[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
If the minimum wage were to be raised significantly, there will be fewer jobs. So it's a trade-off.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nearly every salaried job out there has yearly adjustments to the cost of living. I've been working for 15 years and have never NOT held a job that didn't include a yearly wage adjustment.

Meanwhile, the minimum wage has not risen in 7 years.

Furthermore... some studies have shown that your statement is wrong:

[ QUOTE ]
This unified view was challenged by empirical research done by David Card and Alan Krueger. In their 1997 book Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage (ISBN 0-691-04823-1), they argued the negative employment effects of minimum-wage laws to be minimal if not non-existent (at least for the United States). For example, they look at the 1992 increase in New Jersey's minimum wage, the 1988 rise in California's minimum wage, and the 1990-91 increases in the federal minimum wage. In each case, Card and Kreuger present evidence ostensibly showing that increases in the minimum wage led to increases in pay, but no loss in jobs. That is, it appears that the demand for low-wage workers is inelastic. [ QUOTE ]


[ QUOTE ]
Very few people even try to make a living on minimum wage, and it's NOT a living wage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why don't you show how many people try to make a living at minimum wage. I suspect you're guessing. In the program, the host was working with other adults who were all working minimum wage jobs to support their families. Furthermore, at least according to this program, the Minimum wage was established precisely to be a minimum living wage.

And again... I think you're guessing. A quick search found this:
[ QUOTE ]
The number of jobs where wages were below what a worker would need to support a family of four above the poverty line also grew between 1979 and 1999. In 1999, 26.8% of the workforce earned poverty-level wages, an increase from 23.7% in 1979.


[/ QUOTE ]

On top of that, I have several state sites that SPECIFICALLY refer to it as "living wage."

[ QUOTE ]
It's funny you should base your take on what it's like to try to rise from being broke, on some show, which profiles a few people trying to do that on minimum wage. Well if you've never done it yourself I guess that's all you have to go on. The first question to ask is, why are these people trying to get out of being broke by working for minimum wage?

[/ QUOTE ]

Many people have no choice. I find it amusing when people think that there are always better jobs available to anyone who wants them if they only look for them.

Your situation is not necessarily the same as others. You took time off and spent a few hundred dollars to learn a trade. Some people don't have the luxury of taking time off, they don't have a few hundred dollars to spend because they're already in debt, etc. They may live in areas where they don't have the opportunities you do. etc.

Everyone doesn't have the skills/brains/opportunities/options/education that you do. Some people have to take the crappy job that is available to them. The idea is that these people working these jobs shouldn't be below poverty.

[ QUOTE ]
Or you can take the temporary route of working two jobs or lots of overtime to save some money

[/ QUOTE ] Why do assume people working near minimum wage aren't already doing this.