A Ballot Initiative to Double the Minimum Wage

Alright, last Tuesday, Florida and Nevada had similar initiatives on the ballot - their goal was to increase the state's minimum wage to $6.15 (heh) and to index that wage to inflation. The initiatives passed by a 3 to 1 margin.

Why not put an initiative on state ballots to increase the minimum wage to a so-called living wage (what, $13 or $14?). Democrats could manage the process of getting that initiative on the ballot.

And, wouldn't the votes for the initiative have to be there? I don't care how unmotivated people on the lower end of the wage scale are, they have to be intelligent enough to know when the state is dangling 100% more pay in front of them, and as a result take some sort of action.

Also, I can't imagine that the Republicans could find enough people (small business owners and Fox News watchers who would understand the effect that a minimum-wage-doubling would have) to keep one of those initiatives from being passed.

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Originally Posted by Stone

Alright, last Tuesday, Florida and Nevada had similar initiatives on the ballot - their goal was to increase the state's minimum wage to $6.15 (heh) and to index that wage to inflation. The initiatives passed by a 3 to 1 margin.

Why not put an initiative on state ballots to increase the minimum wage to a so-called living wage (what, $13 or $14?). Democrats could manage the process of getting that initiative on the ballot.

And, wouldn't the votes for the initiative have to be there? I don't care how unmotivated people on the lower end of the wage scale are, they have to be intelligent enough to know when the state is dangling 100% more pay in front of them, and as a result take some sort of action.

Also, I can't imagine that the Republicans could find enough people (small business owners and Fox News watchers who would understand the effect that a minimum-wage-doubling would have) to keep one of those initiatives from being passed.

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Unfortunately, this would radically increase people who are off the books, increase unemployment rate, and further burden small businesses that can barely afford payroll as it is. It will never pass with a Republican majority in the Senate and House, and it also will never pass because the big corporations and their lobbyist groups would never allow it to happen

If one has earned enough raises to be making, say, $10 an hour up from $5.75, what happens to their wages if this were to come around?

I agree that the effect of a minimum wage doubling would be deadly to the economy.

However, it seems like it could be very difficult for the Republicans to defeat it if people made it a ballot initiative. You've seen what government-by-the-people ballot initiatives can do to a state like California - I think ballot initiatives are only going to become more popular, not less, and it seems like the Democratic party could start abusing ballot initiatives in this fashion to start rebuilding its constituency.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

If one has earned enough raises to be making, say, $10 an hour up from $5.75, what happens to their wages if this were to come around?

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Nothing - you would just become someone making the minimum wage, too. Increasing the minimum wage isn't a way for the government to tell corporations to pay everybody more.

Why should someone who flips burgers (literally) be paid so much to do such a job? how much would low-end (fast food, etc) restaurants have to charge to make up this cost of labor.

Hell, my company has enough headaches paying two people $9/hr to push two buttons on a packing machine (that's literally all they do).,,

This would work better if the minimum wage was brought up for certain types of jobs but Zerodash brings up a very good point, working full-time on minimum wage still puts you above poverty standards for yearly income. I make $8 an hour, am a valuable employee to the company I work for (if I were to just say tommorow that I quit their production would get severely screwed up as my department is just holding on and is one of the most important), know how to perform jobs on different machines, work a hard job that often results in my hands being sliced up by paper at the end of a day, come into work consistantly and work up to 15 hours of over-time a week and always come in if needed for overtime. Do I think I should be paid more? I would like to be paid more but the fact is that I was guarenteed $8 an hour and that's all the obligation the company has to me (that and to give me the benefits they promised) so I can't complain. People always complain about how corporations are evil and abuse people but the fact of the matter is that you can't complain when you get what you were told you were going to get, despite the fact that the President of the company is a millionaire and is a dick (I work for a corporation).

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Originally Posted by Zerodash

Why should someone who flips burgers (literally) be paid so much to do such a job? how much would low-end (fast food, etc) restaurants have to charge to make up this cost of labor.

Hell, my company has enough headaches paying two people $9/hr to push two buttons on a packing machine (that's literally all they do).,,

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This is not about how much people should be paid to do this labor. (Although, imagine a single mother trying to support two kids while she works at Walmart for $5.15/hr. At 40 hours a week, that's $206 a week, or $10812 a year. $10812 for a mother and two kids (before taxes). No health insurance? Can you begrudge that woman a chance to take an extra $15k a year out of Sam Walton's pockets for herself and her two kids?).

I am asking whether the Democrats could get enough votes together to ballot-initiative a doubling of the minimum wage into effect.

The Democrats go into Tennessee, walk up to the Jesus-lovingest guy to ever watch Dale Ernhardt race, a guy who thinks that all Democrats are latte-sipping homosexuals, and tell that guy that if he votes for this initiative, he will make twice as much money after it gets passed as he had been making before. How could any amount of Republican advertising, pro-business church efforts, and whatever else keep that initiative from gaining enough steam to get passed?

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Originally Posted by Stone

This is not about how much people should be paid to do this labor. (Although, imagine a single mother trying to support two kids while she works at Walmart for $5.15/hr. At 40 hours a week, that's $206 a week, or $10812 a year. $10812 for a mother and two kids (before taxes). No health insurance? Can you begrudge that woman a chance to take an extra $15k a year out of Sam Walton's pockets for herself and her two kids?).

I am asking whether the Democrats could get enough votes together to ballot-initiative a doubling of the minimum wage into effect.

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Does Wal-Fart even have any full time employees? :P

They would find a way to skirt around the system - as would everyone else.

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Originally Posted by Stone

This is not about how much people should be paid to do this labor. (Although, imagine a single mother trying to support two kids while she works at Walmart for $5.15/hr. At 40 hours a week, that's $206 a week, or $10812 a year. $10812 for a mother and two kids (before taxes). No health insurance? Can you begrudge that woman a chance to take an extra $15k a year out of Sam Walton's pockets for herself and her two kids?).

I am asking whether the Democrats could get enough votes together to ballot-initiative a doubling of the minimum wage into effect.

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Finding a higher paying job with health insurance isn't that difficult, my company hires women at the same rates (although many women don't want to perform a job like mine) and if I had really invested heavily into finding a good job I'd probably be making more now with much better hours (no one day weekends and eleven hour workdays).

I do sympathize with the people who are poor and work hard but at least they fight and succeed with the little amount that they have (because I'm in the same boat).

I don't like these ballot intiatives, they leave complicated government desicions up to people who know little about the issues and the impacts that they are voting for. They let the people play leadership and probably 90% of our country is not suited for it.

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Originally Posted by Gohron

I don't like these ballot intiatives, they leave complicated government desicions up to people who know little about the issues and the impacts that they are voting for. They let the people play leadership and probably 90% of our country is not suited for it.

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Yeah, I agree with you, to some extent, but what is the difference between what you are saying and this:

"I don't like everybody being able to vote. The choice of who leads our country is complicated, and it's absurd that people who know nothing about the rest of this world or politics have a vote that is as worth as much as the vote of people who actually take the time to learn something about government."

The average person is probably better equipped to understand the long term ramifications of a single issue (ballot initiative) than they are equipped to understand what will happen when they elect a representative, right?