Should the US raise the federal minimum wage?

[Valmy]

I have heard that the people making minimum wage are largely women so increasing it would make a dramatic impact on the gender wage gap. I suppose this is because so much of the male underclass is in jail.

With that consideration, that alot of these are single women likely with children, raising it to $10 or $15 might be a good idea. I don't know. There are also lots of college and high school kids working MW jobs who don't need it...well actually with college tuition being what it is. I mean outside of considerations about how many MW jobs that would kill.

[DontSayBanana]

Because that was the last time we raised it. If $7.25 2009 dollars was good for 2009 why not 2015? Not much has changed since then.

For starters, it was actually a stepped program from 2007, so $7.25 was "good enough" for 2007, not 2009.  In fact, it wasn't that it was good enough, but that was as much as they could muster the political willpower to implement.

Come to think of it, they couldn't even implement that on its own- the only way they managed the minimum wage hike was to attach it as a rider to the 2007 appropriations bill for Iraq War funding.

[Valmy]

Congress couldn't pass a bill saying the sky is blue without doing shit like that.

[Syt]

Well it was $7.25 in 2009 so I guess in today's money that would be about $8. So raise it to that.

Is there no automatic mechanism for adjusting the minimum wage (inflation, average wage increases or similar)?

[Valmy]

Well it was $7.25 in 2009 so I guess in today's money that would be about $8. So raise it to that.

Is there no automatic mechanism for adjusting the minimum wage (inflation, average wage increases or similar)?

Nope. And wages are pretty stagnant so most American workers have gotten poorer as the years go by.

[viper37]

Let the states raise their minimum wages.

that.

It's up to the States to do it, not the Federal.  Then people will move to States they feel better in, if it really makes a difference.

[Habbaku]

Let the states raise their minimum wages.

Yeah.

States like New York might be able to handle a $15/hour rate across the board, but this will cause some serious pain in places like Mississippi, Arkansas, etc.

[crazy canuck]

Are States able to set minimum standards for Federally regulated employees?

[The Brain]

I don't have an opinion on US minimum wage.

[Tonitrus]

There's a separate minimum wage for tipped positions.  Currently $2.13 I believe.

That's a good first start for change.  Tips shouldn't subsidize restaurants.

[Admiral Yi]

That's a good first start for change.  Tips shouldn't subsidize restaurants.

They don't.

[crazy canuck]

That's a good first start for change.  Tips shouldn't subsidize restaurants.

They don't.

In theory that is true.  But in practice, all too often, the house takes a percentage of the tip pool.

[Berkut]

That's a good first start for change.  Tips shouldn't subsidize restaurants.

They don't.

In theory that is true.  But in practice, all too often, the house takes a percentage of the tip pool.

Really? How often is that?

[crazy canuck]

That's a good first start for change.  Tips shouldn't subsidize restaurants.

They don't.

In theory that is true.  But in practice, all too often, the house takes a percentage of the tip pool.

Really? How often is that?

All too often

[Martinus]

Even when the house does not take a cut, tips do subsidise restaurants as tipping culture allows restaurants to get away with paying their employees less.