The “cost of living” is the cost that it takes to live in this country. in NYC, your apartment would be almost twice the cost of my apartment. So, your salary would not support you if you lived in NYC. “So don’t live in NYC”. That’s great but you know as well as I do that just up and moving isn’t as easy as it sounds. And just because you choose to not be married or have children, the entire basis of a society is built on people having children and replacing the people who die. So, it’s not just about “you chose to have kids”. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that a society CAN grow and thrive.
NOW you want to talk about one person requiring more pay because of a family? You are contradicting yourself. And when the minimum wage was first established, it was not intended to be an excuse to pay teenagers and young adults less until they can get a better job. Pay for labor should be commensurate with the GDP. If an executive gets a 300% increase in pay, then labor also gets a 300% increase in pay. If that means government needs to get involved, then so be it. If you and corporations don’t want that, then guess what, corporations need to figure that shit out now. They don’t want to. And as long as they continue to convince idiots like yourself that you don’t deserve the same for your labor as executives get for … whatever, then they won’t have to. So, government intervention it is.
I've had more homes than I have appendages to count. I have for the hell of it deliberately sought out and weathered living situations that some people would consider tragic deprivation. It's a concession for me to allow that someone can insist on an actual structure, with a bed and plumbing.
No, I'm not. I've never said all people have the same needs. In fact, I say just the opposite. Which is it: increase commensurate with GDP or with executive pay? And how do you determine the initial pay? They would. If they have freedom of choice now, the only way to get compliance is to force it. No one would choose something other than what they can chose freely. Okay, so the government will determine who gets paid what. See any problems with that?
given the current state of affairs with sub sustenance wages affecting 40% or more of the country? no, not really.
Not if it's done with open and fair procedures, no. Our minimum wage is set yearly by an independent body with the mandate from the government to set minimum wage. They do this each year looking at the state of the economy, cost of living, and submissions from businesses, unions, and individuals. So each year people of the minimum wage get a cost of living adjustment, while businesses can predictably plan for the future.
On a tangent to that, my Navy crew was shocked to find out how absolutely shafted we were in our year salaries versus what the Australian Navy was getting in our respective pay grades. Your guys don't get a housing allowance because you get paid enough to cover rent right out of basic training. Meanwhile, I was deadass broke coming out of basic training and if not for getting assigned to Japan with a cost of living adjustment, I probably would've been more fucked for even longer with the $1200 (!) that we pay into the GI Bill for college for the first year of service.
Here's a pay chart for all military service: https://militarybenefits.info/2021-military-pay-charts/ An E-1 seaman is paid $1700 a month and paid out on the 1st and 15th. For a single servicemember without a family that's barely survivable if you end up at a duty station on the West Coast. For a sole income...well, most junior enlisted families are on food stamps, even with a housing allowance, let's put it that way.
For comparison, non-grandfathered journeymen cashiers (includes me) cap out at $16.80/hr, and entry level supervisors get a $0.35 premium at Fred Meyer. That's not enough to deal with the bs of retail. Sure, I could go to Costco and get paid closer to an appropriate wage, but then I'd still be in fucking retail
That sounds like a recipe for a military coup... A government not paying its armed forces enough so they have to use foodstamps? edit: Found an overview for a Dutch soldiers income: http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=152&loctype=1&job=6507&jobtype=3 €1.870 is about $2.162, non-military minimum wage for 21 years and older is €1.701, about $1.967...
It's really not rocket science. But, as long as corporations can convince idiots that it's a bad idea, idiots will believe them.
But once the government has the power to define living wage, there's nothing to stop the government from murdering you in your sleep!
Retail fucking sucks. When I was at Home Depot head cashiers got an extra 50 cents per hour with even worse schedules, having to sort out customer service issues for customers who think like Paladin and handle large amounts of money whilst opening and closing.
Basically, this. I don't have many horror stories from my time at Target, but call centers? Woof. Dealing with those cunts from ProFlowers/Personal Creations/Shari's Berries who don't understand that we aren't goddamn Amazon and that yeah, shipping is a bitch. If you're too cheap to pay for Express shipping and you know your USPS person delivers late to your house, that's a you problem. There was one bitch so heinous from NYC (one of many, actually) that I cut her ass off in the middle of a training session.
As an enlisted sailor in the early 1980s I lived in the barracks and ate at the chow hall. No money spent on rent or meals (unless I wanted to go to a local restaurant, which on Adak or Diego Garcia meant a military club anyway) so the pay was adequate for my few actual expenses, like the frequent random changes to the uniform regulations. "Utilities are out! Dungarees now!" "No more ball caps! Dixie cups only!" "No dixie cups with dungarees! Command ball caps only!" "Jungle boots on DG!" "Long sleeves!" "Short sleeves!" "Certified navy twill! (a God-awful double knit polyester)" It never fucking ended.
Ok Boomer. Have we not stated implicitly on this board that just because you were able to do something 40 fucking years ago, does not mean that those same opportunities and abilities exist today.
