Can we stop talking about raising the minimum wage?

[noamnety]

Nobody's asking for a raise; they are asking for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).

When a government employee's salary is adjusted annually for the cost of living, it's not a raise. When Social Security benefits are adjusted, it's not a raise.

A raise implies an increase in purchasing power, it implies getting ahead, it implies a reward for performance or seniority.

A COLA just keeps up with the consumer price index, and rises with time like every other business expense an employer has to deal with. We should be pushing for legislation that guarantees an annual COLA for the minimum wage. Not a one-time raise, not a one-time increase, but an annual Cost of Living Adjustment, calculated in the same way that Social Security adjustments are calculated.

[Dhalgren]

1. Excellent! You are right. COLA, not "raise"...

[dad]

2. Let's go Socialist style and institute a maximum wage

Then say that the minimum wage would be 1/12th of that.

[noamnety]

3. bad framing

:spank:

[Taxloss]

4. What's wrong with raising the minimum wage?

The pay of executives isn't linked to performance, they even get rewarded for failure. Raise the wage until it is fair.

[ComerPerro]

7. Nothing. But that's the OP's point

Its not "raising the minimum wage".

Its "cost of living".

So its all about phrasing.

We can't demand "raising" or "increasing" the minimum wage, because Republicans just spin it as greedy and lazy people wanting more money for the same work.

So I think the OP was just suggesting that this is could be a better way to frame it, and to rationalize it.

[Taxloss]

9. All the same, it should be raised above increase in cost of living.

People who that minimum-wage-earners are greedy or lazy for seeking a raise should try working a minimum wage job. They're possibly the least greedy or lazy people in society.

[noamnety]

10. Exactly

People haven't asked for more money for the same work, they've asked for the same money for the same work. The same money, in today's dollars.

[wuushew]

5. The COLA adjustment must happen after a raise(not one or the other)

years of inflation have left the minimum wage useless.

[noamnety]

8. No, an ADJUSTMENT not a raise

The first ADJUSTMENT can (and should) be larger, to compensate for the many years when it should have had a COLA but didn't. It's shameful that we didn't have COLAs for all that time, and it ought to be corrected.

[Dr.Phool]

6. Congress just got another raise

Their salaries have increased by $31,600 since the last increase in the minimum wage.

Thats 3 times the annual salary of a minimum wage worker.