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    KarmaIIHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 4:08pm

    I currently work at a Fortune 100 company doing SharePoint maintenance/development and make $13.50 an hour. Hear me crying? NO!! Because I know that the job is only a stepping stone to a new, higher paying job, that I will obtain after learning new skills and working hard to get there. While I agree that the CEO to average worker disparity is a disgrace, I do not feel that fast food workers should be making $15/hr. At least not in this universe.

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      Hamilton NolanKarmaII
      8/29/13 4:17pm

      How about if your job was not a stepping stone, but rather an almost certain dead end? Would you feel differently?

      Also, $13.50 is far closer to what these workers are asking for than it is to what they currently make.

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      a most evil queenKarmaII
      8/29/13 4:37pm

      "My comparably cushy job with many opportunities for advancement TOTALLY justifies multi-billion dollar corporations keeping their workers in abject poverty. KFC, more like STFU, amirite?" -you, chuckling at the bottom of your beer glass, because not even the bartender can feign interest. Later, when your laughs turn into sloppy sobs, he will drop the check and roll his eyes.

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    JohnMcClanesSmirkHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:18pm

    If people were willing to pay 22 extra cents they could make over $15 / hour. But since this is a race to the bottom it would absolutely require city's to institute minimum wage laws (federal would be impossible, also cost of living in big cities is hard to factor in.)

    Yes, it would hurt franchise owners, but their economic suffering (though the corporations would be negligible) would be far outweighed by the millions who would be able to support a decent life, the reduction of the need for service workers to use federal and state assistance programs, and whatever the benefit - however one qualifies it - of reduced stigma and increased human dignity. The value of having millions who can tell friends and family they work in the service industry and it's a seen as a respectable way to make a living.

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      sfltrack000JohnMcClanesSmirk
      8/29/13 3:33pm

      So, you pay more that the list price when you buy a Big Mac or an order of fries. All the fast food franchises around here (west Mi) are paid $1.50 to $2.00 above the minimum wage. As dictated by the labor market.

      You should start your own chain that pays $15 / hour and charge .22 extra cents. Compete in the free market and run ads that show you pay a living wage. Otherwise, STFU.

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      JohnMcClanesSmirksfltrack000
      8/29/13 3:50pm

      Ah, cartoon libertarian ecomincs. If we lived in a truly free market economy I would agree with you, but we dont and never have. Minimum wage laws are not corruptions of the labor market, their corrections of an already arbitrary, favoritist government market based on the allocation of limited resources by the state

      This includes tax breaks, subsidizing Big Ag, worker training in basic math and language skills by public school, etc. Absent your Randian utopia, I'd like to treat people with minimal human dignity.

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    GuyFawkes444Hamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:05pm

    "Half the people out here got degrees."

    Not only did easy access to Federal student loan money and Federal loan guarantees create a massive student debt crisis, it also cheapened having a degree. More education is NOT always the best option. This country needs to identify kids who are not college material and steer them towards trade industry training while still in high school.

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      Account DeletedGuyFawkes444
      8/29/13 3:11pm

      That's why we have professional sports.

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      beansandfranksIIIGuyFawkes444
      8/29/13 3:14pm

      You're a obtuse tool bag. Too bad they didn't find you earlier and send you to an anti-douche trade school.

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    SequaciousliciousHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:14pm

    Has anyone noticed that the narrative has gone from "Fast food employees want consistent full-time schedules and a livable wage, which could mean $15/ hr. for NY city workers" to "All the mofos all want $15/ hr for flipping burgers for 3 hrs in Birmingham, AL? Lazy bums...gov't assistance...get a better job...college...this shouldn't be long term....bootstraps."

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      SlickWillieSequaciouslicious
      8/29/13 3:24pm

      Did you think it would turn out any other way?

      "I only made $12 an hour after getting a college degree at my first job! It's not my fault for having such low expectations of my worth to the company, or my boss's fault for taking advantage of this, of course, it's these people. These people are trying to escape poverty without having went to college at $20K a year and that's cheating."

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      SequaciousliciousSlickWillie
      8/29/13 3:45pm

      I wasn't expecting it from my more liberal friends. But I have discovered that friends from both sides take headlines wrong with little to no research or evaluation of the source. Damn Headline Jockeys.

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    UpperNinetyHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 4:11pm

    Can someone provide a link that shows all the cities where this is occurring? I keep seeing "over 50 cities" and "60 cities" (like above), but can't seem to find a list.

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      Hamilton NolanUpperNinety
      8/29/13 4:16pm

      https://twitter.com/fastfoodforwar…

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      UpperNinetyHamilton Nolan
      8/29/13 4:19pm

      Thanks!

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    Paco DethHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:11pm

    So I'm confused... Obviously these low skill, no education jobs aren't meant to be careers. In 1999, me and many other people worked jobs at the then current minimum wage of $5.15/hr. Guess what, with inflation that $5.15 in 1999 dollars has the same buying power of $7.22 in 2013 dollars.

    So they are shouting for $15/hr... that's fucking nuts for one. So let's say they are just shooting high, so if there is any bargaining then they get somewhere in the middle. The average McDonald's casher makes $7.75/hr, in the middle between $15/hr would put them at $11.37/hr.

    Hell, only a handful of years ago, after spending years attending college, spending a good deal of money on tuition and other school related costs, and getting a degree, it still took me a few years to get lucky and finally get a real job making a whopping $12.83/hr. And the only reason it was that high was because $1.06/hr of that was a third shift incentive, and I was pretty darn content with that pay.

    So people with no attributable skills or education should be making $11.37/hr?

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      ARP2Paco Deth
      8/30/13 12:06am

      Do you do the same analysis for CXO's, brokers, traders, etc.? Funny how that never happens.

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      Stealth TomatoPaco Deth
      8/30/13 11:40am

      Your inflation adjustment disappeared halfway through the post when it became inconvenient to your argument.

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    Pro-DaydreamerHamilton Nolan
    8/30/13 7:53am

    If I hear one more person say "these jobs are not meant to be careers. They're meant to be stepping stones" I'm going to scream! Can we PLEASE stop pretending that our system has room for everyone to step up the economic ladder? Even if all of those lazy, no good, poor people were to go out and get advanced degrees in STEM fields, there would still be a bottom class of minimum wage workers.

    THERE HAS TO BE A BOTTOM. The question is: What kind of treatment does the bottom deserve?

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      gator1188Pro-Daydreamer
      9/01/13 11:36am

      Well I make about $20/hr as a police officer in a major metropolitan city. Why should someone flipping burgers make just $5/hr less than me? Your salary is based on the demand the skill requires. The rarer the skill, the higher the salary. Flipping burgers, and filling cups is not a position that requires rare, high skills hence the minimum wage salaries. This whole thing will fizzle out soon.

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      Pro-Daydreamergator1188
      9/02/13 5:08am

      15 bucks may be too much, but as stated, they're probably shooting high simply as a starting point. In the end, the more money is distributed amongst the population, the better the economy will be.

      Your point about rare skills can also be said about the manufacturing industries that have been off-shored. Why should Apple et al, pay employees the same as you, a policeman who puts his life on the line everyday, when they can pay dirt to a chinese laborer?

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    Account DeletedHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:06pm

    In before, "Why should unskilled workers be permitted to earn enough money to survive?!" outrage.

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      ¶haelinAccount Deleted
      8/29/13 5:04pm

      That's a strange definition of "survive" you've got going on there. You don't need $15 an hour to survive. I do agree that $7 sucks ass, however.

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      Account Deleted¶haelin
      8/29/13 5:21pm

      If "survival" includes "not being homeless," how about we take a look at some median rent maps?

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    raincoasterHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 6:59pm

    Make no mistake: they eventually WILL be replaced by robots, as will store cashiers (it's underway already), but in the meantime the least we can do is allow working people to make a living wage, and enough hours to make a living at it.

    My seven years at Starbucks were, oddly, the most profitable of my life, but only because of the stock options (granted at $8 and sold at $36) and an eventual promotion to assistant manager, where I had a guaranteed 35 hours a week. But that company is unusual, in a rapacious, generally franchise-owned and brutally competitive industry. I've pulled 48 hour shifts. I remember the year that year end inventory was set on Christmas Eve (or it might have been New Year's Eve...all I remember is I was so furious at the head office I sent one of the staff over to the liquor store to get us some booze to get us through it).

    I tried doing the Mother Jones Fast Food Wage calculator, and it basically said there was no way, even with my poverty-coping skills, that I could possibly make a living now as a fast food worker.

    It says a lot about America that for many millions of people, the American Dream is 35 hours a week at minimum wage, and that it is unattainable.

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      Billiousraincoaster
      8/29/13 9:26pm

      Bring on the robots!

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      raincoasterBillious
      8/29/13 10:15pm

      Yeah, sure. You say that now.

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    Orangu-ManHamilton Nolan
    8/29/13 3:05pm

    Even taking currency conversion into account, still kinda silly.

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      PootCarrOrangu-Man
      8/29/13 3:10pm

      Umpa Lumpas only make .30 cents an hour. What a fucking hypocrite this Wonka character is.

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      Exponential GrapeOrangu-Man
      8/29/13 3:18pm

      Tell you? you told me! $0.06! how the hell am I supposed to budget for that?!

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