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In early 1999, I gave this talk “What Is a Low Wage Workplace?” and the work environment that came along made me think twice before I took a job other than minimum wage. Thats when I started looking for a minimum wage at first. What other options does a minimum wage provide than minimum wage jobs, and how was this achieved in the first place? We asked three of the most important questions. When have you and your partner worked a minimum wage for more than two years? Are you on a low wage? Are your children or a child on temporary public service? Are you employed by different businesses for two years after you start your work? Are there employers where you don’t work? All three asked if the work environment was the best. This was the first time that my questions were asked in public. For most of my 30 years of work I never ever even thought about a minimum wage at all. I went from a job at a minimum wage to working on minimum wage for two hours. Now I am back at work. If some time in the future we can work something out on an open table, I plan on working with those of us who actually work with minimum wage at some point in the future. This is a great opportunity to do that for many years to come. I am now actively looking for jobs and other businesses with a living wage. If you would like to submit an offer please write to:
Polls in New Hampshire show that if you were a working man, you would be making at least 30% more than your coworkers. In fact, you might be earning the most per hour for the duration of the night. In high schools the minimum wage is around $2.50 and in middle schools you are earning just less than $2.50 a hour. In low schools the wage is around 25% lower than the $2.50 paid to their families.
The reason that minimum wage is a problem for low level earners in New Hampshire is because they will pay less or not at all while working. It is a problem for the middle class. The New Hampshire minimum wage is $2.50 as compared to $1.25 in California and $1.25 in New York City.
This is not just me. When we are talking about increasing the minimum wage we are not talking about people making more money, or being able to get a job. We are only talking about those who are not rich. And we are talking about the middle class and how to raise wages, not about lower wage workers. We are talking about what a poor person can afford. We are living in a society that works classless, but it should not discourage a work a poor person could afford. I believe that if we don’t allow working people to get ahead in the economy, well, let that sink in for a while and hope and dreams become reality for working people in New Hampshire with the future ahead.
The following article explores the minimum wage and how it affects low wage workers nationwide.
Minimum wage increases
Low wage workers living off of the minimum wage are the most vulnerable and underpaid in the country. With workers making less than $2 a day it is even more difficult for minimum wage workers to get by with decent pay.
On the job market the minimum wage is a problem across the nation, but it is not the only problem. An estimated 1 in 6 New Hampshire workers have worked part-time in recent years with minimum wage for part-time work. These workers are often on paid sick leave, paid sick leave, and paid vacation, not to mention living in “hospice homes”; they are also employed in the “pursuit business.” The minimum wage is not the only obstacle that needs to be addressed.
Minimum wage workers in New Hampshire should understand that their jobs will pay much more if they get a full-time job than they would otherwise if they used up all their meager income and did not have access to the minimum wage.
On the job market the minimum wage increases are a problem for an increasing number of low wage workers and a small minority; most who are in the working poor. It increases the likelihood that a family with two children will be left poor at a minimum wage and is a negative social and economic effect in the society. Most “preparatory” work is required by the law to ensure a parent can pay for their children’s schooling and health care costs.
How low the minimum wage affects workers in New Hampshire does not matter. Under state law there is an 18 percent
Polls in New Hampshire show that if you were a working man, you would be making at least 30% more than your coworkers. In fact, you might be earning the most per hour for the duration of the night. In high schools the minimum wage is around $2.50 and in middle schools you are earning just less than $2.50 a hour. In low schools the wage is around 25% lower than the $2.50 paid to their families.
The reason that minimum wage is a problem for low level earners in New Hampshire is because they will pay less or not at all while working. It is a problem for the middle class. The New Hampshire minimum wage is $2.50 as compared to $1.25 in California and $1.25 in New York City.
This is not just me. When we are talking about increasing the minimum wage we are not talking about people making more money, or being able to get a job. We are only talking about those who are not rich. And we are talking about the middle class and how to raise wages, not about lower wage workers. We are talking about what a poor person can afford. We are living in a society that works classless, but it should not discourage a work a poor person could afford. I believe that if we don’t allow working people to get ahead in the economy, well, let that sink in for a while and hope and dreams become reality for working people in New Hampshire with the future ahead.
The following article explores the minimum wage and how it affects low wage workers nationwide.
Minimum wage increases
Low wage workers living off of the minimum wage are the most vulnerable and underpaid in the country. With workers making less than $2 a day it is even more difficult for minimum wage workers to get by with decent pay.
On the job market the minimum wage is a problem across the nation, but it is not the only problem. An estimated 1 in 6 New Hampshire workers have worked part-time in recent years with minimum wage for part-time work. These workers are often on paid sick leave, paid sick leave, and paid vacation, not to mention living in “hospice homes”; they are also employed in the “pursuit business.” The minimum wage is not the only obstacle that needs to be addressed.
Minimum wage workers in New Hampshire should understand that their jobs will pay much more if they get a full-time job than they would otherwise if they used up all their meager income and did not have access to the minimum wage.
On the job market the minimum wage increases are a problem for an increasing number of low wage workers and a small minority; most who are in the working poor. It increases the likelihood that a family with two children will be left poor at a minimum wage and is a negative social and economic effect in the society. Most “preparatory” work is required by the law to ensure a parent can pay for their children’s schooling and health care costs.
How low the minimum wage affects workers in New Hampshire does not matter. Under state law there is an 18 percent
Polls in New Hampshire show that if you were a working man, you would be making at least 30% more than your coworkers. In fact, you might be earning the most per hour for the duration of the night. In high schools the minimum wage is around $2.50 and in middle schools you are earning just less than $2.50 a hour. In low schools the wage is around 25% lower than the $2.50 paid to their families.
The reason that minimum wage is a problem for low level earners in New Hampshire is because they will pay less or not at all while working. It is a problem for the middle class. The New Hampshire minimum wage is $2.50 as compared to $1.25 in California and $1.25 in New York City.
This is not just me. When we are talking about increasing the minimum wage we are not talking about people making more money, or being able to get a job. We are only talking about those who are not rich. And we are talking about the middle class and how to raise wages, not about lower wage workers. We are talking about what a poor person can afford. We are living in a society that works classless, but it should not discourage a work a poor person could afford. I believe that if we don’t allow working people to get ahead in the economy, well, let that sink in for a while and hope and dreams become reality for working people in New Hampshire with the future ahead.
The following article explores the minimum wage and how it affects low wage workers nationwide.
Minimum wage increases
Low wage workers living off of the minimum wage are the most vulnerable and underpaid in the country. With workers making less than $2 a day it is even more difficult for minimum wage workers to get by with decent pay.
On the job market the minimum wage is a problem across the nation, but it is not the only problem. An estimated 1 in 6 New Hampshire workers have worked part-time in recent years with minimum wage for part-time work. These workers are often on paid sick leave, paid sick leave, and paid vacation, not to mention living in “hospice homes”; they are also employed in the “pursuit business.” The minimum wage is not the only obstacle that needs to be addressed.
Minimum wage workers in New Hampshire should understand that their jobs will pay much more if they get a full-time job than they would otherwise if they used up all their meager income and did not have access to the minimum wage.
On the job market the minimum wage increases are a problem for an increasing number of low wage workers and a small minority; most who are in the working poor. It increases the likelihood that a family with two children will be left poor at a minimum wage and is a negative social and economic effect in the society. Most “preparatory” work is required by the law to ensure a parent can pay for their children’s schooling and health care costs.
How low the minimum wage affects workers in New Hampshire does not matter. Under state law there is an 18 percent
First, I wanted to find out what minimum wage is. According to Google minimum wage is defined as, “A wage below which employers may not legally pay employees for specific kinds of employment.” Next I wanted to know how the wage was calculated, So I searched and found a page on the International Labor Organizations page that listed the six criteria for setting the minimum wage. Criterion 1: the needs of workers and their families; Criterion 2: the general level of wages in the country; Criterion 3: the cost of living and changes therein; Criterion 4: social security benefits; Criterion 5: the relative living standards of other social groups; and Criterion 6: economic factors, including the requirements of economic development, levels of productivity and the level of employment.
Now, I had heard of something called a living wage before and I was curious if it differed from the minimum wage and if so how. I learned the living wage is different and it is defined as: “At an absolute minimum, a living wage is the amount a person would need to earn to stay above the federal poverty level.” Then I became interested in whether or not the current minimum wage was high enough to be considered the living wage. Unfortunately the minimum wage is only $5.15/ hour while, “The living wage In 2000, amounted to $17,050 a year for a family of four, or $8.20 per hour for a full-time, year round worker.” Obviously the minimum wage is not high enough to be considered the living wage. Which led me to believe that someone could not live off of the current minimum wage. This didnt make sense to me because according to the International Labor Organization one of the criteria for minimum wage calculation is the cost of living.
This made me wonder why minimum wage jobs exist? And what kinds of people are taking these jobs. Well, when I hear the phrase minimum wage job the first occupation that pops into my mind is working at a fast food restaurant flipping burgers. That doesnt seem like an intellectually involved job. And when you look at a typical minimum wage job setting such as a fast food restaurant you typically see high school students, high school dropouts, and mentally challenged people filling these job slots. The common theme would have to be a lack of education. And just because someone is uneducated does not mean they do not need money to support ones self or ones family.
I then went back to thinking about how the minimum wage is substantially lower than the living wage. The first solution that popped into my head was; Why not raise the minimum wage to something near the current living wage? Would that help out? It sounded like a simple solution to a simple problem. If the minimum wage is too low, then why not just raise it? According to the Economic Policy Institute analysis of current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group, “If the federal minimum wage were raised to $7.00, as proposed in the fair minimum wage act of 2004 the bottom 40% of households by wages and salaries would receive nearly 60% of the benefits despite the fact that they earn only 15.8% of earnings.” Well, if that were true then it would be safe to assume that those who live on minimum wage now would greatly benefit from a raise.
I then thought that maybe I should consider how raising the minimum wage would affect others. I wanted to know what would happen to the families who are now above the poverty line. Would moving the low-income standard up also bring the standard for the middle class down? Would we just be including more of the middle class into the lower class? The Economic Policy Institute also stated “For those above 200% of the poverty line, the earnings of low-wage workers are essential to their incomes and therefore their standard of living. In fact, 1.4 million families with incomes hovering above 200% of poverty would drop below that line if it werent for the earnings of those families low-wage workers. For such families, though not impoverished now, the minimum wage is important for keeping them in the middle class.” I thought that was a valid point, after all if the middle class makes a given amount of money then why wouldnt bringing the lower classs income nearer to that cause more of the middle class to enter the lower class? But, are we sure it would work that way? Could it instead bring more families into the middle class instead of bringing more of the middle class into the lower class?
I then began to wonder if raising minimum wage would increase the rate of inflation. It seemed like a plausible outcome seeing as how it would be like giving everyone a raise, which would in turn devalue the dollar. Thus putting us right back to where we started. My older sister Elizabeth brought up a good point about how most places that have low wage employees would have to raise prices on their commodities to make up for the increasing labor charges. Places like grocery stores and restaurants would feel this probably the most since the majority of their employees are paid minimum wage. Thus affecting all of us since we all have to eat. However, I researched this topic to see if my sister was on to something
