by darthfader 16 Replies latest social current
I think the answer is pretty simple in the Walmart issue.. Just stop shopping there - the problem will correct itself.
But no, we are a cheap and greedy society that want to lowest price no matter.
Funny thing, we got this well written letter of resignation just a few days ago. this employee will be sorely missed. This note was shoved under the door with the key to our shop....
Minimum wage in Ontario is currently $10.25 per hour, but the cost of living is high in Toronto. I've seen bachelor apartments going for $1400 a month. Working for minimum wage here would cover renting a dump, bus fare, and an unhealthy diet. Forget about having a car, cable, internet, or a vacation once in a while.
W
Mr small business owner, who pays for the IRS earned income tax credit for your minimum wage workers? Well, not you.
Where does that $3000 check come from? Why, from the middle and upper class taxpayers. It's time for business to pay the actual cost of it's workforce and stop getting a backdoor wage subsidy, via the earned income tax credit, which is an oxymoron, as these people don't pay any income taxes at all. With a wage of $10, the earned income tax credit could be abolished and these workers might actually begin paying some income taxes.
I hate to say it but there are too many people that are just not worth 10 an hour.
My wife and I watch undercover CEO quite often and what amazes me is that these CEO's, almost all universally suck at doing manual work- packing a box full of party favors and make rate?- nope can't even come close- work in the shipping department and load a truck on time?- nope that's too hard- you have to sweat on that job. Yes, these CEO's are wimps when it comes to the work that keeps a business, in business. Maybe they aren't worth $1000/hr for the work they do either.
Moshe, its easy to prove the EIC is a scam if you run the numbers. If you figure a wage of ten dollars an hour that comes out to around 20K a year. For a married couple with one child and that income the EIC is $3000, which is the amount of social security paid by the worker and his employer. In other words they are getting their own money back.
So yes, the employer is paying it since he is the source of both of those payments.
The scam worked fine until a few years ago when the FICA tax collections dropped below the money being paid out. Every year the government spent all the surplus FICA tax money collected from the big tax increase 25 years ago and issued Treasury IOU bonds to the SS Trust fund. Our economy has been propped up by FICA tax money and the day to pay the piper has finally come.
The minimum wage has not paid for the real cost of their labor and the cost of the health care for minimum wage workers has also been offloaded to the general taxpayers.
The thing that bothers me about minimum wage going up is that it may raise the wages for those working at low wages, but it does nothing for those that may be working at just above minimum, or higher.
An example is the last time that they raised minimum to $7.25. My wife was hired at $7.25 per hour before the minimum wage was raised to that. She worked for 3 or 4 years at that rate. Then the minimum wage got changed. Now she works for minimum wage. No raise. No raise in sight, either.
The only way that she'll get a raise is when the minimum wage is raised again, and she'll get swept along with all of those other people making minimum wage.
Eventually, if it gets high enough, I'll be making minimum wage, too. That may take a while, but since the company that I work for does not give raises, it can happen.
