Hiking wages

Shawn

- February 6, 2013 at 14:27:50

" Think about this: Since minimum wage went up last time, count the number of new businesses that have opened here....then count the number that have closed ----- the difference is how much "good" did it did. " Ok, lets see those numbers. I'm sure you would never make a comment like this without actually knowing the exact numbers, lets see them. Corner Brook has a multitude of reasons for a business to close and absolutely zero incentive to open. If you think min wage anything to do with those businesses closing, your not living in the same Corner Brook as the rest of us. Min wage costs a business nothing more than the labor and others costs involved with passing this expanded expense on to the consumer. Of course if the business is paying more than min wage, which a huge majority are, it means nothing.

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  david

  - February 6, 2013 at 20:25:45

  If you want a higher wage, get the marketable skills that support it, or go to where the high demand for labour provides for it...or better yet, do both. What is so G.D. hard to understand about that? ...well, other than it means having to get off your arse, take responsibility for yourself and make an effort. Harper had it right and everyone knows it......his only mistake was to say it out loud.

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  Shawn

  - February 7, 2013 at 08:44:50

  David, that is exactly what is happening. More and more people are not accepting min wage jobs anymore because they know they can do better elsewhere, and they are. This has prompted government to allow and subsidize companies, via government programs and tax incentives, to bring in foreign workers to fill these jobs. Since this is happening, foreign workers are becoming the preference since their wages are subsidized by the government and local people have even been let go simply to hire the subsidized foreign workers. Next time you go through the drive-thu, remember that your tax dollars are paying a portion of these peoples wages now. Without a min wage and increases, this practice will grow and you and I will be paying more wages for min wage jobs. Now, what about those numbers I asked for? The ones you stated will explain how much "good" was related to the last min wage increase with respect to local business.

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  david

  - February 7, 2013 at 13:24:28

  Your "premise", for lack of a better word, is baseless, imaginary, mindless drivel. You are clearly incapable of anty semblance of rational action-reaction, cause-and-effect economic thinking required to have a meaningful discussion. So we're done.

Petertwo

- February 6, 2013 at 07:14:25

People on minimum wage have not had anyone in the past standing up for them. I do not believe you can improve anyone's life by keeping them in poverty. People cannot fully develop on poor nutrition, or by being perpetually abused because of their birth. There is no instant cure. In any event the human race did not get where it is today by their efforts but by those who went before. A lot of credit has to go to the unions in the past who fought against this same type of poverty and raised their living conditions in spite of those who wanted to keep them in virtual and perpetual slavery, much like we still occasionally read about.

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Too Funny

- February 6, 2013 at 00:40:30

"They don’t take the extra money and stuff it away for a rainy day". No, you don't say, but then again who has extra money to "stuff away". The last I heard is that Canadians are carrying an increasing level of debt. That doesn't seem to jive with the editor's out-to-lunch opinion of "stuffing" money away. The editor needs to take a basic course in economics before writing such gibberish.

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Frank Tock

- February 5, 2013 at 19:30:35

What a harebrained notion this editorial proposes. Doesn't the editorialist realize that any increase in wages a business pays out to its employees will simply be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher costs for goods? And that some of these consumers will be the minimum wage earners the editorialist is advocating for? The twisted logic professed by this editorial is rather perplexing.

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david

- February 5, 2013 at 10:26:18

The entire concept of a "minimum wage" is a completely flawed, baseless and destructive idea. It subsidizes personal irresponsibility, it dis-incents people from improving their employment skills, it discourages the workforce to go where there are good jobs going unfilled, and it negatively, often ruinously, erodes the cost structure of businesses which then are forced to close or move elsewhere. If, for the sake of votes and "public popularity", government blindly and backwardly adopts such policies, there is no escaping the inevitable, grim future. Bribing and "clinging" to the last few employment-seeking souls left is no substitute for economic growth, job creation, and market supply-and-demand fundamentals. And cheering the government on to blindly fight these forces will simply bankrupt us. It's that simple. Think about this: Since minimum wage went up last time, count the number of new businesses that have opened here....then count the number that have closed ----- the difference is how much "good" did it did. But hey, we're only here a few more years....who cares what happens to this place then, right? Think like a politician: Frig dat.

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