$15 didn't make sense, so lets do $17

The minimum wage has not changed but I order from Siri when I go to a McDonalds drive thru. They have trouble getting help. So does Burger King. And Wendy’s. And Taco Bell. Politicans have been requesting to raise the minimum wage for over a decade…but it’s still the same as it was in 2009. How has a wage that hasn’t changed in 14 years impacted inflation this year? Why are fast food places having difficulty hiring people when they are offering more than double the minimum wage? Why didn’t McDonalds and others put in kiosks and automated drive thru order takers earlier than this? Yes indeed…“Bidenflation” has played a role in the price of a hamburger, but how did the minimum wage impact that if companies weren’t 'forced" to pay minimum wage. True, I’m no economist, but if I was running a business where I was fully staffed with people makiing $7.25 per hour in 2019, I just can’t see how the market determining $15 or more per hour doesn’t impact the price of that burger in 2023. Seems like it is being determined by the market, but the market apparently says that kiosks and automated order takers are better than paying a human to do the work. YEt still my Big Mac meal is over ten bucks.

Because you live in a state that has sanity. When I was in Texas and Tennessee, prices were so much lower than Maryland that pays $20/hr. Of course if businesses want the human interaction rather than a kiosk or a robot, they’ll pay more. When I was in PA where wages doubled in two years (from $9/hr in 2020 to $16/hr in 2022), I saw the first robot cleaning (mopping) floors at a grocery store

I do think a low minimum wage is appropriate for young teens and convicts. I do think those who are reliable employees or those who have additional skills / experience should get a larger salary

I’d agree. When North Dakota had its oil boom 10+ years ago or when PA has a labor shortage, the minimum wage becomes irrelevant thus companies will pay the wage or will automate. But at least that’s the free market rather than the govt interference

But the federal minimum wage has not changed since 2009. And Kansas doesn’t have an state minimum wage. Bears was helpful enough to post that in 2022 Biden’s inflation rate was 8.6%. Fine. In 2020 I paid 7.01 for a Big Mac meal. Citing Bidenflation at 8.6% in 2022, my meal should have gone up to 7.62 in 2022. But in 2022 I paid $9.59. SOMETHING besides inflation was at work here. In 2023 the price for my Big Mac meal was 10.03. My Burger King Whopper meal in cost $8.16 in 2020. Using Bears helpful 8.6% Bidenflation guide, my Burger should have cost $8.86. But the last time I Have BK was in 2022 and it cost me $11.01. That’s an increase of 35%. If the minimum wage, which again, hasn’t been changed since 2009 is responsible for inflation, which was 8.6% in 2022, why did my meal price increase 35%?

From what I have read, labor and benefits for fast food restaurants average 35-40% of their costs. So, they are a factor in pricing, but not the only factor.

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When democrats decided to pay people more on unemployment than they’d make working people decided to stay home causing a supply shortage in the labor force which caused pay to shoot up. All costs and expenses are paid for by the customer.

I said that the MARKET apparently determined that $7.25 wasn’t enough. It IS sad that unemployment is more than $7.25. Is it REALLY high enough that $15 an hour isn’t worth going in to work for? Hell… I shouldn’t have retired…I should have just gone on unemployment. YOu DO bring home more, but that is only because they don’t withhold income tax, which they still have to pay. And unemployment must have been really good, since people started getting in in 2020, and it only lasts 20 weeks, but here we are 3 years later and folks are still drawing unemployment (based on the difficulty fast food places are having)

Minimum wage is price fixing, purely and simply. Fixing a minimum price on any car you can buy is illegal and should be. But when government fixes a minimum price on labor, soehow it is legal AND moral!

There are some workers in some locales that are worth less than minimum wage. Minimum wage laws cause unemployment for these people.

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Yep, people are going to earn what an employer thinks they’re worth. If someone is in a minimum wage job for over a year they need to look at their skills and work ethic, not whine that the government should force employers to pay them more for just showing up.

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