Seattle City Council Approves $15/hour Minimum Wage

[Polaris]

I do not think $15 a hour is going to make kids drop out of high school.

Seattle can be an expensive area of living. Cost of living has gone up due many factors.

USA is the most over worked country with the least amount of pay.

Mexicans work more hours (I think the average is 80 hours a week) and don't receive anywhere near the amount of pay.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, but.......they work in the US....kidding...kidding.

[Minimalist]

Not according to this recent study.

http://20somethingfinance.com/american-h...-vacation/

Zero industrialized nations are without a mandatory option for new parents to take parental leave. That is, except for the United States.

Looks like we are #1 in something. The knuckledraggers will be happy.

[Clueless Morgan]

The whole minimum wage discussion depresses me.

I went to college to get a degree in my field (architecture), incurred the debt associated with attaining that degree (but luckily not 5 years worth of debt), only to enter the work force to find out that the financial compensation I would receive for the bare minimum I had to do to get into my field of work (a field widely misunderstood as one that pays very well) barely ranks above the proposed new minimum wage.

I'm incredibly thankful that my folks let me live at home while I was adamantly paid off my debts because I would not be able to afford rent, food and loan payments on the salary I make.

Add on top of it that I have to pay out of pocket to take all of my AREs (Architectural Registration exams: 7 exams at $210 a pop, assuming you don't cancel (exam fees are non-refundable), reschedule (which costs $60-80) or fail a test and have to retake it, for a total of around $1500) which I would not be reimbursed for until after I pass all 7. I technically could start taking them but I can't afford it, and won't be able to afford it for years at this point, and that's if I start saving for them right now. In addition to the yearly fee I have to pay to maintain my NCARB record.

It makes me wonder about whether, if this new minimum wage was nationally instituted, companies like mine would restructure their financial compensation plans, or whether I would have been better off not going to college and getting a job at Target or something instead. I would be miserable doing a job I don't care about, but I wouldn't have to incur all these other costs.

[Whateverist]

I am convinced that the lowest allowable wage should be a living wage. Permitting anyone to hire for less is agreeing to have tax payers subsidize the cheap bastards. If the minimum wage was a living wage perhaps it would shame any architect firm into paying more than that.

Hell other countries don't even bother making a living wage a condition of working at all. Permitting a situation where so many people live in poverty is creating conditions ripe for crime and social unrest. Sometimes I wish we weren't such an exceptional sucky country.

[Minimalist]

Right. This is another way whereby American taxpayers subsidize greedy corporations.

The republicunts are always whining that 47% of the population pays no income tax. The reason for that, you hypocritical shitheads, is that you don't pay them enough to even owe taxes.

[The Grand Nudger]

-and then we insist on giving tax breaks to the sector in which all the wealth is concentrated (complementing their ability to shelter their assets in the first place), ignoring that this is exactly where the shortfall originates, and wouldn't, if your average joe had a big enough slice to pay taxes.

Financial ouroboros.

Perhaps we ought to start printing a new seal on the dollar bill.

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[Minimalist]

we insist on giving tax breaks

We? No. THEY insist...because they own the congressmen and the courts.

[The Grand Nudger]

The royal we, Min..the royal we.

[Minimalist]