"It is not the employer who pays the wages. The employers simply handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages." ----Henry Ford. Henry Ford angered many of his contemporaries among the industrial elite of his time. Because most of them believed that he over-payed his workers. But Ford was a firm believer in paying his workers enough so that they could afford to BUY the product they made. One, it made them far more invested in creating a quality product...and two....it lead to a healthier economy because is workers could buy cars....and other products. Although Karl Marx had SO many wrong ideas about how do fix the problems of (unregulated) capitalism, he was OH-SO-RIGHT when it came to diagnosing the problems that unregulated capitalism creates. Paying workers a sub-living wage is penny-wise and dollar stupid. Because---although the business owner and customer might make more money and save money in the short-term-----they make less money and cost themselves more money in the long-term. You get what you pay for. Employers get employees who do poorer quality work, are less reliable. Have higher absentee rates. Have high turnover rates. Are more likely to have accidents and other problems on the job. Have a more difficult time attracting capable workers. Customers get poorer products. Poorer or non-existent service Wind up with more people consuming tax dollars for social services in an effort to make up the difference between what workers are getting paid, and what they actually need to live off of...... Since the days of minimum wage jobs being occupited many by teenage part-time workers is a thing of the past. Most people working these jobs are adults who are actually trying to LIVE off of these measly wages. ....and fewer people out their able to afford to pay for the goods and services that THEY produce at their own jobs. In fact, you can argue that paying people sub-living wages actually DISINCENTIVIZES them to work. Since, in many cases, you can maintain a better living standard on public assistance than you can working minimum wage jobs. My spending is someone else's income. Their spending is my income. Henry Ford----whatever his other character flaws were-----understood this.

Because eventually every job is going to be automated whether we want them to be automated or not. Raising the minimum wage is a stepping stone. Eventually, a universal basic income will become necessary as the job market shrinks even more and more people are born. Taxi drivers, gas stations, bus drivers, cashiers, cooks, servers, etc. etc. will no longer exist. Only robots. We need to start thinking about how we want to restructure our society. A society with 340 million people and only a few thousand jobs available is not possible for our society to function. The poor will become extremely poor while a few rich get extremely rich. We are seeing a little bit of that transition now with the rise of automation in recent years. Eventually, we will reach the point where humans don't need to work at all. Robots will be running everything, and making more robots. Humans will just exist. Live. Do what they want with no need to worry about work, food, water etc. So, what are humans to do? How can wealth be earned if no jobs become available? Money will be obsolete, so people will have to find wealth in other ways. We will have to redefine wealth. My guess is entertainment. Creativity. Pleasure. Such emotions will become the new currency. I believe concepts like this are explored in "A Brave New World." Automation is on the rise. It's already here. We need to adapt.

Right now, there is not a single state in the us where a single parent making minimum wage can afford the rent on a two bedroom apartment, that's why. Cost of living has been rising every year while average income remains the same. My daughter is 2 weeks old, my wife has been out of work for about a month now, so we're forced to live on solely my income. I make 14$/hour, nearly twice the minimum wage, and I'm struggling to pay rent on a one bedroom apartment and keep food on the table and bills paid. That should not be the case.

I'm not asking for any handouts or even for the minimum wage to be raised, but I'm just here to put something into perspective about the minimum wage situation. I am an assistant manager at a retailer in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. I am 20, I work full time and pay to go to a local community college full time and I live with my parents. I make $10/hour(the min wage is $7.25 here) and I bust my ass at work every day, I'm never late and I always do my job to the best of my ability but I'll be lucky to get a $1 raise this summer. I work about 40 hrs/week and every 2 weeks after my benefits and taxes are taken out of my pay I have about a $580 paycheck. Now let's just say I wasn't in college and I was living on my own. I would have an income of about $1200/month(after my taxes and benefits). I would need at least $750 for rent if I were on my own. My car payment is $220/month but let's just round it up to $300 to factor in insurance. That leaves me with only $150 for gas, food, my phone, and any other necessities. That is not livable. I would not be able to sustain myself working 40hrs/week and making more than the minimum wage. It be would pretty hard to have money for things I need like toiletries, clothes, and any other kind of personal expenses. I would pray that I never got sick or had to go to a doctor for any reason. Yes I know that if I had a "real job" I wouldn't have to work so much about money. But that's why I'm in college and why I'm glad to be able to stay with my parents while I'm doing that. But anyway, if I was on my own, I just don't know how it would be possible.

Won't be tipping the servers at restraunts knowing they make 15 an hour now

Raising the minimum wage will cause prices to rise all across the board. You'll be earning more but you will also be spending more. You will be right back where you started, it is insane to think otherwise. Find a better job if you aren't making enough money. Get a better education. Make better decisions in life. You know, be a responsible adult.

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Doesn't matter if it's raised or not. Businesses will just pass the increase to the consumer.

Should be raised to match the minimum cost of life in each state and province by the state or province. A blanket federal wage isn't smart or bendable for the different costs of living in different places.

I'm pretty apathetic towards raising minimum wage, but I would say that as long as food prices, taxes, heating/water/electrical bills all rise, so too should minimum wage. However, nurses definitely need their wages increasing.

I don't think the minimum wage should be increased, I think you should actually get real raises when you do a good job & also for learning other jobs within your company. Not everyone is cut out for management, so that is not always an option, nut if you happen to be the best damn burger-flippin, order takin, shelf stockin, fry droppin, always early, never missin a day, bathroom cleanin, team player, then by all the Gods of Porn, you should be making $15 an hour! Give these people a reason to work hard & do a good job.

1) Any job that offers 40 hours a week should offer a living wage 2) Any company that can't support providing a living wage shouldn't exist 3) What is a living wage is poorly defined and may be beneath/above the $15/hr mark, and is different per region

I'd rather not try to survive on a 1980's minimum wage in a 2017 cost of living.

Answer me this: what good is a minimum wage if working a full time job that pays minimum wage isn't enough to live on? I might as well be making $2/hr instead of $8/hr if $8 doesn't buy me anything.

I have a friend who moved here from Poland when he was only 3. He never really had much, with his mother working around the house and looking after him, as he has no other family in the country, and his dad working 6 days a week, 11 hours a day. He works on minimum wage, and can barely support the family. They sometimes run out of electricity and heating, and he's never had internet access in his life. [spoiler]Argue against this.[/spoiler]

Because wages must keep up with inflation. Now, rather than doubling the minimum wage out of nowhere, they should be gradually raising it.