The REAL minimum wage

[messymessy]

One of the biggest arguements for raising the minimum wage is that it is not a living wage. We as a nation already support a much higher living wage through the tax system and the earned income credit.

Take for example a married couple with two children under age 17. Assume one parent works earning the minimum wage. Assume the other parent stays home with the kids. While gross earnings for this one minimum wage earner would be $15080 (based on $7.25 per hour, 40 hrs per week, 52 weeks), he or she would be eligible to get a tax "refund" of $7184 (assumes no income tax withheld throughout the year). This number is the total of the earned income credit and the child tax credit.

So a minimum wage earner gets a taxpayer funded bonus of $3.45 an hour, for an effective minimum wage of $10.70 per hour.

[dae2dae]

and even with those credits a family of 3 is just above the poverty line and a family of 4 is well below the poverty line.
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/to ... lines.html

[Rodebaugh]

and even with those credits a family of 3 is just above the poverty line and a family of 4 is well below the poverty line.
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/to ... lines.html

Let us not forget the myriad of free government assistance: obama phones, food stamps, medicare, subsidised housing, gasoline vouchers, clothing vouchers, free school lunch, ect. I would venture to say that these programs add 500-1500/month of tax fee income to the bottom line if one so chooses to utilize them.

[johnbrickner]

(snip)

Let us not forget the myriad of free government assistance: obama phones, food stamps, medicare, subsidised housing, gasoline vouchers, clothing vouchers, free school lunch, ect. I would venture to say that these programs add 500-1500/month of tax fee income to the bottom line if one so chooses to utilize them.

Entitlements for having a u.s. social security number and being a ward of the state?

[Diggin4copper]

Here in Massachusetts, a woman with 2 children needs to make 60K+ to make what the government provides in welfare, housing, medical and food...talk about making people comfortable in their unemployment...

[knibloe]

somewhere i heard/read that the average family on welfare gets $42000 in gov benefits.

[Hawkeye]

I saw an article a while back that said, in the state of Iowa, there is no point in a single mother of 2 to make anything between $17,000 and $57,000 a year. (I think those are right, but I could be off a little) Things like that do make me think twice about my stance on minimum wages. Personally, I don't like minimum wages and I don't know that they should be part of a free market. But, we don't have a free market any more. People are getting paid one way or another and we are going to pay for it one way or another. It's just a matter of how it's going to get done. I don't have an answer.

[Hawkeye]

On a different note, I also heard a while back while they were debating the farm bill that, if Congress failed to act on the Bill, milk prices would go up because dairy subsidies would expire. Call me crazy, but I would rather just pay the actual price for a gallon of milk, say $8, than pay $5 for the gallon of milk and then pay the government $3 in taxes so they can give it to the dairy farmer so I can buy $5 milk. The more I think about our whole system, the more my head hurts.

[silverflake]

You can't keep upping the minimum wage without getting rid of inflation. So you choose $10.10 as the new min wage. So what? In a couple of years, that will be complained about because even the false 2% inflation he fed talks about eats away constantly at your money. So, keep raising it but you'll never be able to stop in a system where the monetary policy dictates even a little inflation.