3:41 pm ET
Jan 29, 2014


Vote: Should the Minimum Wage Be Raised?

    • Small and large businesses need customers far more than they need a tax cut. Ask any small business owner why they are struggling. Unless they are just really brainwashed or just dumb, they will tell you they need customers. I'm sure they also would love more tax cuts too. Come on, 95% of all the money earned in the last few years went to the top 1%. There has been a minim wage for a reason, so we don't look like the third world countries where families live in mud houses and work for pennies an hour. It's simple economics. More money in the hands of the majority creates demand for goods. Demand creates jobs. Profits are at record highs for corporations. Yet they are just off shoring the money. The rich have become hoarders. It's time to not only raise the minimum wage but institute laws that American companies need to reinvest here in the US or get taxed really really heavily to help them understand their responsibility to this country that gave them the opportunity to become rich in the first place. This isn't hard to understand folks. We just have a very powerful multi national group of billionaires spending billions to convince the less informed that living in poverty is freedom and its better for our economy because the rich just cant make it if they have to share even a penny more for their employees. And if you work really hard you might be the 86th guy in the group that owns more than half the worlds wealth. your odds are better playing the lotto. Raise the Minimum wage!

    • Changes in the minimum wage will never kill this great republic. Venal and corrupt politicians can.

    • If the raising the minimumwas to $10.10 is good, wouldn't raising it to $110.10 be even better??

    • The minimum market wage in urban areas probably is already above $10.10. However, in small towns and rural areas, the current minimum wage is well above the market. The result is that there are few jobs there.

      Milton Friedman was right -- the national minimum wage is either irrelevant (because it is lower than the market wage) or it kills employment.

      If the President went to a town like Sayner, Wisconsin, he'd discover that there are no employees there. Everyone works for themselves or their families (and not bound by minimum wage laws) since the little businesses can't afford to pay the minimum wage.

      The beggars that I pass every day on the streets of Chicago be better off working at $5/hour than getting $0.00/hour for not working at all. Shouldn't people be "free to choose?"

    • Example: The Rent for apartments from 2009 until now has raised more than 20%, so Why does the minimum wage is $ 7.25? We need the raising to $ 10.10....!!!

    • Why stop at $110.10?

      Increasing the minimum wage won't create jobs. On the contrary, increasing the minimum wage will destroy jobs and reduce real economic activity. Consider McDonald's, a well-known business employing many minimum wage workers. McDonald's can't simply absorb a 39.3% increase in its labor costs. McDonald's will have to raise their prices to cover increased costs, which will result in decreased demand for their products and a consequent decrease in their need for labor. Facing higher prices, consumers either won't be able to afford as many trips to McDonald's or won't buy as much when they do visit.

      Under the most optimistic conceivable scenario, raising the minimum wage will increase inflation without having any short-term impact on jobs or real economic activity. The long-term implications under this scenario are an inflationary spiral

    • I hope anyone reading this realizes that this poll only tells us about who the readers of this blog (or WSJ generally) are and does not have enough participants to be considered a general poll

    • The minimum wage is a political game. In reality it is fools gold. Some of the higher skilled people at the current minimum wage will get a raise. The lower skilled people will see their jobs phased out over time. Just ask the gas station attendant who pumps your gas, or the waitresses at Wendy's

    • It is absolutely political game. Increasing jobs should be the priority. Why increasing minimal wage not the number of jobs?

    • Many minimum wage services are those that a person could do for themselves and the price is a major determinant of which will be chosen. Government can force the price higher by a minimum wage, but it cannot force people to purchase the service at that higher price rather than do it for themselves.

    • Yes, it should be raised; that amount is about equal to the original minimum wage value. We need to also pass a law that regulates the maximum percent or factor that CEOs and the like receive, like some other countries have.

    • Minimum wage is a joke. Let's pick an arbitrary number and say people can't get paid less than that. That means single moms supporting two kids and teenagers with no discernible responsibility. Should a "minimum" wage be based on our life circumstances and the actual cost of living? I heard the other day that the so-called "basket of goods" that makes up the CPI hasn't been revised since the 60's. Perhaps, if we had a better idea of what it costs to live today and could apply that to different social contexts, we could establish a fair living wage for all. That way small business owners don't pay teens a bunch of money to do nothing and giant corps don't dump the people who need jobs to keep costs down.
      Also, why can't I vote from my mobile device?

    • The federal minimum wage should be abolished altogether. "Minimum wage" jobs are not intended to be careers earning a living wage. They are opportunities for young unskilled laborers to earn experience that can be carried through the future. This part of the labor market is dynamic, free flowing and ever changing. The government should stop violating the rights of both employers and employees; leave them free to utilize and promote the growth of young ambitious Americans who want to work.

    • I think congress should live a month on 10 per hr. maybe they will change there mind

    • Flip your idea of a candidate ticket to West/Carson, and it would have my vote!

    • I have no issue with raising the minimum wage, as long as people understand that business will raise prices accordingly to maintain their profit margin. At the minimum wage level marginal income growth will be non-existent. People need to have access to training, college (get their degree at night, it can be done. I did it at Baruch) and make an effort to better their lot in life. Blaming others for their situation is getting old...

    • Isn't it 2-3% of the labor force that actually make minimum wage, and then maybe around 10% between $7.25-$10.10. Yet if it is raised it would be some type of economic disaster? It's more tax revenue, it's more money to people who actually spend every dollar they make. We make a big deal out of this, yet a CEO can run a bank into the ground with foolishness (you know, an educated man or woman who should know better) and get rewarded with a nice golden parachute of say $10MM as a thank you for being a horrible leader, but we seem okay with that...yet you don't want to pay a $1.50 for fries instead of $1.10 so somebody can make a decent wage to possibly afford to pay rising housing and energy costs, or possibly make it easier to pay off student debt, and possibly raise them above the level where they currently get government assistance, the thing WSJ readers loathe more than anything else in life.

    • If there are already twenty or so states that have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum, couldn't we settle the argument of whether raising the minimum wage is a good thing by analyzing those cases? If we look at the history of economic growth, job growth and dependency before and after the wage was raised in those states that have already done so, that should provide a pretty conclusive indicator of whether it makes sense on a national level. Why aren't we looking at this issue scientifically rather than ideologically?

      Will some data nerd please help?

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