Minimum Wage
 

I've always been curious what minimum wage was in other parts of North America, or even further.

In Alberta, Canada minimum wage is $5.90/hour, fortunately many places pay more than that :)

What is the minimum where you live...plz state where you live also.

last i checked it was 5.15, but I know there was a big plan to raise it a dollor over a bunch of years...don't know how thats goin...i'm in nebraska, but I always thought it was the same everywhere in the US, but then again that wouldn't really make sense since the cost of living is different everywhere. but yeah, i've never seen anything here that only pays minimum

minimum wage is a joke. try living a decent life at that price. forget it. the only thing you can afford is the grime under your fingernails from getting down in the dirt. it's a farce. no-one earning minimum wage can afford a life. forget it.

California : $6.75USD

and no, it's not really enough to live off of. :/ but it helps.

Ontairos the same i think...

UK is £4.30/hr (about US$6).

The problem here was that once the minimum wage was introduced, many employers decided that if that was what the government told them to pay, then that was what they'd pay!

Mike.

ontario, canada - $6.85.

$7.25 an hour
That in a state where it is impossible to live on anything under $10.00 an hour.

I wonder how many people actually pay only the minimum wage? I know that I have never paid anywhere close to minimum wage to anyone who has ever worked for me. While wages do not make a good or an honest employee, a decent wage should always be paid or the person should not be employed - A person who deserves no more than minimum wage is not someone I would hire in the first place.

Fuck, I remember being a student and the minimum wage for a student was $2.45 an hour, and that's what i got.

Stipping paint off of baseboards for a summer. Yes what fun that was.

You know what Chris Rock says about minimum wage don't you.....


"Min-I-MUM WAGE, that means, if I could pay you less, I would.

But I can't.

Cause that's the law.

Sheeeett"

5.15

The thing I hate about minimum wage is it's like an employer telling you "If I could legally pay you any less, I would".

I want to say its $5.25 in NC but that's probably wrong b/c that's been a few years since I heard that.

I wish they would abolish minimum wage laws though. Basic economics, minimum wage upsets the natural equilibrium of supply and demand. All putting in a high minimum wage does is artificially raise the price of goods and lower the demand for wokers.

Its 5.15 here, but at 16 I started at $6. So, I don't really know anyone who would either pay minimum wage, or work for it.

$5.15 Of course I live in a town with one of the lowest costs of living in america. You still can't any where close to live off that. Hell I am making 11 dollars an hour now and I COULD live off that if I had to... barely. That is like the minium you can make and actually live.

heh, I've been paid min wage. for a couple months at this current job, adn for like 1.5 at the last one. my philosophy is they start you at min wage so that they can give you a raise soon, and you can feel good about earning MORE money. :shrug:

I've been working for $5.15 at the same job for 5 years without being offered a raise. Luckily it's not my only income.

6.90 in connecticut

$5.15 in IL, just got raised to eventually $6.50 by Jan. of 2005. I agree that it is a stupid idea. The government shouldn't tell businesses how much to pay their employees, they should pay them what they are worth. If you want to make more money, work harder, remain dedicated, and if your boss is a dick who doesn't give raises, find a diff. job. pretty soon word will get around and no one will work for him. like someone said before supply and demand.

i think it is 5.15 here in florida but it might be 5.25.

of course i dont know anyone who is making that any more...

most jobs around here start out at around 8 or 9 an hour...

In Vancouver it's 6.00$ training wage [first one hundread hours...there's a lot of controvery over this training wage], 8.15$ regularly...but of course that's all in Canadian dollars so it amounts to a big fat nothing...:p

'Course your average person makin' minimum wage isn't doing much international travel so everything they are buying is in Canadian dollars too. :)

--
Hobbes: Did you ask your Mom if you could jump off the roof?
Calvin: Questions I know the answers to I don't need to ask, right?

When you're an unskilled laborer in a job market that is saturated with employees, you can't just "go find another job" if your employer isn't paying much. Minimum wage is an attempt to at least insure a somewhat decent standard of living for all employed workers. You're suggesting we okay sweat shops.
Additionally, what you suggest would put a even larger burden on our welfare system because it would put more people on foodstamps, etc.

as Overlord mentioned in the first post, here in Alberta, its $5.90, but it is very hard to find a place that will actually pay you that. Even mcdonalds starts people closer to $6.50, or so Ive heard. I make double minumum wage, which sounds kinda cool :D

in Montreal it's like $7.15 or $7.25 last I heard

Lol, not like I'm a rotten ronies expert but I think that they pay $6.00 and a grocery store, Like Safeway starts at 6 as well.

I think gas stations pay a bit better between 6.50-9

The three states with the highest minimum wages, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, also have the highest umemployment rates. Coincidence? Probably but it's still interesting.

It's been so long since I've made less than $100/hour I have no idea anymore. 'Course there were all those years when I worked 80 hours a week for salary and got paid less than minimum.

/bragging

For me its $5.15, live in Texas. Western-most city you can possibly find in Texas. Nuff said.

I live in the south east corner of kansas and its basically the poorest part besides western kansas, but the minimum wage is 5.15

The minimum wage is a waste of time when you think that the Chinese get paid like like, $5 a week.

My first real job I had, the minimum wage was $.99/hr then shortly thereafter it was raised to $1.25/hr. Now I make $23.00/hr so thing's have really changed.

Yup, and you better hope you still live with your parents and they don't charge much rent if you are living off that.

JESUS!! I don't think I have ever made minimum wage even when I was a kid cleaning the planters and hosing the sidewalks at the Shakeys Pizza at 12 years old. Back then I think it was $1.65....LMFAO

Hell when I was in High School selling womens shoes I was making on average $12.00 an hour after you broke the commission down.

Hmmmmm...lets see in Lost Angeles I pay $1500.00 rent, utilities $225.00, $125.00 IRS, $500.00 food and BS for Apt. $75.00 Auto insurance(I'm a good driver:D ) and last but not least $500.00 fun money..........yep I think I could live off minimum wage if I took in 5 roommates gave up my bedroon and slept on my balcony, told the IRS to get FUCKED....yea I could do it......IN MY DREAMS!!

I really feel for people who have to count on that LOW WAGE that congress never wants to raise, but they have no problem voting themselves a pay raise of $12,000 every other year with our hard earned tax dollars....gotta love the Government:lol:

Minimum wage used not to be a joke. In California now, the minimum wage is $6.75 and it's a joke. Back in the early '70s I was attending college and working in a pizza parlor in California. Minimum wage was $1.90, we got maybe $2. In those days, that kind of money could get you a so-so studio apartment. In California. If two of you went in together, you could split a decent two-bedroom. Because when you allow for inflation, that $2.00 rate is more like $10.00 or more in today's money.

We have gotten a lot poorer as a nation in the last few decades, and a lot of people seem not to have noticed.

Most people do notice, it's just the politicians don't really give a shit anymore. It's all about "Whats in it for me" and "Let them eat dirt" oh, and lets not forget "TAX TAX TAX and more TAX"

Actually, I'm not suggesting that we ok sweatshops, just that people get paid what they are worth. I am an unskilled worker in a market saturated with employees, and I don't need to find a different job, because I have found one that pays very well. Your assertion that it is an attempt to ensure a somewhat decent standard of living is a joke. Do some research, the minimum wage is the very least you can pay a worker, because it is almost always used for shiftless, lazy, transient workers who aren't worth half of it. Think about it the next time you see some moron employee leaning against a shelf at Wal-Mart, how much would you want to pay him? Only 2% of working adults earn the minimum wage in the United States. Total, out of all the adults in the country, not just head's of households. That means the single guy living in a small town where you can get an apartment for a few hundred bucks is part of that 2%. When politicians say that "you can't raise a family on minimum wage," it is pointless, because no one tries to. It is a trick to get votes from stupid people. When the minimum wage goes up, so do prices, so it is a wash for those making minimum wage. Everyone else who makes more than MW gets screwed because they lose buying power. Also, the unemployment rate always goes up when the MW goes up, so actually the MW places an even larger burden on our welfare system because more people are on foodstamps, etc. Produce for me an economist that thinks that the MW is a good idea and then I will agree with it. The bottom line is that employment is just like any other good or service, subject to the laws of supply and demand. When the government mucks around with business, things go horribly wrong. I don't have the time or room to properly debate this here, but if you really want to learn anything about this topic instead of just spewing rhetoric, email me and I'll send you some studies on the subject.

i work at a movie place i get 5.15 but some jobs have perks, i get free soda/popcorn and free movie tickets on the weekdays.

i think like 6.25 or something, here in NY

$6.90 here in oregon