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i was making $5.15 for waitressing.

Friendlys pays like 2$ an hour for waitressing. They expect you to make more in tips.

Although the employee benifits from minimum wage raising, the small buisness owners who put everything into their buisness and make hardly or less than minimum wage, will suffer. I once interviewd an owner of a small computer repair shop. She said that the biggest expendature was employees.

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In England, young people between the age of 16-17 earn the equivalent of $5.40 per hour, and 18-21 earn the US equivalent of $7.20.

I actually like that idea better. I mean, I was 18 last year and i was making $5.15 for waitressing. I would have loved to get payed $7.20, or even 5.40 woulda been fine with me.

In England, young people between the age of 16-17 earn the equivalent of $5.40 per hour, and 18-21 earn the US equivalent of $7.20. Whenever I have endeavoured to try and change this, I hear the businesses arguing how it will effect the economy and business competitiveness.

Why is it that businesses rely on paying people poor wages to earn a fat profit for shareholders? My reply now is to say, that business needs to find a new way of earning a profit, it needs to be driven by the values of humanity not lust for more money.

Where I live, Mcdonalds sets out deliberately to employ younger people, because they are able to pay smaller wages, the fact is, it is wrong. It is time that young people are valued as highly as everyone else, instead of intentional misery.

I could see the reasoning behind raising the minimum wage, but why does it have to be so drastic? I can't remember what the last minimum wage was, but I'm sure it didn't go up nearly two dollars. On the other hand, I believe the minimum wage is actually $5.15 an hour b/c thats what I got paid for waitressing, and that is not nearly enough to support yourself to even eat everyday if you are paying rent at an apartment. Unfortunately, this whole issue seems like a lose/lose situation. You raise the wage and the rest of the economy would go up as well. And then, the people working for minimum wage and supporting themselves are barely getting by.

The problem with raising the minimum wage is that in a short time, prices will rise accordingly, and nothing will have been gained. They may even rise more than the consummate amount.

Consider this: I remember when the minimum wage was $4.15 an hour. That also happened to be what a Whopper combo with King size fries and drink cost around here. Today, the minimum wage is $5.25 an hour. And guess what? That same Whopper combo with King size fries and Coke costs ... $5.25 (more in some places.)

In other words, today, you have to work the same amount of time to make enough money to buy a King-size Whopper combo at minimum wage as you did in 1996. Except now that some franchises figure that since they had to raise their prices, they could justify raising them a bit more than was appropriate.

Nothing's changed except the numbers.

My only problem is that I basically make $10/hr (after taxes) and while that is about double minimum wage in my state, it will not go up with the increase in minimum wage (I am the only employee at the law office where I work, and I am a nanny...). However, I will be paying more for products that have a risen price due to the stores' needs to pay employees more. Therefore, I will be able to buy less stuff for the money that I earn...any thoughts?

It could seriously effect the possibility of teenagers and underemployed people from job opportunities. I honestly would want more than a 5.25/hr wage as a teenager, but most of the jobs I've gotten understand the need for money and hire at a slightly higher wage anyway (the average for pizza shops is 6, Burger King is 7 or 7.50, most cashiers start somewhere between 7 and 10.50). I would want at least one stage increase, personally. It probably wouldn't hurt.

Why did my post get deleted?

Washington State has a minimum wage of over $7.00 and our economy is booming. But then, that's mostly due to the big companies like Microsoft and Boeing, whose employees earn a lot more than minimum wage. In a state like Michigan, where the economy is held up mostly by wage earners, it's hard to say what will happen. The workers will have more money with which to buy things, but the employers will lose money paying the higher wages. I'm no economist, so I can't really say.