NJ Minimum wage to go to $15

[Stumplicker]

"Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey and legislative leaders agreed on Thursday to a deal that would raise the minimum wage to $15, making New Jersey the fourth state in the country to commit to significantly raising incomes to that level and reflecting a growing national movement to address economic inequality."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/nyregion/nj-minimum-wage.html


In New Jersey it's a no brainer. In other states...not so much. I'd be hard pressed to say that parts of Florida or Maine need $15 as a living wage, but places like NJ, where every single county is technically Metropolitan, including the farming ones, it's a good change.

[Gelston]

That wouldn't be possible in Louisiana.

[Stumplicker]

That wouldn't be possible in Louisiana.

Yeah, most of Maine either. That'd be insane. That's $31,200 per year at 40 hours a week. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but you can live like a freakin' king on 32k in most of Maine. Southern Maine, down near Mass, not so much, but the rest of the state? Fuhgettaboudit.

NJ though? Yeah, 32k still leaves you pretty poor, no matter where you are. It's a good move.

[Gelston]

ONe of the things to consider is also people that were previously making what the minimum wage was raised to. Do you also raise their wage? Or are they back to minimum again? It is a loss for them.

[Stumplicker]

ONe of the things to consider is also people that were previously making what the minimum wage was raised to. Do you also raise their wage? Or are they back to minimum again? It is a loss for them.

Heeelll no. We raised minimum to 11 here last year and for our area that's pretty high still. Some now use the justification of everybody making more in negotiations to not pay extra to other people. It's a shitty negotiation tactic because a company's other money issues are unrelated to individual workers' pay increases, but...as it turns out, most people making near minimum wage are bad at negotiating, so it works more often than not.

[Wrathbringer]

If we didn't purposefully inflate the dollar we wouldn't ever have to raise minimum wage. Minimum wage isn't the problem; it's a symptom of the problem. Consider this: Folks who invest in precious metals see their values rise over time because of government caused inflation, then when they go to sell, they have to pay taxes on those "capital gains" even though their buying power has remained the same. Inflation and taxation are both theft. Until the money is fixed, raising the minimum wage is a temporary band-aid on a gunshot wound.

[Parkbandit]

ONe of the things to consider is also people that were previously making what the minimum wage was raised to. Do you also raise their wage? Or are they back to minimum again? It is a loss for them.

That's the thing. Companies have to increase their payroll almost across the board.

Then, to make the same amount of profit, the companies have to increase their prices to compensate for the increase in labor.

In a few years, the market settles back down to where those minimum wage jobs making $15 have the same cost effective wages as they had before.

[Gelston]

I think the biggest issue is people get minimum wage jobs and stay there forever. You're supposed to either get promoted or use the experience gained and move on to a new job that pays better. Minimum wage jobs aren't things you sit at forever.

[Stumplicker]

The damn trade war hurts too. Everybody, including the consumer is now feeling the effects of that, whether or not they notice the increase in prices to goods. With minimum wage increases coming in (in my state from $8.25 to $11), and 10-25% increase across the board in almost all supply costs, the previous profit margins on products pretty much evaporated. Prices get raised across the board, and the people earning minimum wage now need to pay more money for their everyday goods. Even if you buy completely "made in America" products, you're feeling the pinch. Products only really need to be something like 75% "assembled" in America to count as made in America. If you get Chinese chemicals to put into your PTFE formers to make your packaging, you're still paying extra supply costs. And you're paying higher taxes because bitumen is an essential ingredient in asphalt, and everybody needs road upkeep. And that hit is felt across the board. Those lists include freaking everything, and Trump is holding another 15% increase as a tactic that may go into effect in the next 60 days or so.

[Stanley Burrell]

Somewhere in New Jersey this may all be happening right now.