The twenty dollar Big Mac

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Feuer Fri:
What is a CPI increase?

What is CPI Increase? Not sure if serious but let me quickly outline what CPI is. CPI stands for Consumer Price Index. In my country for instance the cpi gets adjusted quarterly. CPI in a nutshell is the measurement of the average price paid for a market basket of goods and services.
Items are bought by 2 groups, namely Urban consumers and Urban wage earners.
Now, what has the cpi got to do with the cost of hiring someone to flip burgers at Maccas? Well, apart from inflation, which i will cover shortly, cpi adjustments are used by escalation agreements, escalation contracts ask for an increase in types of payments made when an increase of prices occurs (cpi adjustments).
An adjustment of wage rates also is included here.
These are called collective bargaining agreements. CPI increases drive costs like rent, housing, food, goods, services and more. To compensate for the increase in living costs, wage rates are adjusted. Quiete simple really. Not getting a cpi increase, regularly, is actually almost a stealth pay cut. If you follow me.
CPI increases are there to cover inflation. I think you call it indexing in your Country. So do we.

Inflation is felt by the company that employs people. Not just employees.

Agreed, however that's not the points i'm trying to raise.
Although, inflation also has something to do with annual wage increases.

Award rates reviews? Just what is that?

Here or Here Granted, i'm talking about Australia here, but you get the idea. Not sure if the States have that? I'd be extremely surprised if not. I would imagine the US Dept of Labour-Wage and Hour Division would be involved in that perhaps.

Outdated contracts. Since when did minimum wage employees sign a contract?

Again, i am talking about my country. Granted, i should be using examples that are applicable to the country of origin for the article.

Out dated workplace agreements? Must be something new.

Granted, one should never allow a contract or workplace agreement to become outdated, but it does happen. Once again, i used my country as an example.

The bottom line for most employees is performance. You don't perform you are not awarded a increase in pay.

Wrong. It seems you want to talk about wage rate increaes yet you also want to talk about someone not performing well in their jobs so they aren't qualified to obtain a wage increase? Well, if the case you make is that a person that's on a minimum wage doesn't perform and they aren't entitled to a wage increase, then what are they doing there still? In fact, the article mentions nothing of poor performance. Or does it? So, we come back to wage increases, cpi, inflation, workplace bargaining agreements, annual wage rate reviews, and so forth.
You don't perform, you don't get a pay rise? I don't understand what that has to do with the point i'm trying to make that every, yes every working person in America is entitled to pay rises, reviewed annually, in line with indexing and inflation.
I am talking about minimum wage per hour, no bonuses, no tips, no allowances, nothing, just the minimum amount you get paid. Or in better terms, the base rate.

Further, indexing the minimum wage means adjusting it annually to keep pace with rising costs of living. But i've already outlined that. CPI.
In 2011, just as an example, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington saw their minimum wages automatically go up by 9 to 12 cents.
The minimum wage at Maccas does not take into account rising prices.
After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage is about $3.30 less than it was in 1968. Back then—forty-five years ago—the minimum wage was $10.56 an hour, according to a very useful chart from CNNMoney.
There we have inflation, and how it ties in with cpi and wage rates.
Here's a good read on a study that was done 20-odd years ago on fast food outlets, minimum wage rates and increases, and how employers felt about that http://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

When workers are paid more, they tend to work harder, and quit less readily. Firms, knowing they can’t simply rely on low wages, have an incentive to invest in new equipment and training programs. All of these things can boost productivity, which is the lynchpin of prosperity.
President Obama noted in his speech, “a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong.” And he’s right.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Are you? From the article it seems to be the belief of the people who are in those positions, and they said so. This means that you are the one on the outside trying to tell them what they should do, not the other way around.

Not at all Steve, i was referring to another poster with that comment, for it seemed that they were in that position.

You seem to be of the opinion that people not qualified for better positions should get the extra money anyway

. When it has to do with annual wage reviews, indexing and inflation, then a wage rate increase is not only fair but just, to meet the increased costs.

Raises go to people who earn them.

Yes of course, but i think somewhere along the line wires were crossed with other members and perhaps i didn't make myself clear, i wasn't talking about performance-based increases in payment. Or bonuses, allowances or any other money on top of the minimum rate of pay for these workers. I was, and am talking about the minimum wage and how that should be adjusted annually if not half-yearly, which it is in this country, to meet the rising costs of living caused by the cpi, or indexing.
Once again, i made the mistake of using my country as an example, which is not being realistic.
But you get what i mean.

Yes it is. The correct answer is to learn new skills that are worth more money. Employers pay what the service is worth, not what you or anyone else says they should.

Well learning new skills is not the issue here since emplyees seem to be 'management' material, or so i read it.
Yes, employers pay what people are worth, but we must be careful to ensure what the employer pays is also the award rate. Paying the correct amount to a employee is law. Once again, we are not talking about performance-based bonuses, or raises dependent on someone's amazing skill set at work.
We are, or at least i was, talking about the minimum award rate. There is no way out for an employer to NOT pay that. Nothing to do with performance.

Actually that is an outstanding wage for someone with minimal or no job skill. I don't know what world you live in, but I would jump on a job that paid that much.

U.S. minimum wage is low compared to its counterparts in other advanced countries. In France and Ireland, for example, the minimum remuneration level is more than eleven dollars an hour. Even in Great Britain, which is usually regarded as a country with a flexible, U.S.-style labor market, it is close to ten dollars an hour. Another informative chart, this one from Business Insider, shows that the U.S. minimum wage is comparable to ones in places like Greece, Spain, and Slovenia—countries where G.D.P. per capita and labor productivity are markedly lower than in the United States. You have an advanced economy but a middle-level minimum wage.
That chart is 2011, however, At the current $7.25 rate, full-time workers earning minimum wage make an annual $14,500, while the federal poverty level for a family of two is $15,130. Some have argued that Obama should have called for an even higher wage floor — he promised $9.50 in his 2008 campaign — but regardless, the United States has one of the lowest minimum wages among developed economies.
Her's a more recent chart:
http://i.imgur.com/R1u0vAi.gif

I'm in Australia, and as you can see, $15 p/hr is not a big deal, so to speak for us Aussies.
Now, i wouldn't call any of that minimum wage, letalone the $15 p/hr they are asking for, a fat pay cheque? Would you, after seeing the facts that i linked with charts above?
Some of the major economies in Europe also pay well above the U.S. minimum. France just raised its minimum wage to €9.43, or $12.68 an hour, while workers in the U.K. are paid at least £6.11, or about $9.50.
Hell, even Canada gets more, although they don't have a minimum national wage, workers must be paid at least 9.75 Canadian dollars, or $9.73, an hour, while workers in Yukon get at least $10.27.
Obama proposed a national hike of minmum wages to $9 US, but even then it would leave the US trailing above-mentioned counterparts.

Again, you get paid what you're worth, not what you demand.

Again, that is not what i'm trying to get across. Probably my fault in not making myself concise enough in the first place.