Save Social Security by Raising the Minimum Wage to $8 per hour

Save Social Security by Raising the Minimum
Wage!!

Raising the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $8.00 could not
only help millions of Americans but could save our Social Security.

I feel the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is immoral. A person
working forty hours per week, 52 weeks a year clears almost enough to
pay for medical insurance for his family. This is a disgrace! The
minimum wage hasn't gone up in years. We need to raise the minimum
wage to $8.00 per hour then raise it another 25 cents per hour each year
thereafter.


Raising the minimum wage to $8.00 would shore up social security
because of the added taxes paid to the Social Security Fund. This
amount would be more than you would think.

A worker earning the minimum wage of $8.00 would contribute an
extra $712.28 per year to the Social Security fund. The worker would
pay $364.14 and his employer would pay the same. The worker would
still clear an increase of over $100 per week in his paycheck.

The government is saying our Social Security Trust Fund will run out
in about forty years. I have estimated the extra money collected by all
the people working for minimum wage and the extra earned by those
earning less than $8.00 per hour over the next 40 years along with a very
modest interest would equal trillions dollars.

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Thanks for your support,
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With inflation being what it is, $8 is an entirely reasonable minimum wage.

I like your position regarding Social Security too!

and propbably for many others and could actually result
in massive layoffs in the restaurant industry.

In this country every time the minimum wage went up so did the number of jobs in America. The people that will have an increase in pay will spend it. See "Trickle Up Economics" at GEdwardCook.com

earning between $25,000 & $50,000 than how many minimum wage
persons would be able to afford restaurant visits by an increase
in minimum wage. If the minimum wage is raised from $5.50 to $8.00,
my restaurant visits will drop by roughly the same ratio, about 33%.
I doubt very much that a person earning $8.0/hour or roughly $16,000
per anum can make up for the business lost. And again, there are far
more of us than there are minimum wage earners.

I have nothing against paying workers a living wage IF they are
producing goods or services which justify them. A smart and successful
employer will remain successful by retaining the productive workers,
which happens mostly when they are paid well.

Also, please explain why the unemployment in states such as Oregon
where minimum wage is $7.50 (by state law) is one of the highest in the
country, where as unemployment is typically lower in states where
the state law does not require higher minimum than federal wage ($5.50?),
such as Ohio.

There are about forty million workers in America making less than $8. Many more are based on Minimum wage and will go up too. To make up for your cost you will have to raise your prices slightly but your labor is only part of your expense. You will do just fine!

You do not place a very high value on having other people cook your food, bring it to to, and clean up afterwards. Any valuation attached to such services must be completely subjective, for they are not tangible and disaapear in their performance. One question worth asking is what do you get out of visiting a restaurant. One answer might be the saving of your own labor in preparing food and cleaning the mess up afterwards. You might contrast what your normal pay for that period of time is and see whether the money you tender at the restaurant is more or less than that, and might consider whether the persons performing those functions for you are worth any less than you are....

For example.. my mom makes less than some of the other employees at the restaraunt she works at in Florida, because she gets tips and they don't..

I dunno exactly how it works.. I think there's different laws in different states when it comes to tips? :shrug:

Good luck on the race though!

If a fast food restaurant has 5 workers at $6 per hour and raises their pay to $8 per hour, that will cost the restaurant $10 per hour.

If this restaurant sells 50 meals per hour at $5 each with a crew of 5 workers the price increase of a meal is only 20 cents. 50 meals X $.20 = $10 per hour.

Can you afford to pay $5.20? And a restaurant that charges $10 per meal and serves 25 people per hour with a crew of 5 would need to increase the meal $.80 or $10.80 per meal.

The increase is less than the increase market due to the extra cash spent by the workers. The cost of a soda or can of beer at a store would be only a penny or two!

Think about how much it means to an American Worker!!!

As it stands right now, the poor and middle class pay both money and sweat equity into Social Security. The rich pay a pittance towards Social Security. The "crisis" could be solved tomorrow if the rich paid their fair share.

The employers who hire undocumented workers need to be prosecuted for tax evasion. I have no idea how much more should be collected that these employers are avoiding, but it is probably substantial.

that is kind of a separate issue, but, as you point out, does effect Social Security.

Repunks will never go after employers who hire illegal aliens, especially for tax evasion. Those are their most loyal contributors to the GOP coffers.

the social security payout formula is extremely progressive currently.

the social security payout formula is extremely progressive currently.

over $20 an hour so there's lots of room to improve. Eliminating the cap would 'fix' social security.

In many parts of the US, $9-10/hr can allow someone to have a decent apartment, buy groceries, pay for utilities (including cable/satellite) and have a car payment.

It is a shame that working full time at minimum wage all their adult life does not provide someone enough Social Security in retirement to keep them above the eligibility level for Supplemental Security Income (welfare), food stamps and Medicaid. When I worked for the government I dealt with many hard working individuals who were forced to apply for public assistance because their employers provided no benefits and Social Security is so low.

When the HELL are working class people going to wake the fuck up?!?! It doesn't take a genius to see that when Republicans are in power YEARS and DECADES roll by with NO MW increase. Of course they ALWAYS trot out the "that would be inflationary" line of BS when ever a MW increase comes up. Then they get back to more important business--voting THEMSELVES a big ASS raise.

Just to be on par with gas price increases MW would need to be in the $12-15.00 per hour range. Factor in all other cost of living increases in the last 30 years and it would be much higher.

Hear the news!! More Americans dead in Iraq and Bush needs to push the big ass tax cut for HIMSELF!

The better employers pay their workers, the more FICA taxes they pay and the more money is available for Social Security.

It's that simple.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced, and have the evidence to back it, that outsourcing good-paying jobs is a way of destroying Social Security.

The more jobs and the higher the pay the more it supports Social Security? Bring the jobs back to the USA!!!