a real one.

Then we can work on increasing wages (while instituting protectionism, which is the only way it will work) and removing the laughably low cap on earnings.

[Cleita]

2. Yes, you are so right.

Now we have to make them listen.

[Jayhawk Lib]

3. Very few pay minimum wage

There are very few places here in Kansas that pays only the minimum wage. The only ones that do are the small mom and pop operations which are not affected by the federal minimum wage laws.

I do not think that burger flippers and the like are quite up to $8.00 per hour but are not too far from it.

Any minimum wage law should be set by the states because of the disparity in the cost of living of the different states.

[G Edward Cook]

4. Forty Million

About eight million people in the USA make the minimum wage or very close to it. In Pennsylvania the minimum is $5.25. When you go to people making under $8.00 per hour the number swells to over forty million!

[NaturalHigh]

5. I'm all for raising the minimum wage...

but I don't know that it will save social security. Lifting the cap on the amount of income subject to the social security tax almost certainly would, though.

[tyedyeto]

6. Modest increases in minimum wage would help some...

but I do agree with you that raising the cap would have a greater impact on Social Security solvency. Said that to friends and colleagues a year or so ago when most were in the privatize camp. (I live in a very red area) No one wanted to even talk about that during that time. Perhaps it's time to bring the discussion back to the front-burner.

[NaturalHigh]

7. I'm in a VERY red area too...

but at least 75% of the people I know are against privatizing social security.

As for raising the cap, I can't understand how anyone could possibly argue against it. If I can pay the SS tax on all of my income (and still live comfortably), why can't Bill Gates?

[G Edward Cook]

8. YES! YES! YES!

I couldn't agree more!