The answer to raising wages at Walmart and McDonalds.

The minimum wage was introduced as a STARTING POINT for pay, but companies have turned it into maximum pay by refusing to pay a penny more. And we all know they'd pay less if it weren't for minimum pay laws.

I'm in the UK, and my son applied for a job he's always wanted to do since leaving school, working with animals. When he enquired, he was told he was 'too old'. He's 26. What this company (and a fair few more) is doing, is employing under 21's because the minimum pay for under 21's is much lower than £6.31 an hour. Bosses don't even want to pay £6 quid, and many don't. They want the work done, and they want the profits which that work generates, but they don't want to pay anyone to do that work. They want to keep it all.

We in the UK have had it up to here with working for wages we can't live on, sick to the back teeth of austerity, and so sick of being the only workers whom are unable to pay basic bills despite working our fingers to the bone, sick of being afraid to answer the door/telephone/open mail because we know it's a demand for money we haven't got, had enough of being screwed over time and time again. People are starting to protest in their thousands, and the only action left to us now is to strike, which is definitely on the cards. If a strike is what it's going to take, then so be it. See how bosses like NO WORK being done and NO PROFITS.

All you lot who say minimum pay jobs are not worth more, who cares what you think? We all think desk-dossing pen-pushing jobs aren't worth their pay either, but they get it.

As for getting two or more jobs, no chance, there aren't enough jobs to go around as it is.

Some of you people are despicable, you resent working people a decent wage, and you resent them claiming benefits too, you hate the fact they're even breathing. Yet you don't resent the companies for walking away with record profits, nor the fact their workers have to claim taxpayer money, YOUR MONEY, to afford a basic sustenance.

You hate us for wanting decent pay, you hate us for claiming benefits, well we no longer care what anyone else thinks, we'll fight for what we want despite what you all think or say, screw the lot of you.

Any workplace that outlaw taking tips are evil, I try to just not go to those places.

For food it's really easy, overall I'm more likely to go to a place where I can tip the employees because I know their salaries suck and I'm happy to legitimately tip according to the value of my overall appreciation.

Tipping is a power of true capitalism.
Those that deny this to employees break the laws of capitalism in their favor...

Well most economic laws are put their in place because the people up there that made the decisions to outlaw particular economic practices because, often times, using those practices is exactly how they got in power in the first place.

Don't go to places like walmart if they don't accept tips.
We need to economically get the poor into a richer class if we want a stable economy. Nothing would be better for the middle class.

Tip the poor when they deserve it!

originally posted by: PrinceDreamer

originally posted by: MarlinGrace
There have been several threads, some claiming taxpayer sponsored wages. Some claiming minimum pay is all employees will ever get. Well it occurred to me for all you people who think they are not paid enough, probably union officials. There really is an easy solution, the next time you buy your happy meal or check out at Walmart reach in to your pocket and give the cashier a 10 dollar bill. Tell them to divide the money up among other employees to help with their cost of living.

This would make you proactive instead of waiting for government or corporations to create a livable wage for employees. This solves both sides of the argument, they get what they deserve, and the customer, you, get to pay for. If everyone does this, money will flow freely into the pockets of employees everywhere and the problem is solved.

Of course it will get interesting when the store video is watched to see who spread the 10 dollar bill around, and how many claimed the money on their taxes.

Have you seen how much profit Walmart make?

Walmart Profit

They rake in that profit by paying terrible terrible wages, which everyone complains is subsidised by the government, but when it is in fact YOU, ME and everyone else who pay taxes is actually paying for. Walmart could pay everyone a living wage without any issues at all and still rake in billions, but no they are the worst of humanity, the obsesive greed that drives people in the dirt so they can have a few more dollars that they will never even spend because they have too much already.

It is the greed of these companies that force you to pay higher taxes, don't blame people for wanting to be able to pay their rent and eat after working all week for it, what they ask for is not outragous, they are not asking for executive pay, they just want to be able to live, there is hardly any local employment, all teh small companies have been driven down into the dirt by these corporations, they suck everything, destroy everything, kill local compaines reducing jobs, then pay crap wages and ask for you and me to supplement it.

Time for people like you to wake the hell up, the vast majority of people are held in wage slavery and it has to stop

Sorry you are incorrect, Walmart makes so much profit because so many people buy so many goods from them. I am not sure what their net profit margin is but i doubt it is much, but the volume they do everyday is astronomical.

originally posted by: kruphix
a reply to: MarlinGrace

This doesn't solve anything. This is just enabling these corporations to continue to pay their employees low wages.

Also, when the store camera is reviewed, the employee will probably be fired for stealing when they see him pocket a ten dollar bill. Unless the store specifically has a tipping policy, any money given to the employees is the property of the company...not the employee.

So what you are saying is you really don't give a crap if these people are making a fair wage or not, because you're not going help pay for it, they are on their own. The true colors of your spots have now come out. You like Walmart are not willing to pay a living wage. I am so disappointed in you, but I would have never guessed.

There's at least one study that reports that raising the average wage to $12.50 an hour at Walmart would only raise prices 1.1 %. And that's with them passing the entire cost on to the consumer. It would be around 46 cents per average trip to the store.

But instead you have the country's largest employer costing close to six grand per year per employee in government subsidies for the poor. That's not counting the other government subsidies Walmart gets for coming into communities.

Something is definitely wrong with this system. And the government is clearly already involved so hiding behind the free enterprise excuse isn't valid at this point.

Nope, most low paying jobs require the money to go straight to the manager to go into the days take, or maybe the manager's or owners pocket if they don't feel like doing the extra paperwork to account for it.

The real world is so different than the fantasy world most people live in, to fix it we have to realize that there is a fair trade between labor and time tallied by local cost of living research done on a regular quarterly basis.

Also there must be consideration that resources in this world are finite, which I believe is part of the reason for so many being forced into part time low pay jobs in the first place, to reduce consumption and slow growth.

Sustainable development are nonsensical buzzwords which mean nothing, they do not belong in the same sentence.

The only way to achieve sustainable development in any sense is to reduce growth and increase prices while reducing or freezing pay to stunt real growth and increase the bottom line with what is already here.

Like is already happening as a result of this so called "jobless recovery"....

LOL

Theres always so much focus on making sure that the "Job creators" have enough money to continue to "Invest" in the economy and we always see negative results - Not enough full time job creations/Companies making millions in profit because they avoid tax, manufacture in countries where cheap labor is available and sell in "wealthy" western countries while paying their retail worker's pitiful wages.

I propose we flip the tables and ensure that no one earning under 20k is taxed a penny on their wages, while taking big companies to slash their profit margins. They wont stop trading in the west because they know we've just improved the buying power of minimum wage workers - They'll want to compete for a piece of that.

The trouble is, if people can afford to live properly, they wont need credit...
If people arent taking out credit there's no debt...
If there's no debt there's freedom...
If there's freedom then there's...
Anarchy?

Starting to see why they dont want people earning enough to live on.

or i guess you could just get a job at a wallmart in north dakota where starting pay is around 17.20 an hour amazing what a lower then 1% unemployment rate in a state can do for sallaries

www.theminorityreportblog.com... the-minimum-wage/

I took this photo today at the Walmart in Williston, North Dakota, where the economy is booming thanks to the gusher of shale oil being pumped from the prolific Bakken oil fields. Daily oil production in the Bakken is approaching one million barrels per day, placing it in an elite group of only ten super-giant oil fields in the world that have ever produced that much oil at peak production. In total, nearly one billion barrels of oil have now been produced in the Bakken oil fields, and all of that oil production and related activities have brought the unemployment rate in the Williston area down to below 1% in most months over the last three years. For the most recent month – April – the jobless rate here was 0.9%.

www.theminorityreportblog.com... the-minimum-wage/walmart/ link to the photo i think eitehr way its at above link but cashieres are making 17.20 an hour in north Dakota right now

In North Dakota it's easy get a good paying job and nearly impossible to find a place to live one can still afford.

My Dad almost had me convinced to go up there for work until I did the research and realized it wouldn't work out at all even if the pay was good.

I'm pretty sure it will amount to little more than temporary employment for many anyway as the technology for extraction improves and reduces the need for human labor as is the way everything goes and always has.

It's too cold up there in the winter anyway....

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

originally posted by: RalagaNarHallas
or i guess you could just get a job at a wallmart in north dakota where starting pay is around 17.20 an hour amazing what a lower then 1% unemployment rate in a state can do for sallaries

www.theminorityreportblog.com... the-minimum-wage/

I took this photo today at the Walmart in Williston, North Dakota, where the economy is booming thanks to the gusher of shale oil being pumped from the prolific Bakken oil fields. Daily oil production in the Bakken is approaching one million barrels per day, placing it in an elite group of only ten super-giant oil fields in the world that have ever produced that much oil at peak production. In total, nearly one billion barrels of oil have now been produced in the Bakken oil fields, and all of that oil production and related activities have brought the unemployment rate in the Williston area down to below 1% in most months over the last three years. For the most recent month – April – the jobless rate here was 0.9%.

www.theminorityreportblog.com... the-minimum-wage/walmart/ link to the photo i think eitehr way its at above link but cashieres are making 17.20 an hour in north Dakota right now

I am curious what the cost of goods at walmart in North Dakota is compared to the rest of the walmarts.

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

ah trick is get a beat up trailer home(rv idealy) drive it up there get the job and leave by winter sell the trailer for ridiculous amount of profit then live in another state.

three of my past tennants have done such things renting a room from me in Montana,and driving to work in north Dakota for inflated salary and coming back on weekends to see their families . two of them (a family ,and an previously unemployed veteran) have made close to 15,000 and 32,000 respectively off flipping cheap rv's in north dakota for example you can get a cheap $500-2000 and fix it up a bit and sell it for 5-10 grand in north dakota due to shortage of housing

basically they housed their families here and went to the high paying jobs and brought the money back to areas where the pay is not as high ,and took every economic step they could to maximize their profits.i think we will see comparable things with the new seattle 15 min wage as alot of people will commute to get the higher paying job while living where its cheaper with a lower minimum wage

I considered that scenario but could not afford to re-shoe the RV I live in and still feed it enough to drive it to ND from here in Florida. That was the only workable scenario but I have been pushed down too far to afford to do that.

The weather here is really nice almost all year though and my RV lot rental is nearly free, I just stay on call to fix security systems and other devices and vehicles for a friend of the family and squeak by on my VA disability.

400' from the intra-coastal waterway at indian river lagoon/mosquito lagoon, 1 mile from the ocean.

I can't complain but sometimes I still do.....

reply to: RalagaNarHallas

I make a descent wage at my job in the computer area. But still I think about the "old" days you did your 30 years and were done. And to me that is the problem. The management is all about the bottom line. What happened to working hard and helping the company but knowing you were good. I am pushing 40 and have the 401k and all of that but good luck me. My mom has almost 30 years working for the state of Utah. And what does she get... A 50% drop of her pay. In the nice US of A it is all about the money. As a hiring manager I want to hire someone that I know will be long term but really what do I have to offer them. Not much.... We need to raise the wage and for any public company cap the salary. If you start something that goes great have as much as you want. But if you are some dick CEO that just jumps from company to company we need to have a cap on it.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

I know you have good intentions in suggesting this, but you overlook a major flaw: if we tip cashiers at fast food places and retail stores, that gives their employers incentive to pay them less, as is the case with restaurant waiters and waitresses. You're opening a door to more exploitation of cheap labor. We already pay their wages by eating at places like McDonald's and Burger King.

A living wage is really not too much to demand. These mega corporations have more than enough money to pay their employees a decent wage so that they aren't forced to work 2-3 jobs just to keep their necks above the poverty line. It's not like fast food chains are on the verge of bankruptcy and it would be backbreaking for them to pay 3-5 dollars more per hour to each employee.

originally posted by: DestroyDestroyDestroy
a reply to: MarlinGrace

I know you have good intentions in suggesting this, but you overlook a major flaw: if we tip cashiers at fast food places and retail stores, that gives their employers incentive to pay them less, as is the case with restaurant waiters and waitresses. You're opening a door to more exploitation of cheap labor. We already pay their wages by eating at places like McDonald's and Burger King.

A living wage is really not too much to demand. These mega corporations have more than enough money to pay their employees a decent wage so that they aren't forced to work 2-3 jobs just to keep their necks above the poverty line. It's not like fast food chains are on the verge of bankruptcy and it would be backbreaking for them to pay 3-5 dollars more per hour to each employee.

Maybe, but they can't go any lower than state law says they can, and from what I understand everyone at these places are making minimum. The lowest being 5.15 and the highest is 15.00 if I am not mistaken.

Everybody seems to think if the richer were to go around distributing it here and there, it would even things out.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wave a magic wand? It's wishful thinking

a reply to: MarlinGrace

OR.........We get rid of the federal Reserve and central banks. No more funny business with the stock market. No bailouts or using federal money to buy into the stock market. Get rid of free trade. No more fiat currency. Anti monopoly laws need to be enforced again. This includes banks and utilities.




And last but not least...........We need to be a republic ruled by law again and not a democracy. And until these things are fixed nothing will change for the better. It is a slow spin into anarchy. It will crash in the next 5 years. Heck people making under 15 dollars and hour will be screwed by inflation in the next couple of years at this rate.

a reply to: Rezlooper

I am a bit curious . . .

Do Walmart cashiers get paid substandard wages? Or is it just or mostly the folks who do the labor work in the aisles?

originally posted by: BO XIAN
a reply to: Rezlooper

I am a bit curious . . .

Do Walmart cashiers get paid substandard wages? Or is it just or mostly the folks who do the labor work in the aisles?

when i worked there a couple years ago, the only positions other than management that got payed more than cashiers was pharmacist, then cake decorator in the bakery section, then CSMS (those in charge of the cashiers), then automotive techs (which they layed off when they leased the shops to their competitor Mr Lube), then cashiers. the guys stocking shelves were the lowest of the low when it came to pay. the interesting thing is that all the people that stocked shelves and such, were also supposed to be cashier trained and go on registers when it got busy, they just didn't get the same pay.

a reply to: generik

Interesting.

So, in your opinion, would the cashiers deserve such handouts from customers?

I'm inclined given your post, to hand the stocking folks a 'tip.'