Ontario set to retroactively raise minimum wage

[BornRuff]

I bet if Stephen Harper does it over the next couple of years you will be complaining the loudest about cheap politics. But it is good to know how easy your vote can be bought.

Why would you assume that? I have argued that the minimum wage should be tied to inflation in numerous other threads before our provincial government suggested that they might implement this.

Minimum wage is a provincial issue, but it would be great if the feds could implement this exact policy nation wide. Then you avoid turning it into a point of competition between provinces.

Tying it to inflation is a great idea because it remove this whole political circus around setting nominal numbers and bickering over when and how they should change.

 

[Angstrom]

I say the hell with the poor.. Can we not just let them all die? Better yet! Pay people to go out and kill them at night?

 

[Liberalman]

I am sure the employers would rather have temporary foreign workers at a cheaper rate but the government is here to protect Canadian jobs like they are supposed too besides raising the minimum wage will get them more tax money that helps us all at the end of the day.

 

[pgs]

I am sure the employers would rather have temporary foreign workers at a cheaper rate but the government is here to protect Canadian jobs like they are supposed too besides raising the minimum wage will get them more tax money that helps us all at the end of the day.

So your boy Justin is against Chinese mine workers in B.C. ?

 

[BornRuff]

I say the hell with the poor.. Can we not just let them all die? Better yet! Pay people to go out and kill them at night?

How much would you pay them though?

 

[damngrumpy]

I stand corrected but retroactive is usually not a good road to go down
Its like constantly moving goal posts. It is better to start with where
we are in such matters. If you raise minimum wage prices go up if you
leave it where it is a lot of employers won't do the right thing.
Setting a minimum wage is really related to the service industry who like
to keep the wages really low to subsidize the price of a burger for you and
I. Personally I would be prepared to pay the real cost of things to see that
people have a decent wage. Entry level jobs the phrase is really a
euphemism for we can pay them less and keep more for ourselves while
including the public in our little game by getting cheap food.
If employers were what they should be no legislation would be required.
No I don't think it'll ever happen without legislation of some kind.

 

[SLM]

If you raise minimum wage prices go up if you
leave it where it is a lot of employers won't do the right thing.

I think you'd be surprised to see just how many small businesses actually do pay above minimum wage. I know before I started working in payroll I was under the same basic impression but if the cross section of small businesses that I see is any indication of the overall workforce then I think there are a good number of employers who "do the right thing."

Setting a minimum wage is really related to the service industry who like
to keep the wages really low to subsidize the price of a burger for you and
I.

What it relates to is entry level, non experienced positions and unskilled individuals but as soon as people acquire or begin to acquire a skill set, and I would include 'experience' in that, their value will often rise.

Now don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of crap jobs out there that pay peanuts and there will always be people who take the crap jobs because they just don't have the skill set to demand better. And I know how easily it can be to become trapped when you are just getting by, but after a while an individual person has to take at least some measure of responsibility for their own lack of improvement.

 

[lone wolf]

I say the hell with the poor.. Can we not just let them all die? Better yet! Pay people to go out and kill them at night?

Why doesn't that surprise me? And just a short while ago you were whining because you were out of work and wouldn't move to find any

 

[SLM]

Why doesn't that surprise me? And just a short while ago you were whining because you were out of work and wouldn't move to find any

He's just always angry and negative and doesn't seem to clue in that that may just be his biggest problem.

 

[Locutus]

[...] One oft repeated claim is that if you support minimum wages, you don’t “care” about the poor. This is the very reverse of the truth. Meanwhile changing “minimum” to “living,” while ratcheting up moral outrage, does nothing to solve the basic economic problem.

To the extent that minimum wages hurt those they are intended to help, they are immoral. But, as Merton H. Miller noted, this destructive economic fallacy “sure plays well in the opinion polls.”


Hence President Obama and Premier Wynne remain fans. [...]


Peter Foster: Minimum wage notion is akin to a physicist believing water could flow uphill | Financial Post

 

[taxslave]

The simplest way to avoid the need for minimum wage laws is to have an economy that is so busy that nearly anyone can demand what they feel they are worth. This means lots of industry. As long as we try to ruin our economy with tourism and service mcjobs we will always have businesses that will either want or need to cut costs wherever they can.
Note that the movie industry is coming back to Canada or at least BC. Lots of mcjobs , a few reasonably good tech jobs, all short term, but all the real high pay goes out of country and they are only here again because our dollar is in the toilet and we are giving more tax breaks than the next jurisdiction.

 

[BornRuff]

[...] One oft repeated claim is that if you support minimum wages, you don’t “care” about the poor. This is the very reverse of the truth. Meanwhile changing “minimum” to “living,” while ratcheting up moral outrage, does nothing to solve the basic economic problem.

To the extent that minimum wages hurt those they are intended to help, they are immoral. But, as Merton H. Miller noted, this destructive economic fallacy “sure plays well in the opinion polls.”


Hence President Obama and Premier Wynne remain fans. [...]


Peter Foster: Minimum wage notion is akin to a physicist believing water could flow uphill | Financial Post

It is kind of sad to see respectable people be so ignorant of the actual facts and research.

Somewhere along the line someone claimed that the research on the effect of a minimum wage was clear and iron clad, and a bunch of these commentators have just ran with it, despite what a survey of actual experts will tell you.

The simplest way to avoid the need for minimum wage laws is to have an economy that is so busy that nearly anyone can demand what they feel they are worth. This means lots of industry. As long as we try to ruin our economy with tourism and service mcjobs we will always have businesses that will either want or need to cut costs wherever they can.
Note that the movie industry is coming back to Canada or at least BC. Lots of mcjobs , a few reasonably good tech jobs, all short term, but all the real high pay goes out of country and they are only here again because our dollar is in the toilet and we are giving more tax breaks than the next jurisdiction.

This is a pipe dream. No matter how strong our economy is, there will always be companies who take advantage of workers.

Many people are simply not very good advocates for themselves, so even if they could demand more from their employer, they don't. The government isn't there to hold everyone's hand, but they should have a bare minimum in place to keep these people from getting screwed over past a certain point.

 

[JLM]

It is kind of sad to see respectable people be so ignorant of the actual facts and research.

Somewhere along the line someone claimed that the research on the effect of a minimum wage was clear and iron clad, and a bunch of these commentators have just ran with it, despite what a survey of actual experts will tell you.



This is a pipe dream. No matter how strong our economy is, there will always be companies who take advantage of workers.

Many people are simply not very good advocates for themselves, so even if they could demand more from their employer, they don't. The government isn't there to hold everyone's hand, but they should have a bare minimum in place to keep these people from getting screwed over past a certain point.

Awhile ago I related an instance of a worker in a restaurant who does what equates to absolutely nothing, actually that isn't correct what she does is creates work for other employees to rectify what she has f**ked up. What do you think is a suitable minimum wage, so she is fairly paid for what she DOES?

 

[BornRuff]

Awhile ago I related an instance of a worker in a restaurant who does what equates to absolutely nothing, actually that isn't correct what she does is creates work for other employees to rectify what she has f**ked up. What do you think is a suitable minimum wage, so she is fairly paid for what she DOES?

If the person is a bad employee then they should fire her.

 

[JLM]

If the person is a bad employee then they should fire her.

I agree, but as a last resort. First I doubt if she's ever been instructed properly (to give her the benefit of the doubt) If I were in charge of her I'd take her aside and explain her short comings, then I would show her the correct procedure, then I would get her to perform the duty while I watched, then I would do whatever fine tuning needs doing, then I would tell he if she expects to keep her job to follow the exact procedure just demonstrated, if she fails then fire her.

 

[L Gilbert]

Jesse Kline: Using free markets to lift people out of poverty | National Post