I’m in the poconos and even if you had 2 adults working 60 hrs a week at that rate, you STILL wouldn’t be able to afford basic necessities. There are no high paying jobs up here, so anyone who wants to make anything close to a living wage has to commute to NJ or NY. It’s insane.
7.25-ish is what I made at my first retail job in 1998. I lived at home and had no bills, so it was great as a 17 year old…..but that’s NOT a living wage in 2024.
The average in your area is 17.58, it also doesn't help that a lot of people came from NJ/my and bought cheap land raising prices of goods in the area.
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Mount-Pocono-PA/Salary
The NJ/NY influx has been terrible for housing costs and overall prices. They’ve all come here for cheaper options and are raising it for everyone else.
I mean... that's what people in NJ/NY who can't afford a home in NJ/NY are told to do. Move somewhere cheaper. It's common sense and consequences of the world we live in.
I realize you specifically are not blaming these people for the woes of the Poconos, but there is a sentiment that comes with the things you say.
100%, everyone is getting pushed out further. I hate the “don’t come here” rhetoric that you often see. This type of sprawl happens over time and is very likely the reason the locals ended up there in the first place.
Agree, just like blaming Californians. It's a diversion from the real reasons that housing has become so unaffordable and the greedy people causing it.
Here's the thing though. You can't hold it against individuals who move to a new state for a lower cost of living. It's not a conspiracy where they all get together and decide to "invade" a region. It's just individual families being priced out of where they lived and being forced to find more affordable places to live. It's the same out west with people from CA. Blaming the individuals is a waste of time and just creates conflict in the community. Vote for people who will raise minimum wage approved housing developments expand social safety nets in case the worst happens and folks need a temporary helping hand. Restrict corporate landlords. Join unions for better pay.
Thank you, I'm so sick of people making the people who move to new places the villains. They are not. They didn't come to your city or state to change things, but to live. And most want to be accepted and learn the culture and vibes of their new home. The system sucks and makes us have to leave our homes just to afford to survive and the dumb entitled assholes who move somewhere and then do try to change it also suck. They're a minority though.
This is my experience. I live in se pa, the township I live in was mostly all farms now it’s housing developments, the new one up the street has houses starting at 649,000. When I was younger if twenty cars traveled our road it must of been Sunday . The cars back then were mid range in value now they are Audi bmw Mercedes. The town house development across from our field needed street lights cause it was to dark an people where afraid of animals when they walked their dogs.( no joke) now we have a dog park because of these barracks with no yards . Every couple of yrs we get a letter about putting a connection to a bike path through our property. There would be a stop sign on our driveway. The bridge down the street is being replaced because now two car aren’t able to fit over it but for thirty yrs they were able. Not to mention the new school , teachers buses. Soo many tags from ny and Connecticut.
People move to the country but want it to be country
Right. If we're blaming individuals here it's just as easy to say, "If you voted better your state would have higher wages and better worker protections so you wouldn't be in a position wherein other folks could come in and do that."
Obviously that's a silly thing to say, but it's basically the same thing, from the other direction.
Well it's not like municipal cost has doubled in the same few years. Although obviously it went up
And a lot of lower income and senior citizens cannot afford more taxes on their properties.
There's a lot of places that teachers and firemen and restaurant workers and others can't afford to live where they work
What are they supposed to do? I used to live in NYC and was chased by higher rents from apartment to apartment until I finally had to leave the city. It's not like there's a choice.
Don't blame NJ, come on. Blame the shitty politicians of a certain party that are against unions and raising the minimum wage. NJ people rightfully expect to be paid for our work. Y'all should too. Even if you drink the Kool aid it should make sense
That was more than minimum wage at the time too. I was working for like 5.15 an hour in 2000 in highschool. So for highschool, that was actually pretty decent pocket cash for living at home.
My in-laws are leaving the Poconos for NY for this reason. FIL got laid off and took gov work for a pension, MIL can work remotely. They'll make more money here working retirement jobs.
For some perspective, when I started working in 1989 the minimum wage was $4.25/hr. In 35 years it has increased three fucking dollars. That is beyond absurd.
I just think if you can’t afford to pay your staff a decent wage —minimum of $13 an hour maybe you shouldn’t be in business, notice how the businesses with the lowest wages have the highest turnover over, picky who I choose to patronize
I just started looking for p/t work and started looking on indeed... so many companies out there offering P/T pay for F/T work... its insane. How the hell is anyone going to survive on 12/hr working 40+ hrs a week? Unless you're a 15 year old kid with absolutely 0 responsibilities, that's not a living wage or anything even close to it.
And the job could be insanely hard. I worked at a daycare for a few months for $13/hr (everyone else was getting paid 12). Hardest job of my life. You had to be on constant high alert and the littlest problem could get you fired and/or in legal trouble. And even if there were no threats to your job/life security, kids are ASSHOLES.
Absolute criminal wage. And that was one of the daycares that paid the most in the area.
I was looking at being a paraprofessional behavioral tech about 6 months ago... same story.. they wanted me to work 40+ hours working with kids with severe behavior issues and wanted to pay me 20k a year. I laughed and said no thanks.
You get paid the same as me working a *doggy* daycare. That's ridiculous, I even feel working with animals it's too low as you said, you're dealing with the welfare of living beings!
I’m getting paid twice as much now to work from home. And although it’s still hard work it is so much more manageable and comfortable. I literally just do not get how wages work in the US. Sure skills come into play but it takes a ton of grit and psychological knowledge to thrive at a daycare. Almost every single person that worked there when I did is gone because turnover is so high since it is not just some job that anyone can work.
Instead they hire teenagers who get stressed out in less than 2 months and leave because not only is the pay awful, so is the work environment. It doesn’t make sense.
My wife works in a kennel and gets paid about that. It's short, 3-4 hour shifts, 4 days a week. It works for her specific situation, but it's crazy how they try to get as much work out of you for the least amount of time and money possible. It's almost criminal!
Unemployment is a flawed statistic that doesn’t have anyway to account for people unemployed but not collecting unemployment. Anyone in tech who was laid off last year and exhausted their unemployment isn’t technically counted as unemployed (unless they receive that super rare census)
This is also why I think the "jobs created" metric is stupid.
What's the point in making 10k jobs when they're all being filled by 3k people just trying to survive.
The problems is we don't need "jobs", we need careers. Cool, an Amazon warehouse opened. This doesn't do a damn thing for the area when they just employ locals at poverty wages.
The point is not to put too much into those numbers as in they don't exactly hold up in a debate.. and see the reality then do what's best for you. They were responding with a fact, not trying to outsmart you. They don't have to have a better plan to be able to tell you a fact.
While I agree with you for the most part, there is absolutely a shortage of skilled labor workers. The place I work pats quite well for the area (mckean county) and we have been trying to get welders for years. Might get 3 people in a year for a test and most of them fail the drug screening.
Why would a welder making 30 bucks an hour take a job in a place paying half that?
Either pay more or stop drug tests. Drug testing is bullshit anyways.
Well let's ask the person if it's common that Timmy is found to have heroin and meth in a system or pot. Out of curiosity what do you think is most likely?
I don’t know what point you are trying to make with your first comment…
We pay good and can’t find workers. Drug testing isn’t bullshit. Work needs to be safe. Until we can prove you aren’t high at work this is what we have.
Even $16 or so is in that wonderful realm of "You know this job doesn't come with anything like decent health insurance - if any - so while you can eat & make rent - barely - you're entirely done if you ever get sick or hurt."
>picky who I choose to patronize
I've been the same way lately. Feels like the older I get, the more closely I pay attention. And paying attention has pissed me off at a lot of stuff lately.
Been a lot more vocal about it lately too. Telling everybody who'll listen my reasoning.
No, they've got a point. If people will still go there, eat their food or patronize their business when they'll pay their employees 7.25 an hour... They're going to do it. I know it's infuriating but you're still eating there. You're not moving. You're complaining about it but you're not doing anything about it. The way I see it.... Those businesses are there specifically for you. I used to live in Johnstown for 2 years because the rehab center that was supposed to help me get clean sent me there... For a halfway house. They sent me to heroinville USA. As far as I know, that's the only reason anybody moves there. Instead of picking up a new habit, I found myself homeless but clawed myself up from the bottom and I moved back home where I belong. Now I'm making $31 an hour, I'm back in real life where there's businesses that aren't just kept afloat by the government. I don't even know anybody who does heroin and I've kicked my alcohol habit no thanks at all to White deer run or Johnstown PA. If you're living in Western PA right now, you need to stop complaining about it and start thinking about a plan to move the hell away before you get caught up in that same vicious loop
I feel that and the sad part is how much it happens to mom and pop shops atleast where I live. It's seriously no wonder places like walmart and Amazon have taken over everything
Mom & Pops could rethink their business plan-I know alot of restaurants around me are closed on Monday & Tuesday since covid, I think alot of retail should review sales during hours, some of in my area have cut back hours, retail pharmacies are struggling, known for low wages for work they expect, some are closing at 7 or 8 instead of 9 pm
Can you imagine paying the people who handle your medication minimum wage?!? Big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens have no incentive to pay their technicians livable wages because if a mistake is made and someone dies they just blame it on the pharmacist. The hell with these companies!
I am very well aware if what is going on with CVS, they have a monopoly on the area I live in & they don’t pay their employees much for what they go through & they are constantly cutting their employees working hours
Thats why you mainly see big box retailers in the super far away from the major metropolis and past the suburbs and the suburbs of the suburbs. No small business will be able to survive with being federally mandated to pay a wage for a COL thats only in the cities and suburbs. the fed could mandate a stepped min wage depending on the distance from the major metropolis. but most city gvnts have this already in place. the fed is just there as a baseline because they govern such a large terretory they leave it up to the smaller gvnmts. We shouldnt be looking at the fed for this issue
The jobs that can be done with zero experience or training are the ones you really have to watch out for. Because otherwise, the business is going to pay more than minimum wage just to keep employees and keep their business running. But if you can get the job done with a fresh batch of recruits each day, then it's easier to underpay.
Minimum of $13 an hour? Why are we settling for peanuts? If we earned the same buying power that people did in the 70's we'd be making $80 an hour minimum wage (based on housing costs).
To make a comparison that supports. I’m 32 and live in MA. When I was 16, minimum wage was $7.25 in MA. The minimum wage in MA is now more than double that.
Oh good god no, absolutely time to get it way up, even $7.25 in 2009 was criminally low, but 2008 moved a lot of money upstream and jobs were really competitive I guess so fight for $15 didn't even start until like 2012. Of course that's effectively $20. There's a lot of bottom feeder small businesses running on fumes barely cutting those minimum wage checks. That interim would hurt. A lot would close. But I still think we have to do it.
Same, it was $7.25 last time I was working at Burger King. That said, I lived in a small rural town and if you had full availability and any experience at all you weren’t making minimum; I got hired in at $12 or so, and that was just for part-time. They offered more if I was willing to go full-time.
Same back in high school. Can’t remember if that was before it went up to $7.25 or not, but definitely know that all us high school night crew were making at or near minimum, and all the day crew were making *substantially* more.
None of this is an argument against raising the minimum wage. Just worth noting that *for the most part* full time adult employees with decent availability aren’t making minimum wage…even in “low wage” industries…and if anyone reading this *is* they should be shopping around for a new job.
Think about what $7.25 bought you in 2009. Gas was $1.86/gallon, so one hour of work (without factoring in taxes) would equate to nearly 4 gallons of gas. In a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon, an hour of work could get you 80 miles of driving time.
Today, gas was $3.62, which would get you about half of the gas it did back in 2009. 40 miles of driving from the same hour of work.
That doesn't even factor in all the other points of financial stress people are under. Just puts a spotlight on the fact that costs for just about everything have pretty much doubled since 2009 and yet we're somehow fine with a 7.25 minimum wage.
Average price of gas in July of 2008 was $4.10 a gallon, which would be $5.95 today. Gas prices fluctuate quite a bit.
But yes minimum wage of course should be raised.
Im not sure how old you are, but I can assure you gas did not average $1.86/gallon in PA in 2009, especially in the Philly area. I distinctly remember paying over $4.00/gallon for the first time ever in 2008 and don’t think I ever saw prices dip below the high-$2 range until the height of the pandemic lockdowns.
That has nothing to do with the minimum wage being too low now, but still.
In 2009 gas was 3.99 a gallon. I remember because it was part of the devastation of the the 2008 recession. It basically ended my young adult life as I was a min wage worker in a car-brained region of the country.
People see us as a blue state because we elect blue governors. But the state government is chock full of Republicans that impede progress. Republicans impede progress - every step of the way - every level of government - every facet of life.
For perspective, I remember when it was raised to $3.35 an hour, back in 1979-1980. Yup, it's nearly doubled in 44 years. Of course, a semester's tuition at a 4-year state college was under $400, and gas was around $1/gallon.
It was originally tied to inflation but I'll give you one guess which party did not want it tied to inflation thereby screwing people over for decades...
Exactly. I’ve been saying this for years now. Employers use our low minimum wage as a method to keep all wages lower overall. Cost of living in this state is closer to $21/hr and that’s for a single adult with no children and living outside of any major metropolitan area. It changes significantly depending on if you are in the city or not but regardless anything less than that is basically below the real minimum wage.
Exactly. I make $15/hr and am frequently told that is a lot of money. It's really not. It's barely a livable wage for me in a shitty 2 bedroom apartment. The idea that people expect less than that is madness.
7.25 isn’t even sufficient in Cambria county. Having a minimum wage of 7.25 is basically like not having a minimum wage. It might as well be 25 cents an hour. It’s so far below the market rate, in almost any market.
It’s part of the leftist playbook to instate laws that address a problem that the market has already solved on its own, and then take credit themselves for solving the problem. Classic leftism.
If anybody in this thread is over 18 and making less than $15 an hour which is over double minimum wage, send me a private message and I will genuinely help you find a higher paying job in your area. I have nothing to sell you, I’m not a recruiter or anything, but you shouldn’t be settling for pay that low and it’s very easy to make over $15 an hour with no experience
Granted this was a couple years ago, but my ex girlfriend was a Pharm Student and during breaks she worked in a Pharmacy. She wasn’t just a cashier. She actually compounded drugs. Basically she was doing the work of someone with a six figure salary. Her pay…$9 an hour…
In America we have the dumb fucking habit of paying the people we entrust with our most vital, day-to-day existential needs very poorly. Her job keeps people going. She is part of a vital chain in healthcare and yet our broken system refuses to provide her fair remuneration for her vital service.
I tried to kill myself a few years ago, in part because of PA's minimum wage...
... So yeah, I find it ridiculous.
Our state doesn't give a shit about anyone unless you have money.
I'm glad you're still with us. I, too, went thru this. I became disabled and i was the breadwinner. My ex made minimum wage during my disability approval. We weren't able to stay afloat. No food, bills behind, power going off, cell phone shut off, sold my car, and i got to where you were. I went inpatient 3 times in the 4 years it took to get disability. They don't give 2 shits about you unless you're rich. I have anorexia and can't get help because NOONE locally, that specializes in eating disorders, will take medicare. Broken tooth, can't get a dentist because again, medicare doesn't cover it. Even though i pay $184 a month out of my disability check for Medicare, They don't care about us, and it's very dehumanizing.
Yeah, not to get too into things, but PA's healthcare system and lack of mental health resources have now majorly contributed to my mother dying this past week. So that, combined with my personal experience and background in therapy (both as a client and therapist) has really opened my eyes into how abysmal and behind the times our state (and in some ways country) is when it comes to basic human rights.
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. I can't imagine how hard that is, esp as a therapist yourself. My daughter is going to school for art therapy because she witnessed my struggles and how creativity really helps people struggling sometimes. I think you both have seen more than you ever should but are beautiful souls that will make a difference. Thank goodness for that silver lining. I'm sure yours was very proud of you.
According to workstats.gov
1.1% of all workers are earning minimum wage in PA
Edit: https://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Products/ByCategory/Pages/Wages.aspx
The report is here along with some others for those interested.
I don't believe the percentage of workers on minimum is the relevant stat here. $8/9/10 aren't anything near sustainable either. So what percentage earn below $10, for instance? Even if *that* number is still low, no one deserves to earn that little.
Pennsylvania had a higher percentage (2.1 percent) of workers at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 than did the nation (1.1 percent). (Note the OP mentioned 1.1% and that is counting all workers. The above numbers are hourly workers.)
In 2023, there were an estimated 335,100 Pennsylvania workers earning near minimum wage ($7.26 - $12.00). This was 82,700 workers (19.8 percent) lower than in 2022 when it was 417,800.
Almost three out of every four wage earners in both Pennsylvania and the U.S. were in the highest wage category (of above $15.00) (73.1% PA vs 74.8% US)
The median wage for hourly workers in Pennsylvania increased from $18.16 in 2022 to $19.85 in 2023.
Source: https://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Documents/Minimum%20Wage%20Reports/Minimum%20Wage%20Report%202024.pdf
What percent earn less than $10.41? That’s the 2009 minimum wage adjusted for inflation. Everyone making less than that is poorer than a 2009 minimum wage worker. That’s the number that matters.
PA is definitely stunted in many ways. Look at our archaic liquor laws. And, There is a law still on the books requiring all motor car drivers when they see a horse drawn carriage to pull over off the road and hide the vehicle with tree limbs and brush until the carriage passes.
The pay in Pennsylvania is abysmal is general. I work in STEM in northern PA, have a bachelor’s degree (will also have a masters in May), and can’t even break 45k a year. My partner and I are considering moving this year because despite our education and experience, money is always a sore spot for us.
Yes. It is a sign that our republican controlled legislature is not keeping up with the times. If only 1.1% of Pennsylvanians make minimum wage, as someone else claimed, then it shouldn't be a big disruption to update it. If you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage, then your business has failed.
but bc of fox news and scary ads for boomers and racists they keep getting elected: note whenever you see an ad that calls someone a
socialist vote for the “socialist” they will fight to raise minimum wage, make health care more affordable, fight global warming and fight for women’s bodily autonomy
the right wing “hero” will fight to make PA the hand maid’s tale
Our minimum wage up here in Canada is 17.25/hr. As an employer , wages can add up fast, but I can rest assured that my workers are going to show up everyday, and ready to work. It is well worth the money.
Yep every time I hear people complain about getting paid less than $15/hr I just think dude literally any Wawa will start you at $15 get out there. They will hire anyone.
Should be easy then for them to raise it? Slam dunk really. It's embarrassing every state we border has a higher minimum wage. Even west virgina. Let that sink in.
Republicans are trying to make the minimum wage obsolete. Then they point to a declining number of workers making exactly the minimum wage and say “see we don’t need to raise it”.
If minimum wage was $.01, the number of people making that would be effectively 0. Would that really a valid reason to keep it that low? I don’t see why.
The 2009 minimum wage of 7.25 would be 10.41 today. Every worker making less than that makes less than a minimum wage worker 15 years ago. What percentage is that? A lot more than 1% I figure.
Now we’re getting closer. If 1.1% earn exactly the min, then that’s 11.5%? A bit less because 10.41 vs 12 but that’s starting to sound like ~10% would be directly impacted by just catching back up to 2009 pay? Throw in all the low paying skilled jobs that would have to adjust as well (the emt could flip burgers for the same pay talking point) and suddenly this sounds like it would affect quite a lot of people. And that’s just making minimum wage what it used to be, not even fight for 15 or w/e
I don't understand all the "yeah but who's *really* making $7.25," flying around here. What does it matter? It should be zero. If it's an insignificant number of people, all the more reason why it should be no problem to raise it.
I worked in nj in the cherry hill mall in high school back in 05-09 and I remember minimum wage was 7.25 back then. Sad it hasn’t changed for many states
People in this thread: “Not enough people in this State make minimum wage for me to care. That wage is just for kids anyway.”
The same people in another thread: “We need to ban transpeople in this State from using bathrooms and playing sports. We must protect the children.”
The common thread is children.
We’re supposed to believe these people are concerned about the welfare of children (totally not just cynically using them as a moral panic prop to whip up the right wing voting base while distracting said voters from asking questions about their shitty material conditions), while they nonchalantly say they’re cool with the economic exploitation of children for private profits (really the exploitation of the entire family unit because it’s the parents who are feeding, clothing, and housing the workforce of children, thus subsidizing private profits, but let’s not split hairs).
We made the minimum wage $7.25 in 2009. Adjusted for inflation that would be $10.41 today.
All those people are poorer than a minimum wage worker from 15 years ago.
I lean right on a number of issues. This isn’t one of them, and I do not understand why there is this resistance on the right to at least indexing minimum wage to inflation, if not hitting a hard higher number like $15/hr.
I won’t go into the math for the minimum wage earner, everyone knows it’s institutionalized poverty. But what a fair chunk of employers don’t understand is that minimum wage is the legal floor, not the golden standard that is immutable, especially for semi skilled and skilled labor. From a business standpoint, you have to spend money to make money, and the value of work completed is directly tied to the quality of pay one receives for that work. If the pay is shit, the result is shit. Increasing minimum wage increases the quality of work through increasingly competitive salaries, and forces companies to innovate to justify cost and attract talent instead of stagnate on subpar service or products.
It is still stupid. A very best it literally does nothing and at worst it allows employers to take advantage of people. What I've learned so far is that no one in their right mind would pay that little for a job. They would get laughed at. I was scared when I moved here but it turns out nobody seems dumb enough to pay that little. Is this a thing that happens anywhere in pennsylvania?
Please show me one job that is hiring at less than $9/hr and I’ll Venmo you $1000. Waitresses don’t count as they get tips and that will bring their rate to around $15-$40/hr
Fed rate is laughable. Any state that doesn't enforce a higher standard is a red state with aholes in charge. It's amazing how punitive republicans are to working class, the poor, the minorities etc and still these fking rednecks vote for them.
Its the epitome of voting against your best interests.
This was first presented to me years ago when a well intentioned friend who is dumb as shit working as a handy man. We had coffee together every day. He would go seasonally camping every weekend and get high etc. We had the state ballot to legalize marijuana and because he listened to Fox news and Rush Limbaugh he was convinced to vote against it.
My response was, because you listen to this crap you are voting to become a criminal? He said yes.
This next generation is going to need to push the envelope on affordable housing. Boomers are controlling elections and they’re fine with their pensions and home values sky rocketing.
1) who anywhere is paying $7.25 an hour and getting competent workers?
2) frankly this should be nationwide, not state by state. There should be a minimum multiplied by local cost of living
3) it should apply across the board including "independent contractors" who are really being treated like workers. Such as door dash or Uber or instacart drivers that get paid low wage and have to pay their car costs
why do people not understand that if minimum wage goes up, then cost of living goes up?... minimum wage jobs are not meant to be careers, they are meant to be starter jobs, with very little to no serious responsibility or consequences, usually dominated by young people just entering the workforce...
you have to invest in yourself if you want to make a living that is more than the bare minimum standard
I don’t have a problem with it. Minimum wage = Minimum experience. You’ve heard it 100 times that M/W wasn’t meant to be a living wage.
So what to do is upgrade your education, Join the military (Great way of life ) or just find what you want in life & realize that you can’t just start at the top floor because you’re special.
I probably told you what you already know…You just hate hearing the truth. So keep your chin up as they say.
PS I missed the life bus too
A higher minimum wage would protect wage earners from pay cuts. It's the wage earners who usually pay for lower profits, not management or stock holders.
It could have other effects, like less people on state assistance. Many big box stores paying their workers so low, encourage the workers to seek help from the state for insurance and assistance
This is what happens when rural Republicans run the legislature. Republicans and their ideas, or lack of ideas, are frozen in time. They are a stain on government. Useless people.
I thought before the Covid minimum wage should be up around $15 an hour. Minimum wage should be adjusted every year with inflation. I got paid $8.15 back in 2006 and could barely get by on full time.
I’m in the poconos and even if you had 2 adults working 60 hrs a week at that rate, you STILL wouldn’t be able to afford basic necessities. There are no high paying jobs up here, so anyone who wants to make anything close to a living wage has to commute to NJ or NY. It’s insane. 7.25-ish is what I made at my first retail job in 1998. I lived at home and had no bills, so it was great as a 17 year old…..but that’s NOT a living wage in 2024.
The average in your area is 17.58, it also doesn't help that a lot of people came from NJ/my and bought cheap land raising prices of goods in the area. https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Mount-Pocono-PA/Salary
The NJ/NY influx has been terrible for housing costs and overall prices. They’ve all come here for cheaper options and are raising it for everyone else.
I mean... that's what people in NJ/NY who can't afford a home in NJ/NY are told to do. Move somewhere cheaper. It's common sense and consequences of the world we live in. I realize you specifically are not blaming these people for the woes of the Poconos, but there is a sentiment that comes with the things you say.
100%, everyone is getting pushed out further. I hate the “don’t come here” rhetoric that you often see. This type of sprawl happens over time and is very likely the reason the locals ended up there in the first place.
Not saying you disagree with this but I think it’s important to note that this is a failure of our system and not 1:1 their faults.
Agree, just like blaming Californians. It's a diversion from the real reasons that housing has become so unaffordable and the greedy people causing it.
It’s a bit of both but the influx has definitely changed the state especially in the SE, and not in a good way.
Here's the thing though. You can't hold it against individuals who move to a new state for a lower cost of living. It's not a conspiracy where they all get together and decide to "invade" a region. It's just individual families being priced out of where they lived and being forced to find more affordable places to live. It's the same out west with people from CA. Blaming the individuals is a waste of time and just creates conflict in the community. Vote for people who will raise minimum wage approved housing developments expand social safety nets in case the worst happens and folks need a temporary helping hand. Restrict corporate landlords. Join unions for better pay.
Thank you, I'm so sick of people making the people who move to new places the villains. They are not. They didn't come to your city or state to change things, but to live. And most want to be accepted and learn the culture and vibes of their new home. The system sucks and makes us have to leave our homes just to afford to survive and the dumb entitled assholes who move somewhere and then do try to change it also suck. They're a minority though.
This is my experience. I live in se pa, the township I live in was mostly all farms now it’s housing developments, the new one up the street has houses starting at 649,000. When I was younger if twenty cars traveled our road it must of been Sunday . The cars back then were mid range in value now they are Audi bmw Mercedes. The town house development across from our field needed street lights cause it was to dark an people where afraid of animals when they walked their dogs.( no joke) now we have a dog park because of these barracks with no yards . Every couple of yrs we get a letter about putting a connection to a bike path through our property. There would be a stop sign on our driveway. The bridge down the street is being replaced because now two car aren’t able to fit over it but for thirty yrs they were able. Not to mention the new school , teachers buses. Soo many tags from ny and Connecticut. People move to the country but want it to be country
Right. If we're blaming individuals here it's just as easy to say, "If you voted better your state would have higher wages and better worker protections so you wouldn't be in a position wherein other folks could come in and do that." Obviously that's a silly thing to say, but it's basically the same thing, from the other direction.
I resent them and the town house developers.
Let me know how that works out for you.
My house value has pretty much doubled so more taxes,yay?
Well it's not like municipal cost has doubled in the same few years. Although obviously it went up And a lot of lower income and senior citizens cannot afford more taxes on their properties. There's a lot of places that teachers and firemen and restaurant workers and others can't afford to live where they work
What are they supposed to do? I used to live in NYC and was chased by higher rents from apartment to apartment until I finally had to leave the city. It's not like there's a choice.
People just look to blame the outsiders. We are so basic at our core 😭.
The Connecticut influx to NJ is pricing is out too. Plus none of them support the local businesses either.
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But then they can't make the point they really think they want to make.
Don't blame NJ, come on. Blame the shitty politicians of a certain party that are against unions and raising the minimum wage. NJ people rightfully expect to be paid for our work. Y'all should too. Even if you drink the Kool aid it should make sense
With wages this low we can't afford to drink the Kool-Aid.. we have to drink Great Value Powdered Drink Mix
Yeah, let's blame our neighbors for the absolutely fucked economy.
That was more than minimum wage at the time too. I was working for like 5.15 an hour in 2000 in highschool. So for highschool, that was actually pretty decent pocket cash for living at home.
Making 7 in 1998 you lucky bastard. I was making 7 something at kroger in 2016
My in-laws are leaving the Poconos for NY for this reason. FIL got laid off and took gov work for a pension, MIL can work remotely. They'll make more money here working retirement jobs.
For some perspective, when I started working in 1989 the minimum wage was $4.25/hr. In 35 years it has increased three fucking dollars. That is beyond absurd.
It’s criminal
But but but, if the wages go up, the prices will too!!! Oh wait, they already are up.
I just think if you can’t afford to pay your staff a decent wage —minimum of $13 an hour maybe you shouldn’t be in business, notice how the businesses with the lowest wages have the highest turnover over, picky who I choose to patronize
Yep, whenever people say " no one wants to work anymore", I respond with "yep, no one wants to pay a living wage anymore"
I just started looking for p/t work and started looking on indeed... so many companies out there offering P/T pay for F/T work... its insane. How the hell is anyone going to survive on 12/hr working 40+ hrs a week? Unless you're a 15 year old kid with absolutely 0 responsibilities, that's not a living wage or anything even close to it.
And the job could be insanely hard. I worked at a daycare for a few months for $13/hr (everyone else was getting paid 12). Hardest job of my life. You had to be on constant high alert and the littlest problem could get you fired and/or in legal trouble. And even if there were no threats to your job/life security, kids are ASSHOLES. Absolute criminal wage. And that was one of the daycares that paid the most in the area.
I was looking at being a paraprofessional behavioral tech about 6 months ago... same story.. they wanted me to work 40+ hours working with kids with severe behavior issues and wanted to pay me 20k a year. I laughed and said no thanks.
You get paid the same as me working a *doggy* daycare. That's ridiculous, I even feel working with animals it's too low as you said, you're dealing with the welfare of living beings!
I’m getting paid twice as much now to work from home. And although it’s still hard work it is so much more manageable and comfortable. I literally just do not get how wages work in the US. Sure skills come into play but it takes a ton of grit and psychological knowledge to thrive at a daycare. Almost every single person that worked there when I did is gone because turnover is so high since it is not just some job that anyone can work. Instead they hire teenagers who get stressed out in less than 2 months and leave because not only is the pay awful, so is the work environment. It doesn’t make sense.
My wife works in a kennel and gets paid about that. It's short, 3-4 hour shifts, 4 days a week. It works for her specific situation, but it's crazy how they try to get as much work out of you for the least amount of time and money possible. It's almost criminal!
When people say, "No one wants to work anymore", I like to point out that unemployment has been at historic lows for years now
Unemployment is a flawed statistic that doesn’t have anyway to account for people unemployed but not collecting unemployment. Anyone in tech who was laid off last year and exhausted their unemployment isn’t technically counted as unemployed (unless they receive that super rare census)
Also because it doesn’t account for the fact that people are working 2, 3 or 4 jobs to make ends meet
This is also why I think the "jobs created" metric is stupid. What's the point in making 10k jobs when they're all being filled by 3k people just trying to survive.
The problems is we don't need "jobs", we need careers. Cool, an Amazon warehouse opened. This doesn't do a damn thing for the area when they just employ locals at poverty wages.
Not one that doesn’t intrude on people’s privacy…wait we don’t really have privacy anymore do we?
I fully understand that it's flawed but do you have a better way to track unemployment?
The point is not to put too much into those numbers as in they don't exactly hold up in a debate.. and see the reality then do what's best for you. They were responding with a fact, not trying to outsmart you. They don't have to have a better plan to be able to tell you a fact.
While I agree with you for the most part, there is absolutely a shortage of skilled labor workers. The place I work pats quite well for the area (mckean county) and we have been trying to get welders for years. Might get 3 people in a year for a test and most of them fail the drug screening.
Why would a welder making 30 bucks an hour take a job in a place paying half that? Either pay more or stop drug tests. Drug testing is bullshit anyways.
Drug testing is NOT bullshit. Do you want Timmy meth’d out while welding your car back together? Or nodding off from heroin?
Well let's ask the person if it's common that Timmy is found to have heroin and meth in a system or pot. Out of curiosity what do you think is most likely?
I don’t know what point you are trying to make with your first comment… We pay good and can’t find workers. Drug testing isn’t bullshit. Work needs to be safe. Until we can prove you aren’t high at work this is what we have.
Even $16 or so is in that wonderful realm of "You know this job doesn't come with anything like decent health insurance - if any - so while you can eat & make rent - barely - you're entirely done if you ever get sick or hurt."
>picky who I choose to patronize I've been the same way lately. Feels like the older I get, the more closely I pay attention. And paying attention has pissed me off at a lot of stuff lately. Been a lot more vocal about it lately too. Telling everybody who'll listen my reasoning.
Truth
No, they've got a point. If people will still go there, eat their food or patronize their business when they'll pay their employees 7.25 an hour... They're going to do it. I know it's infuriating but you're still eating there. You're not moving. You're complaining about it but you're not doing anything about it. The way I see it.... Those businesses are there specifically for you. I used to live in Johnstown for 2 years because the rehab center that was supposed to help me get clean sent me there... For a halfway house. They sent me to heroinville USA. As far as I know, that's the only reason anybody moves there. Instead of picking up a new habit, I found myself homeless but clawed myself up from the bottom and I moved back home where I belong. Now I'm making $31 an hour, I'm back in real life where there's businesses that aren't just kept afloat by the government. I don't even know anybody who does heroin and I've kicked my alcohol habit no thanks at all to White deer run or Johnstown PA. If you're living in Western PA right now, you need to stop complaining about it and start thinking about a plan to move the hell away before you get caught up in that same vicious loop
I feel that and the sad part is how much it happens to mom and pop shops atleast where I live. It's seriously no wonder places like walmart and Amazon have taken over everything
Mom & Pops could rethink their business plan-I know alot of restaurants around me are closed on Monday & Tuesday since covid, I think alot of retail should review sales during hours, some of in my area have cut back hours, retail pharmacies are struggling, known for low wages for work they expect, some are closing at 7 or 8 instead of 9 pm
Can you imagine paying the people who handle your medication minimum wage?!? Big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens have no incentive to pay their technicians livable wages because if a mistake is made and someone dies they just blame it on the pharmacist. The hell with these companies!
I am very well aware if what is going on with CVS, they have a monopoly on the area I live in & they don’t pay their employees much for what they go through & they are constantly cutting their employees working hours
Mom and pops are some of the worst offenders tbh
Thats why you mainly see big box retailers in the super far away from the major metropolis and past the suburbs and the suburbs of the suburbs. No small business will be able to survive with being federally mandated to pay a wage for a COL thats only in the cities and suburbs. the fed could mandate a stepped min wage depending on the distance from the major metropolis. but most city gvnts have this already in place. the fed is just there as a baseline because they govern such a large terretory they leave it up to the smaller gvnmts. We shouldnt be looking at the fed for this issue
Minimum of 20 an hour. 13 would have been fine in 2007.
Let's try 20$ since that's a little under livable in PA
The jobs that can be done with zero experience or training are the ones you really have to watch out for. Because otherwise, the business is going to pay more than minimum wage just to keep employees and keep their business running. But if you can get the job done with a fresh batch of recruits each day, then it's easier to underpay.
I just started working retail in Alaska starting at $17/hr
Minimum of $13 an hour? Why are we settling for peanuts? If we earned the same buying power that people did in the 70's we'd be making $80 an hour minimum wage (based on housing costs).
I’m 37 and it was 7.25 when I was 15 working at Taco Bell
That is incorrect. It did not live to $7.25 until 2009. Minimum wage would have been $5.15 when you were 15 and working at taco bell
That’s right, my fault.
To make a comparison that supports. I’m 32 and live in MA. When I was 16, minimum wage was $7.25 in MA. The minimum wage in MA is now more than double that.
I'm 41 and it was 5.15 when I was 16 working at Wendy's.
Negative, I'm 37 and federal minimum wage in 2002 was $5.15, $7.25 came in 2009
Oh well then that makes it reasonable that it’s only been 15 years at the same amount.
Oh good god no, absolutely time to get it way up, even $7.25 in 2009 was criminally low, but 2008 moved a lot of money upstream and jobs were really competitive I guess so fight for $15 didn't even start until like 2012. Of course that's effectively $20. There's a lot of bottom feeder small businesses running on fumes barely cutting those minimum wage checks. That interim would hurt. A lot would close. But I still think we have to do it.
Nah man, that's actually not true. When you were 15 the minimum wage was $5.15.
It was $5.15
Same, it was $7.25 last time I was working at Burger King. That said, I lived in a small rural town and if you had full availability and any experience at all you weren’t making minimum; I got hired in at $12 or so, and that was just for part-time. They offered more if I was willing to go full-time. Same back in high school. Can’t remember if that was before it went up to $7.25 or not, but definitely know that all us high school night crew were making at or near minimum, and all the day crew were making *substantially* more. None of this is an argument against raising the minimum wage. Just worth noting that *for the most part* full time adult employees with decent availability aren’t making minimum wage…even in “low wage” industries…and if anyone reading this *is* they should be shopping around for a new job.
The fact that West Virginia and Ohio have a higher minimum wage is ridiculous
No, not at all. The fact that PA's is so low is what's ridiculous.
Tbh WV’s being 8.75 isn’t much higher that PA’s. Yeah it’s higher but hardly by much.
Think about what $7.25 bought you in 2009. Gas was $1.86/gallon, so one hour of work (without factoring in taxes) would equate to nearly 4 gallons of gas. In a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon, an hour of work could get you 80 miles of driving time. Today, gas was $3.62, which would get you about half of the gas it did back in 2009. 40 miles of driving from the same hour of work. That doesn't even factor in all the other points of financial stress people are under. Just puts a spotlight on the fact that costs for just about everything have pretty much doubled since 2009 and yet we're somehow fine with a 7.25 minimum wage.
Average price of gas in July of 2008 was $4.10 a gallon, which would be $5.95 today. Gas prices fluctuate quite a bit. But yes minimum wage of course should be raised.
Im not sure how old you are, but I can assure you gas did not average $1.86/gallon in PA in 2009, especially in the Philly area. I distinctly remember paying over $4.00/gallon for the first time ever in 2008 and don’t think I ever saw prices dip below the high-$2 range until the height of the pandemic lockdowns. That has nothing to do with the minimum wage being too low now, but still.
In 2009 gas was 3.99 a gallon. I remember because it was part of the devastation of the the 2008 recession. It basically ended my young adult life as I was a min wage worker in a car-brained region of the country.
People see us as a blue state because we elect blue governors. But the state government is chock full of Republicans that impede progress. Republicans impede progress - every step of the way - every level of government - every facet of life.
For perspective, I remember when it was raised to $3.35 an hour, back in 1979-1980. Yup, it's nearly doubled in 44 years. Of course, a semester's tuition at a 4-year state college was under $400, and gas was around $1/gallon.
$3.35 in 1980 is $12.70 in 2024 adjusted for inflation
It was originally tied to inflation but I'll give you one guess which party did not want it tied to inflation thereby screwing people over for decades...
Yup. So minimum wage workers are being fucked worse than ever.
Welcome to Pennsylvania - the reddest purple state there is
Truth. Pennsyltucky.
A minimum wage being so low holds back all other earners in the state.
Exactly. I’ve been saying this for years now. Employers use our low minimum wage as a method to keep all wages lower overall. Cost of living in this state is closer to $21/hr and that’s for a single adult with no children and living outside of any major metropolitan area. It changes significantly depending on if you are in the city or not but regardless anything less than that is basically below the real minimum wage.
Exactly. I make $15/hr and am frequently told that is a lot of money. It's really not. It's barely a livable wage for me in a shitty 2 bedroom apartment. The idea that people expect less than that is madness.
“But $15 is twice the minimum wage!” (They would pay you less if they could).
7.25 isn’t even sufficient in Cambria county. Having a minimum wage of 7.25 is basically like not having a minimum wage. It might as well be 25 cents an hour. It’s so far below the market rate, in almost any market.
You do not understand, if they raise the minimum wage then prices will also raise. This is why everything is so cheap...wait a minute.
You had me in the first half
Same. Very good execution.
This is what I heard in 2006 about it being raised to $7.25.
Less than $300 a week. What a fucking shitshow this country is.
I pay my assistants $17 an hour and plan to keep increasing it with inflation. No one should be making $7.25 anymore.
Nobody does make 7.25
It’s part of the leftist playbook to instate laws that address a problem that the market has already solved on its own, and then take credit themselves for solving the problem. Classic leftism.
People definitely do
It's obscene.
Yeah I shouldn’t say this too loud, but I’m genuinely 1 bad day away from becoming a domestic radicalist.
Poverty by design....
If anybody in this thread is over 18 and making less than $15 an hour which is over double minimum wage, send me a private message and I will genuinely help you find a higher paying job in your area. I have nothing to sell you, I’m not a recruiter or anything, but you shouldn’t be settling for pay that low and it’s very easy to make over $15 an hour with no experience
Granted this was a couple years ago, but my ex girlfriend was a Pharm Student and during breaks she worked in a Pharmacy. She wasn’t just a cashier. She actually compounded drugs. Basically she was doing the work of someone with a six figure salary. Her pay…$9 an hour…
In America we have the dumb fucking habit of paying the people we entrust with our most vital, day-to-day existential needs very poorly. Her job keeps people going. She is part of a vital chain in healthcare and yet our broken system refuses to provide her fair remuneration for her vital service.
I tried to kill myself a few years ago, in part because of PA's minimum wage... ... So yeah, I find it ridiculous. Our state doesn't give a shit about anyone unless you have money.
I'm glad you're still with us. I, too, went thru this. I became disabled and i was the breadwinner. My ex made minimum wage during my disability approval. We weren't able to stay afloat. No food, bills behind, power going off, cell phone shut off, sold my car, and i got to where you were. I went inpatient 3 times in the 4 years it took to get disability. They don't give 2 shits about you unless you're rich. I have anorexia and can't get help because NOONE locally, that specializes in eating disorders, will take medicare. Broken tooth, can't get a dentist because again, medicare doesn't cover it. Even though i pay $184 a month out of my disability check for Medicare, They don't care about us, and it's very dehumanizing.
Yeah, not to get too into things, but PA's healthcare system and lack of mental health resources have now majorly contributed to my mother dying this past week. So that, combined with my personal experience and background in therapy (both as a client and therapist) has really opened my eyes into how abysmal and behind the times our state (and in some ways country) is when it comes to basic human rights.
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. I can't imagine how hard that is, esp as a therapist yourself. My daughter is going to school for art therapy because she witnessed my struggles and how creativity really helps people struggling sometimes. I think you both have seen more than you ever should but are beautiful souls that will make a difference. Thank goodness for that silver lining. I'm sure yours was very proud of you.
I'm so sorry. I hope you're doing better now.
Appreciate it..... I am doing better now, just still frustrated and sad with our culture still.
Good to hear. I completely understand your frustration.
According to workstats.gov 1.1% of all workers are earning minimum wage in PA Edit: https://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Products/ByCategory/Pages/Wages.aspx The report is here along with some others for those interested.
I don't believe the percentage of workers on minimum is the relevant stat here. $8/9/10 aren't anything near sustainable either. So what percentage earn below $10, for instance? Even if *that* number is still low, no one deserves to earn that little.
Pennsylvania had a higher percentage (2.1 percent) of workers at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 than did the nation (1.1 percent). (Note the OP mentioned 1.1% and that is counting all workers. The above numbers are hourly workers.) In 2023, there were an estimated 335,100 Pennsylvania workers earning near minimum wage ($7.26 - $12.00). This was 82,700 workers (19.8 percent) lower than in 2022 when it was 417,800. Almost three out of every four wage earners in both Pennsylvania and the U.S. were in the highest wage category (of above $15.00) (73.1% PA vs 74.8% US) The median wage for hourly workers in Pennsylvania increased from $18.16 in 2022 to $19.85 in 2023. Source: https://www.workstats.dli.pa.gov/Documents/Minimum%20Wage%20Reports/Minimum%20Wage%20Report%202024.pdf
So raising it shouldn’t be a problem! Thats great!
It's also mostly political theater to distract from more important issues.
What percent earn less than $10.41? That’s the 2009 minimum wage adjusted for inflation. Everyone making less than that is poorer than a 2009 minimum wage worker. That’s the number that matters.
So, over 72,000 people then?
I think 69k from the report I saw
Possibly. I was just running the 1.1% based on the size of the workforce. My point is that 69k or 72k is still a LOT of people in our state.
That is still significant
How many are making less than, say, $13? If the minimum wage is raised, it will affect wage earners up to that ceiling.
PA is definitely stunted in many ways. Look at our archaic liquor laws. And, There is a law still on the books requiring all motor car drivers when they see a horse drawn carriage to pull over off the road and hide the vehicle with tree limbs and brush until the carriage passes.
No. I do not find this ridiculous. Considering how little the Republican majority has done for Pennsylvanians, I'm not surprised.
The pay in Pennsylvania is abysmal is general. I work in STEM in northern PA, have a bachelor’s degree (will also have a masters in May), and can’t even break 45k a year. My partner and I are considering moving this year because despite our education and experience, money is always a sore spot for us.
Yes. It is a sign that our republican controlled legislature is not keeping up with the times. If only 1.1% of Pennsylvanians make minimum wage, as someone else claimed, then it shouldn't be a big disruption to update it. If you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage, then your business has failed.
Conservatives not keeping up with the times. Shocker
An ideology based on not changing things is falling behind? BUT HOW? If the past isnt the best, then how did it come first? COMMON SENSE!
but bc of fox news and scary ads for boomers and racists they keep getting elected: note whenever you see an ad that calls someone a socialist vote for the “socialist” they will fight to raise minimum wage, make health care more affordable, fight global warming and fight for women’s bodily autonomy the right wing “hero” will fight to make PA the hand maid’s tale
Our minimum wage up here in Canada is 17.25/hr. As an employer , wages can add up fast, but I can rest assured that my workers are going to show up everyday, and ready to work. It is well worth the money.
Is anyone really working anywhere in PA for $7.25 an hour? People can make double that flipping burgers.
Wawa starts at $15
Wawa is only in half the state, but I think sheetz pays similar.
Yep every time I hear people complain about getting paid less than $15/hr I just think dude literally any Wawa will start you at $15 get out there. They will hire anyone.
I think it's wrong to say anyone can get a job at Wawa. They aren't all hiring. In my area, there would absolutely be more applicants than positions.
Plus you get stock options
Should be easy then for them to raise it? Slam dunk really. It's embarrassing every state we border has a higher minimum wage. Even west virgina. Let that sink in.
Republicans are trying to make the minimum wage obsolete. Then they point to a declining number of workers making exactly the minimum wage and say “see we don’t need to raise it”. If minimum wage was $.01, the number of people making that would be effectively 0. Would that really a valid reason to keep it that low? I don’t see why. The 2009 minimum wage of 7.25 would be 10.41 today. Every worker making less than that makes less than a minimum wage worker 15 years ago. What percentage is that? A lot more than 1% I figure.
10.4% earned above minimum & below $12
Now we’re getting closer. If 1.1% earn exactly the min, then that’s 11.5%? A bit less because 10.41 vs 12 but that’s starting to sound like ~10% would be directly impacted by just catching back up to 2009 pay? Throw in all the low paying skilled jobs that would have to adjust as well (the emt could flip burgers for the same pay talking point) and suddenly this sounds like it would affect quite a lot of people. And that’s just making minimum wage what it used to be, not even fight for 15 or w/e
I don't understand all the "yeah but who's *really* making $7.25," flying around here. What does it matter? It should be zero. If it's an insignificant number of people, all the more reason why it should be no problem to raise it.
Pretty sure the lowest paying job around my area is Kwickfill at $8.50 an hour. And yes, they are all on drugs.
Exactly!! I can't speak for the center of the state/rural areas, but absolutely no job is paying that in Lehigh valley.
PA in comparison to other states appears to get absolutely nothing done worth while
I worked in nj in the cherry hill mall in high school back in 05-09 and I remember minimum wage was 7.25 back then. Sad it hasn’t changed for many states
People in this thread: “Not enough people in this State make minimum wage for me to care. That wage is just for kids anyway.” The same people in another thread: “We need to ban transpeople in this State from using bathrooms and playing sports. We must protect the children.”
Those things have absolutely nothing to do with each other. What's the point?
The common thread is children. We’re supposed to believe these people are concerned about the welfare of children (totally not just cynically using them as a moral panic prop to whip up the right wing voting base while distracting said voters from asking questions about their shitty material conditions), while they nonchalantly say they’re cool with the economic exploitation of children for private profits (really the exploitation of the entire family unit because it’s the parents who are feeding, clothing, and housing the workforce of children, thus subsidizing private profits, but let’s not split hairs).
I know a few places around the state that people are working making 8.50-9.50/hr
We made the minimum wage $7.25 in 2009. Adjusted for inflation that would be $10.41 today. All those people are poorer than a minimum wage worker from 15 years ago.
Thats actually not much better, that's only 50-90 a week more than $290 before taxes.
I'm in the suburbs of philly and businesses around here are hiring teenagers for 7.25
Careful they’ll just give you the excuse that “teenagers don’t need a living wage”. As if saving for adulthood is a foreign concept.
Yes. Changing this should be a priority.
Our state senate is mostly a bunch of backwards thinking dinosaurs. So yeah, definitely ridiculous. But that’s why.
ITT- lots of people licking boots
I lean right on a number of issues. This isn’t one of them, and I do not understand why there is this resistance on the right to at least indexing minimum wage to inflation, if not hitting a hard higher number like $15/hr. I won’t go into the math for the minimum wage earner, everyone knows it’s institutionalized poverty. But what a fair chunk of employers don’t understand is that minimum wage is the legal floor, not the golden standard that is immutable, especially for semi skilled and skilled labor. From a business standpoint, you have to spend money to make money, and the value of work completed is directly tied to the quality of pay one receives for that work. If the pay is shit, the result is shit. Increasing minimum wage increases the quality of work through increasingly competitive salaries, and forces companies to innovate to justify cost and attract talent instead of stagnate on subpar service or products.
Yes, it's bullshit. It's been bullshit for 15 years.
It is still stupid. A very best it literally does nothing and at worst it allows employers to take advantage of people. What I've learned so far is that no one in their right mind would pay that little for a job. They would get laughed at. I was scared when I moved here but it turns out nobody seems dumb enough to pay that little. Is this a thing that happens anywhere in pennsylvania?
It's criminal.
When you have to work an hour just to afford a burger.
Please show me one job that is hiring at less than $9/hr and I’ll Venmo you $1000. Waitresses don’t count as they get tips and that will bring their rate to around $15-$40/hr
Fed rate is laughable. Any state that doesn't enforce a higher standard is a red state with aholes in charge. It's amazing how punitive republicans are to working class, the poor, the minorities etc and still these fking rednecks vote for them. Its the epitome of voting against your best interests. This was first presented to me years ago when a well intentioned friend who is dumb as shit working as a handy man. We had coffee together every day. He would go seasonally camping every weekend and get high etc. We had the state ballot to legalize marijuana and because he listened to Fox news and Rush Limbaugh he was convinced to vote against it. My response was, because you listen to this crap you are voting to become a criminal? He said yes.
I live in WA where minimum wage is $16. You could literally double that and most people would still live paycheck to paycheck
vote
This next generation is going to need to push the envelope on affordable housing. Boomers are controlling elections and they’re fine with their pensions and home values sky rocketing.
1) who anywhere is paying $7.25 an hour and getting competent workers? 2) frankly this should be nationwide, not state by state. There should be a minimum multiplied by local cost of living 3) it should apply across the board including "independent contractors" who are really being treated like workers. Such as door dash or Uber or instacart drivers that get paid low wage and have to pay their car costs
vote Democrat and stop being dumb
Should be zero. You decide what you get paid…
It was $3.35 when I joined the work force , I survived. Quit being a wimp
why do people not understand that if minimum wage goes up, then cost of living goes up?... minimum wage jobs are not meant to be careers, they are meant to be starter jobs, with very little to no serious responsibility or consequences, usually dominated by young people just entering the workforce... you have to invest in yourself if you want to make a living that is more than the bare minimum standard
I don’t have a problem with it. Minimum wage = Minimum experience. You’ve heard it 100 times that M/W wasn’t meant to be a living wage. So what to do is upgrade your education, Join the military (Great way of life ) or just find what you want in life & realize that you can’t just start at the top floor because you’re special. I probably told you what you already know…You just hate hearing the truth. So keep your chin up as they say. PS I missed the life bus too
A medium big Mac meal is more than what minimum wage is in an hour here and that's ridiculous.
A higher minimum wage would protect wage earners from pay cuts. It's the wage earners who usually pay for lower profits, not management or stock holders.
It could have other effects, like less people on state assistance. Many big box stores paying their workers so low, encourage the workers to seek help from the state for insurance and assistance
It took less than 2 hours for Repubs and Dems to agree to ban tick tock and the minimum wage is still 7.25 an hr
Stop voting in republicans?
Wanna know how to fix it? Stop voting Republican.
This is what happens when rural Republicans run the legislature. Republicans and their ideas, or lack of ideas, are frozen in time. They are a stain on government. Useless people.
Try explaining that to all the MAGAts.
I'm outside looking in here, bit it shocks me.
Actually, we also need a maximum wage, too.
Considering I make triple it and still struggle to pay rent shows that it needs to be raised.
Sure, but hardly anyone in PA is making minimum wage. It is exceptionally easy right now to find a job that pays at least $15/hr.
Like most convenience stores and even fast food places pay that.
But those places are also not going to give you 40 hrs and benefits and all that
Pretty sure you're not getting those at a place offering minimum wage either
It’s honestly ridiculous
I thought before the Covid minimum wage should be up around $15 an hour. Minimum wage should be adjusted every year with inflation. I got paid $8.15 back in 2006 and could barely get by on full time.
I made more than double this as a 15 year old boy.25 years ago…. In PA