Blog #7

3/16/2015

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW FOR THIS WEEKS BLOG POST.

What were three major themes that you have learned from the reading and videos regarding the debate on minimum wage?
What are the conflicts between community and corporate interests regarding minimum wage? How, if at all, can they be resolved?
What do you believe are the consequences of having a low minimum wage vs. a higher rate like $15?
Now that we know minimum wage is going up in Oakland - how should businesses respond? Should they increase prices? Why or why not?

Blog Requirements
Post one original post each week along with a response to one student. Your original post should be at least 200 words, your response should be no less than 50 words.

Post your original post by midnight (11:59 p.m.) on Wednesday of each week and respond by midnight on Friday of each week (11:59 p.m.).

63 Comments

Maurice Ainsworth`

3/17/2015 04:09:11 pm

It's very interesting, to listen to people with masters degrees, who make $100K+ annually, discuss the income of people who are scraping the bottom of the barrel. The first theme is capitalism. There is no excuse for multi-billion dollar corporations, to not pay their employees a livable wage, and provide health care for those employees. Capitalism is the reason for low wages. In the case of walmart, the city, county and state have to bear some of the responsibility. This is because walmart employees often times get public assistance.

Classicism is another theme. I can't help but notice that a majority of the people fighting for higher wages were Black or Brown, and uneducated. The two women the videos focused on were Latina. They were projected as meek and unfortunate. To me, they were dehumanized, and disrespected. Depicted to be less than. I say this because most of the people I believe these stories were made for are from what would be considered a higher class.

The consequences of a higher wage, are hiring freezes. Companies will cry broke and not hire as they would ordinarily, and blame it on the wage increase. They will also be more picky about who they hire. I see accusations of racism and other forms of discrimination.

In Oakland, businesses can afford to raise prices. This is because all of the gentrification people can afford it. It's not about money to these people. However, the natives are not able to participate as they want to because of the expense. We have to watch all of these people, who are not from Oakland, having fun in our city. Businesses have to charge to stay afloat.

LENA COLETTO

3/18/2015 01:14:42 am

I like how you mentioned that the two women latina workers were portrayed as meek and dehumanized. One, they were being dehumanized, and two a lot of workers in the food industry are people of color, and are uneducated. With out education their opportunities become limited as they need jobs now to support families.

The other thing you mentioned was how if there was higher wages then they would higher less people to compensate. If they hired less people then that would result in understaffing, an creating a higher volume of work for fewer workers.

Michael Le

3/18/2015 07:24:14 am

Yes I agree that business can afford to raise prices. It is possible as long as every other business also raises their prices. Also, I must say that I don’t agree that corporations will hire less if the minimum wage increases because if they have less employees, they will not be as productive. If they aren’t as productive then they won’t make as much money. I believe that the employment rate won’t change too much but the prices of products will go up a bit.

Shameim Lowther

4/29/2015 05:57:33 am

Well they are doing it. Corporations such as walmart are keeping their employees and reducing their hours to 4.0-12 a week and hiring more people. so theire no room to make money-or prpose to be their. so people now have to work 3 jobs. Corporations are also contracting to hire undocumented immigrants so they can continue to pay the 8.25 an hour and have them work longer for less pay-with the neediness and language barrier it works.

Erkhes Bat-erdene

3/21/2015 11:41:51 am

Your first point also made me laugh a bit. It's hilarious seeing these upper middle class-men discuss about the income and living conditions of those that they have no experience part of. The current notion of capitalism is about greedy--get rich and continue to accrue more even though you don't necessarily need it. The giant corporations only care about profit, and if they can get away with paying low wage, then they will to maximize profit. I dislike that minimum wage is increasing as a college student, but I see the point in it.

Rayvonne Evans

4/30/2015 07:09:22 pm

I completely agree with on hiring freezes. I do feel like this will be just another way to discriminate against people. Its completely ridiculous. Due to gentrification it has allowed for Oakland to thrive. Inadvertently it has it does put the poor at more of a disadvantage because they aren't able to keep up but all in all it has helped our city stay afloat. Without gentrification the city would be in a lot worse shape than its in. These people are coming in owning homes and paying taxes which are being used to make our school system better.

LENA COLETTO

3/18/2015 12:57:43 am

One of the themes I saw was working poverty. People with great work ethics, working 40 hours a week living paycheck to measly paycheck. What people don't understand is that working in the food industry isn't rocket science and you don't need a bachelors degree, but it is hard demanding physical work combined with customer service and food workers deserve to get paid. These huge corporations have more then enough funds to up their minimum wage a few dollars. The restaurant industry isn't going to collapse because the minimum wage is raised to a reasonable 15 dollars. For corporations, it's not so much about the money, I think it's more about the idea, the people power having effect on corporations and actually changing them. Corporations will be so afraid of changing and having to give more.

What the videos portrayed is two single mothers trying to support their families, working hard long hours but still being poor at the end of the day. The videos also stated how 30 years ago food industry jobs were more for teenagers and women who had extra time to work but didn't need to. Things are different now and a lot of the workers are people trying to support their families.

The only way to have any resolve is for the restaurant industry to shoe that they value their workers and pay them what they deserve. But for that to happen the food industry will have to eat the cost themselves, it will be one of the hardest changes to make to get a large corporation to make less profit.

Yvette Castillo

3/23/2015 07:10:24 am

I really agree with Lena, I worked in the food industry before and you do kill yourself in those jobs to not be getting paid fairly. These corporations have a lot of money and it angers me that they don't treat their workers fair enough where the workers can actually make a livin with that job. It really feels like slave work to me so I got out of those type of jobs, rather be in school

Adham Awa

3/18/2015 05:29:57 am

Three major themes I am noticing while watching these are classicism, living near the poverty threshold, and wages earned despite work ethic. in the videos, a clear distinction was continuously made between rich and poor or higher, middle, and lower class. Lower class was represented through fast food industry workers and in both videos, Latina women. Another reoccurring theme I kept hearing was living near the poverty threshold and that despite having visible strong work ethics it remains impossible to get by with the wages that they earned. Clearly, these women couldn't be harder workers taking care of their children at home and away from home all while managing a 40 hour work week. This goes to show that when the right wing wants to blame work ethic or "failing to seek opportunity" as a reason for people staying on the bottom it just doesn't add up. Both women barely had the means to take care of themselves properly after looking after their kids. It broke my heart, yet filled me with hope at the same time to see how they plan their (unhealthy) meals and almost all living around the needs of their children but still continuously have to deny a kid the joy of having a toy or whatever they want at that age. I say it filled me with hope because these individuals themselves aren't quitters and aren't looking to back down anytime soon for their right to live a comfortable lifestyle so we should all be hopeful that the future of our country, especially for the lower class will be a better one.

Michael Le

3/18/2015 07:16:54 am

The three major themes that I got from these two videos were the flattening wages, how raising the minimum wage will cause more problems, and corporate welfare. From the first video, they talked about how the fast food industry used to be composed of workers who were teenagers or women who didn’t need to work, but today it is very different. Today many people rely on the fast food industry as their career. As time passed worker productivity has went up but the living wage has remained the same, creating an unfair gap.
The main problem between the community and corporations, regarding the minimum wage, is that corporations don’t want to come out of pocket to pay their workers more. Despite the fact that the government gives many tax breaks to major corporations, they don’t want to give more money to employees because that would mean less profit. Experts argue that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment but if corporations hire less people, their productivity will go down which will still lead to less profit. I believe that the only consequence to raising the minimum wage is that the prices on some products will increase so that corporations can regain that lost profit.
Yes businesses in Oakland should increase prices now that the minimum wage is going up because they need to stay afloat.

jorge ferrer

3/18/2015 09:46:53 am

All this is very new to me so if any one reads my post please feel the right to correct me, im trying my best to be educated but three major things that I have learned from the videos was low minimum wage, people that earn low minimum wage struggle with not having enough money to have extra things, and the talks about what can happen if the minimum wage goes up. I think the problem between the employees and the companies is that they don’t want to raise their workers wage. People that still earn 8 hours an hour and bust their asses off is not enough to pay bills or at least have extra things that they can enjoy. I just think that companies like McDonalds are greedy I mean they have a lot of fast food restaurants all over the world and im sure they make a lot of money and by not raising workers wage is unfair. I feel like they don’t understand the struggle people live in this society. I feel like having low minimum wage and raising it both have negative effects. The way I see things, people that earn low minimum wage have a hard time with money but raising the minimum wage isn’t going to solve things either because whats the point of having a higher wage if prizes are going to go up to me its all the same thing. To me it seems like like if the minimum wage goes up a lot of people who earn low are most likely to move out of Oakland bringing more people with a little higher education move to Oakland.i don’t know if im explaining myself the correct way but there are a lot of students that are graduating with no jobs. Most of them are moving to SF, and most people that lived in SF are moving to Oakland or places around here cause SF is also getting expensive due to prices going up and minimum wages also going up. I believe that giving low income workers should have the right to get higher wages if prizes remained the same but at the end of the day its all the same thing, raises go up, prizes go up and everything stays the same.

Emerson Lovato

3/26/2015 05:04:35 pm

I agree with you, corporations need to raise the minimum wage because employees work hard and make a lot of profit for corporations but they don't see any of the money. I think they need to reward these workers and it's time to make it happen. Low income workers have a hard time supporting their families because at the end of the month they barely make enough money to pay rent and bills. I don't see why these people can't get a raise to live a better life and to be able to provide their families with better things. This would allow people to save money and invest in products which would help boost up our economy. But corporations don't see it this way because they want to keep getting all the profit and paying low. Cheap labor fuels the power of corporations, we have allowed them to control our economy because they decide whether they want to keep on offering jobs or cut down job opportunities.

Dongho Kim

3/18/2015 12:09:17 pm

From the videos above, one major theme is that there is a huge gap between worker productivity and the wages minimum wage workers earn. They work hard full time, but still is not able to get out of poverty. There is also theme of poverty in these videos. Among those minimum wage workers, there are parents who have children and they cannot make enough living for their family with such low minimum wages payment. It is depressing to see parents who work as much as they can but are not able to get small things that their young children wants. I strongly agree with president Obama when he said “No one who works full time should live in poverty”.

Corporates argue that increasing wages might mean fewer jobs and might put some industries out of business. Business owners would not be able or willing to pay employees such a high minimum wages. I say that since huge increase of minimum wages are difficult and disagreeable to many business owners, community and corporates can negotiate to set the price of new minimum wages.

I think when minimum wages goes up in Oakland, since not all the businesses do very well, prices are going to increase. I know business owners want profits and when their profits decrease by paying their employees more, they will definitely raise their prices. I feel like this is the only option because another option would be job losses.

Lin Chen

3/18/2015 03:02:45 pm

After watching these two videos, I know that people who are living in poverty are almost earning the minimum wage; thus, they fight for the income that they worth. Increasing the minimum wage can help them. It’s become increasingly clear that the minimum wage is far from a living wage toady. People who are earning the minimum wage are suffering every day. People who agree increasing the minimum wage to 15 dollar per hour believe that it will not influence on employment, and employees become less dependent on public assistance. However, people who disagree with raising the minimum wage to 15 dollar per hour states that it will decrease the job opportunity.When the minimum wage increasing, the price of the product will increase too. The example shows that raising the minimum wage pay to 15 dollar per hour will result in a 5 present reduces in employment and may increase fast food prices by 20 present. It will hurt the lower income family who always eating fast food. Nowadays, we know that the minimum wage in Oakland is around 12 dollar per hour. I believe that businesses will increase the price of production, because businesses want more money back into their pocket. And also, the price will increase because people want to keep the balance of economy.

liang zhang

3/18/2015 05:13:39 pm

for me three main themes from two vidoes are people are struggling with low income,the problem gonna cause for rasing minimum wage , and what gonna happen to corporates after raise the minimum wage. from the video, i seen two women were struggling with their life. they cant buy whatever they like to buy, they only can buy whatever they must buy. all because they are working in a fast food industry, which is they only get minimum wage pay. before 1970s, people who get minimum wage pay are teens and women who dont have to work. but today , a lot of thing has been changed. people cant find jobs, so they have to work in a fast food industry. 25% of low income and mid class people have children,if i remember right. thats means, there are lots of people still cant get out of poverty. now, the minimum has been raised, but i dont think that really help working class people. because, at the same time all the corporates increase the price of production. that means,all the lower class people didnt get any help, and rich people get more rich, cause they will make more money from us. i feel like all the students and whoever unemployed are the Victim. cause we dont have jobs, and the product are getting more and more expensive. our life will get worse and worse. Dont laugh at me, i bought a pop corn chicken in china town oakland, the price went up from 3.99 to 4.99. that is my own experece. i think the way to solve it, is govement make a policy a something, raise the minimum wage but the same time, all businese cant raise the price of the production. that is just my opinion.

Huimin Huang

3/19/2015 09:33:51 am

yes, that is ture. it's even worse if the prices increase with the minimum wage at the same time. the little increase of the minimum wage it's not going to help people who are struggle with money. in fact, that may hurts the low income people. and the value of our money will go down because of that. also the economy in our country is not going to look good. the only way to make our people's life better is to raise the minimum wage without increasing the prices

jorge ferrer

3/20/2015 12:03:10 pm

i agree in what you are saying, if the minimum wage goes up then that means that other businesses are going to increase their prices, for the lower income people its not going to help at all and for the middle class people it will remain the same sure they will get a good raise but what is the point in that if prices in Oakland are going to go up. the only people who will benefit from the wages going up are people who live outside of Oakland, which ever city they come from prices will remain the same but more money will go in their pocket.

Luna Flores

3/18/2015 06:41:54 pm

Three themes that I notice is how minimum wage is living in poverty, debates whether it is good or bad for the economy, and corporate companies not wanting to raise the wage. This reminded me of how in Obama’s speech where he talk about wanting to raise the minimum wage when I heard from a friend, because I didn’t watch it, that he said if people think that less than 8 dollars an hour is livable than those voting against it should try it. Its crazy how a person can work a full time job having their 40 hours a week and can barely get by with their expenses. Its not fair that people that work the jobs many don’t want to that has some of the most demanding labor cant afford the things outside what they want and not have enough time for their children. The debates over the raise of the minimum wage is interesting I can see how raising it can help people pay for their expenses and give them a chance to actually save as well but coming from and economic background and major I understand how the man in the video can see the 15 and hour being harmful. Also the corporations that make so much money seen to think that their employs don’t need a raise like how McDonalds make a budget out line that living below the bare minimum.
The consequences of having the low minimum wage makes it difficult for families to sustained their families and have time to spend with them. Also is the raise was to be 15 the way economics works higher wages would mean that prices would go up.
I think if Oakland business kept the same prices them people would be more willing t spent because of the extra cash flow and if it were to rise as well them it would make a person see no difference in their own wage raise.

Tonivi Truong

3/19/2015 05:44:09 am

Three major themes seen regarding the debate on minimum wage worker of why raising minimum wage would be good or bad for the citizens, how it'll affect businesses, and how much struggles the minimum wage employees go through on daily basis. The conflict is an issue of balancing out the supply and demand. With the community wanting raise minimum wage, corporates would have to go out on their own and find ways to continue to increase profits, thus having to increase product prices. They mentioned in the video that at first, minimum wage workers were just people who wanted to work were either teenagers or women who had spare time and wanted to keep their hands busy, while nowadays, there are people who are trying to feed a family off of minimum wage. They also showed a chart where after it hit 1970, production skyrocketed while the wage of the workers have flattened out. Raising the wage too much will create a surplus in the economy which is increcibly bad in a long run and essentially hit a recession within due time. It can be resolved if we can somehow get all of the companies to push for a decrease in profit and then lower the minimum wage to where things are at satisfactory level. With low minimum wage, it will affect the consumer's mind where they believe they are working too much for very little, whereas, higher minimum wage will increase product prices, still meaning that they are working too much for very little, but also decreasing the value of money itself. With Oakland's minimum wage increasing, I believe that the bigger business should keep the prices the same, because it is easy to believe they'll make more profit through more purchases of products. It will also be better because living will be easier for everyone essentially. Although smaller business should increase their prices in order to maintain stability.

Sorry, I can be sort of an economist.

Tory Burleson

3/22/2015 05:01:07 am

I agree with you when you mention that raising the wage too much will be bad in the long run, but getting it to an amount that people can actually live off of is where it needs to be. The people working these jobs need a way to be able to support their family. I also love your thought about the bigger businesses that can afford to keep the prices the same should, but the smaller local businesses might have to raise prices to stay afloat.

Roy Christopher

3/27/2015 01:32:27 pm

I feel the same way about the rises in prices. I think that bigger corperate businesses should not raise price and only small local businesses should. There is no reason for them to raise the price because were already paying a high price for everything which why we need higher wages to live. The graph showed how we grew together then wage stayed the same but profit when up. I think if we raised the wage the effects towards their profit would be so small. I also like your point about the effect of the wages on consumer's minds. Thats a good point to look at.

SHameim Lowther

4/29/2015 06:02:05 am

Minimum wage went up to 12.50 which is a start but the prices went up to offset the increase and in cities where it wasnt affected went up too. Costco, dollar store-and it's horrible. I'm budgeting like crazy and I empathize with the women on the video. One income and low income, and no real wages is a struggle

Huimin Huang

3/19/2015 09:03:26 am

The three major themes are people struggle, conflicts and protest on raising the minimum wage.The conflicts between community and corporate is the community wants the minimum wage to be raise to $15 but the corporate doesn't want to. The minimum wage should raise, because corporates are not going to be hurt too much if they raise the minimum wage. they can still have their wealthy life with making a little less money. employees will have more motivation at work if they gets a little more money on their paycheck. it’s not bad for all the employers if they get hard workers work for them. Having a minimum wage like $15 is better than low minimum wage. if people gets more money from work then they will not need helps from the government, the government can save a lot of money to help the community. government can use these funds toward educations or other departments that needs help. A $15 minimum wage is not high at all. Employers makes a lot more money than the employees. employers can afford themself on a lot of things such as a big house, a deluxe car and not worry about buying food for their family. but people who is making the minimum wage every month he or she will worry about they don’t have enough money for only food. Businesses should raise the minimum wage without increase prices. so people who are getting the minimum wage pay can buy food and things for living and have a little saving every month. if businesses increase prices then people who are getting the minimum wage every month will not have enough money for living again, even though minimum wage is raise.

liang zhang

3/23/2015 03:26:00 pm

I am totally agree with you , 15 dollar per hour is not high at all . I dont exactly know how much money all the business man are making for a month. But I do know they are making a lot of money every month. make be our monthly pay is just same as their hourly income. its just like what you said, "government can save a lot of money to help the community. government can use these funds toward educations or other departments that needs help." that is a really good idea. I think the richer people are,the Stinger people will be.

An qi Sun

3/19/2015 11:52:21 am

By watching these two videos, what we can see is a series of social problem that existed in the American society. The first problem we can see is that people who live under poverty are still struggling for their budget. According to one of the examples mentioned in this video, we can see a phenomenon that many people are experiencing. As a single mom who do the part time job, Nancy used to work in McDonald’s, she was responsible for doing all kinds of jobs such as making breakfast, lunch, dinner, cleaning garbage. But for a very long time, her salary was only 8.25 per hour, and until now she was still trying her best to save her budget. The second theme that we could see from those videos is that “inequality for all”. Since 1970s, the gap between the productivity and their wage started to appear and until now it has become unbelievably big. It was said that only 7% of workers are unionized, and obviously that is not enough for workers to fight for their own benefit. Under this situation, workers start to protest and request for 15 dollars per hour, but the employers refused to do that. From their point of view, putting a huge raise on the raise would mean fewer jobs and make some owners out of the business. The third problem they had was that, they got a raise on their salary, but their working hours was also incredibly increased, which makes them feel overwhelmed. In fact, as an employee who is also experiencing the minimum wage, I believe that raising so much money for us wouldn’t be a good idea. First, no employer would accept such a rise on the salary. If they raise that much for their employee, it would also put more cost on their budget and that would make them no way to earn the money. Second, if our salaries do increased, how can we make sure that the price of ordinary materials won’t also rise? I believe that is an important concern we should think about. So from my point of view, I believe that both sides need to negotiate to think about an acceptable new rise on the salary that would make both sides get what we want.

Yvette Castillo

3/19/2015 04:50:53 pm

What are the three major themes regarding the debate on minimum wage?
First major theme regarding the debate on minimum wage was how the wage is very unaffordable for many people working at 8.00$ an hour. They cannot afford anything and can badly have enough to live and buy their needs including rent, food, transportation and many more.
Second theme was that if the minimum wage goes up then prices will also be going up and that will be another problem for minimum wage employees.
Third theme was how it will affect the businesses.
What are the conflicts community and corporate interest regarding minimum wage, how, if at all can be resolved?

The community wants the minimum wage to raise because they feel like they deserve it and I ALSO SAY THAT WE DESERVE THAT RAISE BECAUSE IT IS BARLY ENOUGH TO HAVE A LIVING OUT OF 10$ AN HOUR, YOU CAINT EVEN PAY FOR YOUR OWN APPT AND OTHER NEEDS AND BE A FULL TIME STUDENT IN COLLEGE!!!!!! IT'S RIDICULOUS. This problem can be resolved if the minimum wage goes up to 15$ because it will be a little more affordable for the employees and maybe it will help them to have a savings account and even MAYBE a credit card.

What do you believe are the consequence of having a low minimum wage vs a higher rate like 15?

The consequence in having a low minimum wage vs 15$ is that having a low wage makes you be poor and cannot afford anything , yet getting paid at 15$ is not much of a difference, it will help in a way.

Now that we know minimum wage is going up in Oakland- How should business respond? Should they increase prices why or why not?

Business would probably respond by raising up the prices and maybe taking away employee benefits. Buissness shouldn't increases prices because if they do there will be no difference for the minimum wage to go up. The employees will face the same situation as they were before when they were earning $8 an hour. Yet i know for business owners raising the minimum wage to $!5 is not a good coincidence for them because they will basically loose money and so thats why business owners would want to raise prices up.

Tonivi Truong

3/27/2015 01:39:46 am

I can see the frustration you have in this comment too. I agree with you along with it. It is as it was shown in the graph of the video. As time past by, the productivity/wage per hour was just climbing to a scale unimaginable. So initially I believe it is the businesses' fault in the beginning since they are always trying to compete and make more money than other in this capitalist economy. And the only way for it to even out is if the city raises the wages for the people to live up to par with the businesses themselves. And with wages raising, marketing raises, and so I also agree when you said that we are basically back to where we started.

Qin Chen

3/27/2015 03:14:25 pm

I agree with what you said. There is a very embarrassing situation for the poor. Even if they get a higher minimum wages, they probably will got a higher prices in normal life. However, just like you said, if they do not get a higher minimum wages, they may cannot survive in this society. The business should give a better environment to their employee.

Patrianna Douglas

3/19/2015 05:26:25 pm

Three themes I found in this week’s video and reading was the process of political socialization, the rise of mass media, and self interest principles. These themes reflect the difference of opinions between three entities, the government, business owners and workers. The government is recognizing a large problem in the gaps of minimum wages and inflation of the cost of living in major and minor areas, while the business owners see a constant in business expenses and feel the profit margin is too low to pay more, and last workers who see a deficit in the amount of hours the work and the cash flow they are receiving to sustain life in the current markets. I think anyone can see the consequences of a low minimum wage vs. a higher one. Business owners will definitely take a hit in their currently lifestyle despite how much the business is creating in reality, the influx of payroll will definitely cause them to want to inflate prices for the basic consumer. Consumers may end up spending less or the same for certain products and services but I feel that is not fully true. Certain businesses, those that are successful will retain customers no matter what due to the goods and efficiency they provide. Those that are currently struggling may have to take a hit and possibly reform their business model. I believe small increases on the consumer may be necessary to keep some businesses afloat but we cannot make that a reason to continue on the path or paying workers low. If a worker cannot enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities due to their wage then we cannot prosper as a nation because they will be miserable and the goods will be suffering in efficiency due to tired unappreciated working class. The video stated that many minimum wage jobs are at a standstill since about 1979 due to the influx of people over 25 with children working these jobs, it is a different era from when these where jobs reserved for students and teenagers. As the world progresses and changes we will have to make small adjustments over time, $15 may be a bit high as a national average but we must start somewhere. If we had started this process yearly at the time of the cost living beginning to change then the impact would not feel so hard. I think a great solution would be to due regional minimum wage pricing based off a percentage of the current median of the cost of living in that specific area. Of course places like the san Francisco Bay Area should have higher minimum wage while places with lower cost of living like in middle America it would be lower, but as an overall general guide we know that 8.50 is not an acceptable wage anymore, anywhere. I hope we can at least push for $12 to begin to push the gap. San Francisco strategy of increasing the wage to 15 over a period of 5 years is excellent and others should follow suit that will ease the strain on consumers and business owners without causing upset to workers.

Patrianna Douglas

3/20/2015 01:34:22 am

Erkhes Bat-erdene

3/21/2015 11:30:14 am

The three major themes I noticed on this debate on minimum wage is classicism, living at the bottom of the poverty threshold, and unlivable wage despite work ethic. The difference between the higher, middle, and lower classes are ridiculous. The lower class workers were depicted working in the fast food industry working at minmum wage, who also happened to be a racial minority in the United States. The biggest issue with the notion of the "American Dream", is that hard work guarantees success; that simply is not true. Success is never guaranteed, and in a capitalistic society, the majority will not be successful. For capitalism to work, there always has to be the fodder to keep the capitalistic machine alive--that is to say that capitalism works by profitting from others: someone has to be taken advantage for others to be advantageous. Working hard does not mean succcess, but if you don't work hard, then success is much less likely to come your way. The problem that I, and many others, have with raising minimum wage is that it also increases the cost of living. For students who cannot get a job, or the unqualified and unemployed who simply cannot find a job, raising the minimum wage absolutely hurts them more than it helps. Without a steady flow of income, they are stuck with the same amount of money they were previously getting from whatever means, while the cost of living skyrockets. The $5 you had before minimum wage went up could buy you lunch, while after it can barely buy you a lunctime snack. Albeit, the working with a steady flow of income do gain slightly, if the cost of living does not inflate a ginormous amount. We already see how businesses respond to the minimum wage in Oakland. Some are freezing the employment while others are raising their prices on everything. Small stores cannot afford to hire more workers and pay them $15 an hour, and still hope to survive. Meanwhile, since the workers are being paid more, then the prices of everything else also goes up to compensate. Many restaurants or eateries are already raising their prices by several dollars while everything else static, which is awful for those who do not have a steady flow of income.

Angela Tam

3/27/2015 04:57:43 pm

I'm glad you brought up the way the wage increase would effect smaller businesses. This was an area of concern for me too because I support small businesses. But to be able to support small business we need to pay the people more to be able to put in the economy. So while they may see it difficult to pay more they may get a slight increase in consumers that can now patron their store.

Tory Burleson

3/22/2015 04:53:04 am

Three major themes I saw the videos were people who work full-time are still susceptible to living at or below the poverty line, people working to make the minimum wage a livable wage, and the opposing side saying that it would cause inflation, businesses might close, and/or jobs might be lost. The conflict of interests in the community is that prices may raise and there wont be as many jobs available. At the corporate level, they are looking on how to still keep their profit margins the same and actually paying people a wage that people can make a living off of. There are a few different consequences to having a low minimum wage due to the fact people are way less likely to be spending money and putting that money back into their community, but raising it to $15 dollars an hour is going to put a lot of pressure and may harm many small business owners who are not making that much of a profit margin in the first place so they will have to raise prices. I know many different sit-down restaurants are taking away the tipping system and instead replacing it with a service charge. This means many restaurant workers who have been used to making a living off of tips (cash in hand) will now have to wait to see that money in their paycheck. I feel that if certain businesses will have to raise prices to stay open, so its not whether they should or not, it is that they may have to.

Harin Yoon

3/26/2015 08:37:06 am

I see the same possibilities that small businesses will face. It might target them very negatively. I think however there is a possibilities of growth in consumer market in the future as the workers slowly start building up their savings from this increase of wages. Hopefully, this will benefit both sides of the market in the end. :)

Emerson Lovato

3/23/2015 05:57:48 pm

After watching these videos and doing the reading, I came to the conclusion that the three major themes regarding minimum wage are Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, low wage workers don't make enough to sustain their families, and corporations arguing against the raise of minimum wage. Corporations like the fast food industry make billions of dollars in profit yet their employees don't receive higher wages, these people get paid minimum wage and cannot afford to pay for all their monthly or weekly expenses. The conflict between the community and corporate is that the community wants and needs higher wages so they can provide for their children. The corporate argues that if they raise minimum wage from $8.50 to $15 an hour, they won't generate enough money to continue to offer jobs. In fact, the corporate argues that if they had to raise their minimum wage they would have to cut down some jobs and raise the price on their products. The best way to resolve this problem is to raise minimum wage to $15 because I don't think corporations are going to lose as much. Instead, this will help boost up our economy because people will have more money to spend and save so it'll be very beneficial to help our economy recover. Businesses should not increase their prices because if they do they don't make as much profit. If they keep their prices, people are going to spend a lot more because they will have more money to spend on their products. If people don't make enough money then how can they buy more and more of their products, corporations don't realize that this would help boost the economy and fill their pockets with money. Low wage workers need more money to take care of themselves and their families so corporations should keep their prices down so people will spend more.

Qin Chen

3/24/2015 04:16:11 pm

I learned this three major themes from the reading and videos regarding the debate on minimum wage; first, minimum wage is too low to let some people have a normal life; second, increasing the minimum wage will increasing the pride, then the poor still have a hard time; third, increasing the minimum wage may let some people lose their job.
The conflicts between community and corporate interests regarding minimum wage is likes what I said above. Community hopes minimum wage can be increasing, then everybody can have a better life. However, corporate does not like increasing the minimum wages, even if they do increasing, it will increasing the mercantile prices to decreasing their damage.
Actually, I believe having a low minimum wage. However, before keep this situation, I hope the price can be lower. Like what I said above, higher rate of minimum wage will increasing the price, then I prefer to pay attention of lower the price. On the other way, if the businesses can guarantee they will not increase the price, then I will very happy to have a higher rate.
The businesses increase prices, because everybody has more money. They are convinced of one thing that we will still purchase mercantile.

Lin Chen

3/27/2015 01:17:36 pm

I agree with your point that minimum wage is not enough for people to support their lives. However, if the minimum wage puts up too high the price of production will increas. And the lower income families will hurt by that.Then, lower income workers need more money support themselves and their families, it becomes an infinite loop. so I think the businesses should not keep their prices up.

Roy Christopher

3/24/2015 04:43:48 pm

My personal understanding and knowledge on this is all over the place so bare with me. Three major themes I took notice on was the struggles of minimum wage goes up, less employees, and price increases if minimum wage does go up. There are many conflicts between corporates and communities regarding minimum wage. The community wants to have higher wages so they can stop living in poverty and actually be able to take care of their families and themselves as well. They want a satisfying livable wage for all the hard work they do. Meanwhile for corporations they say they will hire less people if they have to pay a higher wage. But wouldn’t they end up understaffing or something like that. They say higher wages will mean higher prices. Although the prices shouldn’t go up too much. If they do go up way too much then we will all be asking for a higher wage again. We are already damn near paying at higher prices it seems, which is why everyone is asking for a higher wage. The consequences are pretty clear. Low minimum wage will just mean many will still constantly struggle to survive. Eventually there will seem like there is no middle class. Many Americans will continue to struggle. Higher wages mean possible inflation maybe. I mean a lot of things will be affordable so there will be a constant demand for stuff. Who knows, another would be corporations might move more jobs overseas for cheap labor. Higher people to easily replace you. I think with minimum wages increasing bigger businesses prices should not increase but smaller businesses might want to make a bigger move for profit. Overall like the graph showed in the video the profit and wage were growing together then the profit kept going meanwhile from the 70’s the wage stayed the same. So I think we just need to make it work to where we can grow together.

Ri'Chara Glenn

3/25/2015 12:17:20 pm

The three major themes are raising minimum wages for workers, how corporate interests progresses from different angles, and the wage battle between the community and businesses.

Ron made a really good point about the conflicts between the community and the corporate interests. Businesses like Wal-Mart are paying their employees below $12 dollars an hour and the workers are struggling to make ends meet. But like Ron said $12 an hour is sufficient for both the community and reasonable for businesses. He explained that if you raise the minimal wage too high especially more than $12 then the community and the interest of the company won’t be able to work parallel to each other. The reason for that because big businesses have a insurances they must pay for and clearly that cost way more than the employers. And if they are paying employers more than what the business can afford then it can ruin their supply and demand and can potentially force them out of service. Which means the employment rate will enlarge and our state can be in recession. The whole conflict is basically our community trying to figure out a way to raise wages but at the same time still uphold businesses so that neither one are struggling.
The only consequence I see in a low minimal wage is that you don’t get spending money and spare cash for enjoyment. All that you earned is used up for greater purposes. That is what these people are complaining about is that don’t get leftover change for themselves. Of course if its $15 dollars then you have a bit more to spend on extra things.
I don’t think business should increase their prices. People will most likely cash out on cheaper things than expensive ones. If you raise your items too high not only will people hesitate to buy your things, businesses will also lose even more money when their employers get paid a higher income.

Erik Hoffmann

3/25/2015 01:28:18 pm

The first theme i noticed was capitalism. Money is what supposedly makes the world go round, and its sad to see the lower class working as hard as it does to make those at the top of the chain richer. The desire to make more money comes at the cost of the health and living satisfaction of the poor. Class discrimination was also another theme present. It's funny because the more money you make, the less work you have to do. The people working the hardest and with the best work ethic ironically get paid the least. The third theme was conflict of interest, because in order to provide a better wage, companies have to cut costs or increase prices to make the same amount of money, which will make it harder for people to buy things and reduce the spending power of the dollar. A business could essentially help a community by providing a more livable wage, but it in turn affects the purchasing power of the rest of the people, making those who make a little more technically poorer. The problem can be resolved if the government lowered the taxes that the corporations would have to pay, but that would mean those affected by the wage increase would have to pay more. The consequences of a higher minimum wage would likely either be an increase in prices or a reduction in the quality in goods and services. Businesses in Oakland will likely respond by increasing prices or laying off workers, which will only lead to higher unemployment. It will likely create a paradox where those who have jobs will be better off and those who don't will be stuck having to compete for scarce jobs.

Bolortsetseg Jargalsaikhan

3/26/2015 07:56:02 am

that is true that the people who get paid lowest do the hardest and most dangerous parts of the work, yet the people who do nothing but little bit talking and paper works get a lot more than they deserve. This situation is still going to exist if the companies start to increase their prices as the wages go up. like you mentioned it will decrease the value of spending power of dollar. The wage goes up and price goes up and still people will try to stretch every dollar they have to adjust to the new prices and then they will need to increase the minimun wage again which will be back to where they were. It is a cycle that needs to be stopped by letting the companies spend more on wages without raising their products' prices. Like you mentioned, as I work in Oakland as part time, I saw the price in increase at work and less hour on my schedule and some others' , as well. All of what you mentioned were related to me directly, great post...

Angela Tam

3/25/2015 03:27:09 pm

In the reading we learn about equality of outcome. The Challenge of Democracy notes that, “The concept that society must ensure that people are equal, and governments must design policies to redistribute wealth and status to achieve economic and social equality”. As a country we are failing at this and specifically we are failing at redistributing wealth here in the Bay Area. The Challenge of Democracy goes on to explain, “… rights – the idea that every citizen is entitled to certain benefits of government, that government should guarantee its citizens adequate (if not equal) housing, employment, medical care, and income”. As noted in the video, big corporations like Walmart and McDonald’s substantially under pay their employees while maintaining profits in the 100s of millions. Because of the employees being underpaid, the financial burden falls on the government to provide insurance and other government funded aid; which ultimately falls on the backs of the taxpayers. These big corporations need to raise their wages, without raising prices, and find other areas of profit to cut from. So the three major themes are:
1) Minimum wage must rise to help the working poor to bring in some extra money that could then be ultimately put back into the economy.
2) How will minimum wage affect jobs and how it might make jobs decrease and prices increase.
3) Corporate responsibility in paying their employees enough and providing benefits so that the government doesn’t have to fund it.
So while congress isn’t mandating a minimum wage, companies are getting away with paying their workers low wages while they struggle even with government-funded programs. If companies could raise their minimum wage and provide benefits to meet standard living costs, employees could gain a little more wiggle room in their paychecks, and require less of the government, which would require less of taxpayers. If these companies could absorb these costs and lower their profits they could do this without raising costs to the customers and cutting jobs. There is no point in raising pay if you are going to start raising the cost of basic things because that would continue to make purchasing difficult. But, if prices remained the same and wages increased, there would be an increase in buying power and possibly a stimulus to the economy. Win/win right?
The only down side to a minimum wage establishment, is it’s affects on small businesses. Because small businesses are already taxed harder, and have more financial burdens than corporate businesses, these businesses tend to suffer. They have to usually raise their prices or cut their employees. But I think that the pros out weigh the cons and I think that a lot more low wage workers work for big corporations that can afford this hike in wages.

Bolortsetseg Jargalsaikhan

3/26/2015 07:48:51 am

I am sorry everyone, I just remembered at the last minute..
1. First theme is Capitalism – because as the productivity of companies rise, the wage of the workers didn’t rise. The gap between those 2 started to get bigger and bigger in many companies. Second theme is Raising the minimum wage might let the companies hire less people, firing some because the expense will be added. By doing so, the things will be much more expense. (5%-20% less job- $15/ hour) Third theme is Corporate welfare- if the people who are working at minimum wage gets any kind of public assistance and the wage increases, there will be less assistance the people will be needed-which is taxpayers’ money. The people are not willing to take the risk to let the companies know that without them, there is no business for them.
2. The conflict between community and corporate interest will be that they have different interest. Community’s interest is that they want to have decent wage to be able to support their family and be able to save even little bit of it instead of trying to stretch every single penny they get. The corporate’s interest would be that they don’t pay for those extras (increase in minimum wage), yet get the more or at least same profit from it.
3. Having low minimum wage makes many who are low wagers to struggle with their expenses and to live paycheck to paycheck, not being able to eat decent food, organic food which would be good for them. But having higher rate like $15 would have consequences, too. The companies will try to get those extra expenses by increasing their prices and hiring less workers or firing some as well.
4. As the wage is going up, the businesses shouldn’t increase their prices, yet I started to see the increase in price at some restaurants. The businesses increase their prices could mean that the money the workers get might not reach where they want that to reach. As the things’ prices increase, the people will still struggle because now the milk that cost $3, will $4-5 which will make this increase nothing compared to how much more they have to spend more on those extra pricing of their daily products.

Raynard Anderson

3/26/2015 03:33:08 pm

it was stated though that with most wage spikes in the past we there was not any huge change in the rate of hiring and the chart showed that companies are expecting more productivity but the wages stopped going up so they're having you do more for less.

Bolortsetseg Jargalsaikhan

3/27/2015 01:23:57 am

in the interview with 3 people (2 guys and 1 lady), the lady said (around 5:00) about the studies from other people "David Newmark in Economics prof. in UC Irving said $15 minimum wage would actually result in roughly 5% reduction in employment, and Economics prof in UC Massachusetts Amherst who said if we do this $15 an hour, it could push up fast food prices by 20%".. the almost exact quote from the second video.. I think i mixed the employment rate with food price rate..

Harin Yoon

3/26/2015 08:31:33 am

One of the major theme that I have noticed was that minimum wage does not match the productivity of the workers. They were called to work for full-time and do everything they can at the job but their payment does not reflect how much time and effort they put into it. The second theme I noticed was the minimum wage also does not match the standard market price of everything. The market price is becoming higher everyday and people are paying for groceries and gas more than they did five years ago. With average wage of $8/hr, people are cutting short on their food to pay for their housing and everything else. The third theme I noticed was how the raise of minimum wage will help boost the economy. Many different organizations and unions agree that the raise in wages will create more consumer demand which will be beneficial for the economy and for the corporates. However, the corporates are not too fond of this idea because they are afraid of decrease in number of workers across the country and also worried that many small businesses will end up closing their businesses. They also do not want this entry-level jobs to become a permanent jobs for the workers. They want their workers to move up or go to different places to be elsewhere using this experience as a background. I think this minimum wage problem will be resolved eventually since the consumer demand is still low and the economy is not doing so well either. America is also striving to bring equality in working places too that I think resolving this problem will get this country ahead of the curve. I was very surprised but was pleased to hear that Oakland was increasing their minimum wage to $12/hr. It is not $15 like protesters are fighting for but I think it is a good start considering that different states are still paying their workers at $8/hr. I think business should be in full support for this matter since it will certainly bring more profit to them at the end. It might seem like it is a big change as of now but in few years, I think they will experience the growth of consumer market that they never imagined having.

Richara Glenn

3/27/2015 12:50:28 pm

Your comment is interesting . I've always thought the total opposite about businesses wanting to push thier employers up a few more levels in their profession to earn creditials. Because even people who move up in their field still get paid less than those who has been there for years. It would be really nice if they actually earned equalvent to what they worked for .

Hang Nguyen

4/30/2015 10:09:13 pm

I like way you pointed out that people are not paid equally to how much time and effort they put into it, and does not match the market price. The rich people have been using cheap labor for very long time. And since the poor, they don't have much money, they thought that this amount was enough, but the true is it is not fair for them. Now with the prices getting higher everyday, the problems finally come up.

Raynard Anderson

3/26/2015 03:29:09 pm

the three major themes of the minimum wage hike are:
1. The most job growth we have seen has been mainly in low wage jobs that pay their employees below the national poverty rate which doesn't really help the economy that much because yeas they have money but their much less willing to spend it if which halts the economy and their budgets are irrational because you cant live off that amount without assistance from taxpayers with programs such as ebt and section 8 assissted living.
2. Is raising the floor going to bring everything else up with it. what i mean by this is if you raise minimum wage are all the other wages going to raise with it so as not to hurt the capitalist society we have created, because you dont want to raise the floor and leave the ceiling where its at because then you just have a smaller house and that basically means for example lets say a doctor makes $100/hr while a fast food worker makes $8/hr well if you raise minimum wage doctors make $150/hr if fast food workers make $15/hr but then you get into the whole thing of inflation and everything else but its at least a start.
3. the last one is the fear that raising minimum wage will make the companies push the cost off onto the consumer by spiking prices and a halt in hiring people which would not be particularly great for the economy even though these company execs have enough money as is and seeing as the waltens are the richest family in the world having a net worth of 150 billion dollars but uh whatever right.

Guadalupe Hernandez

4/9/2015 02:40:29 pm

You do have really good interesting points. I do believe that it is necessary to look at both sides to this. It may definitely have an impact on our economy. I believe that raising the minimum wage slightly, perhaps to 12 an hour instead of 15 would be beneficial for lower income families, and companies would possible have the need to raise prices just enough to be affordable.

stephanie linford

4/10/2015 11:55:55 am

I'm really interested in what you had to say about the second theme in the hike of minimum wage. The example you gave with the floor & the roof made sense. I know the cost of living will go up and everything else to take the new raise away basically. But I never thought about the careers already making six-figures thats goin to go up to then doesn't that just spread us farther apart has a social class? Thats a big conflict and I wonder how it will be resolved.

Guadalupe Hernandez

4/9/2015 09:15:56 am

The three major themes were how much the average individual struggles to get by, the amount of pay (minimum pay) for the quality of work, the debate on whether or not the minimum wage should be raised, and if so how much would be safe for the economy and lives. Raising the minimum wage to $15 would cause corporations to raise their prices. This would be from the new cost it takes to pay for labor. Corporates would also be effected with the pressure of having to cut some jobs. These new changes would ultimately have an impact on the lives of those working in these industries, being low-paying jobs. The community would end up having a negative effect from this change with higher prices and less jobs. Consequences of having a low minimum wage pay are people working up to 40 hours a week, if not more, are still not provided with enough financial stability. For example in one of the videos Ken Jacobs from UC Berkeley Labor Center states that more then half of fast food working families are receiving one or more financial assistance programs. Showing that these families still need extra help and support to get by. Having a high paying minimum paying job would decrease job opportunities, and increase prices. By increasing the minimum pay I believe businesses should slightly increase prices to a point were it would not have such a drastic effect on their businesses, so they too would still be benefiting, while give the average person more financial help. This gives everyone a win win.

Shameim Lowther

4/29/2015 05:54:17 am

I learned that minimum was since the 1970’s stopped growing and has been stagnant for the past 30+years. At one point in time minimum wage was designed for teenagers and at home moms who needed something to do in the daytime. But now more than 25%of people with minimum wage jobs are women and there are no unions to give these people with jobs a voice. Corportate companies believe that people wit minimum wage jobs are non deserving of higher pay because it doesn’t take much effort to work in these fields. The workers believe it’s labor and human service jobs that they slave all day on and need the money to care for their livelihood.

Consequences of having low minimum wage is that it is impossible to support yourself or your family. With low minimum wage you nearly have to work at least 3 jobs to make ends meet and with that you stil don’t receive health insurance because they are all part time.
With working a higher wage job the cost of food clothes, taxes, living increases with it and theres no winning. Buisness also cut hours to make up for the increase so you end up getting the same rate pay and paying more.
Buisness shouldn’t increase prices because it only affects the buyers and also eployees. The companies can afford to lose some money but being greedy forces them to continue to squeeze lemons from the working class and poor.
By increasing their costs it’s counter productive for a pay increase because the customers suffer for the workers pay which pits employees and clients against one another.

Rayvonne Evans

4/30/2015 07:00:47 pm

Three reoccurring themes that I noticed where classism, living near the poverty threshold, and corporate welfare. They kept making a clear distinction between each class and kind of what it means to be apart of each class. They talked about people living near the poverty threshold. Working class people live a paycheck away from being completely poor. They also talked about corporate welfare. The government hands out subsidies to these corporations like its allowance money yet everyone below the rich can barely afford to live. The conflict between corporate and community is that they aren't paying their workers a livable wage and they're raising their prices so that we can't even afford to spend money. I think corporations should pay workers a livable wage and I think it should come out of their million dollar pockets instead of the pockets of the poor. The consequences of a low minimum wage is that its below the cost of living which means people cant afford to live. The consequences of raising the minimum wage is that the cost of living is going to go up even higher furthering the discrepancy between the wage and the cost of living. Businesses should not increase their prices but come out of their own pockets.

Stephanie Linford

4/30/2015 08:08:38 pm

I agree with you prices should not be raised at all based in the true greed of money. Just cause they raise it to 12/ hr or 15/hr doesn't mean they should take it out of the employees/ customers pockets. Those companies make millions to billions a year they need to pay their workers. Without there workers it would be no profit for who everts on top. I think they need to have set salary wages so we don't have to go over this every year. The more you raise wages the less crime we will encounter. I think it will be a benefit for everyone.

Stephanie Linford

4/30/2015 07:54:54 pm

The three main themes were Cooperate Welfare, Living In Poverty, Raise wages to $12/$15. Conservatives are starting too
Look at how over 50% of fast food chain workers are get at least 1 or more on Goverment assistance. Conservatives want the companies to be responisble and take care of their employees on ther own without the taxpayers expence.
There were many arguments against raising minuminwe wage. A couple were that the bussiness would be forced to raise prices by a center percentage and could lay off workers of a certain percentage backfiring the idea all together. I really think its a bunch of BS and belive the fastfood cooperations would still make billions a year even with raising the wages to $15/hourly. I belive the people could spenfd more, putting money back in their own county, and hopefully could save money. Even thou $15/hr is good. Realisticly it would still leave people in poverty levels on the case rent is going high&higher in the bayarea, gas is unpredictable, child care, # of children, and etc. Raising the wages would be a start but if a federal law is passed to help families across America then it should have other things these billion $ corps. Should follow like raises annually, benefits, bonus on work ethnics, recongnzatio

Stephanie Linford

4/30/2015 07:59:56 pm

And most of these jobs have no Union. Nobody to stick up for them. Many people are living in poverty level for billion $ cooperations McDonald KFC Walmart Burger King etc. they need to remember they don't know gow to live on $8/ hr budgets with rent and child are puff the money is all gone & taxes take s Hugh part. Taxes should be raised for the families in America.

Hang Nguyen

4/30/2015 10:44:52 pm

The first thing I have noticed was the minimum wages is mostly unbearable for most people. Consider all of the fees, housing, electricity, insurance, and especially if you have kids, then all of the education, child health care, which is way so expensive, how could you get on with your lives? With $8/hr, with all the time and strength you put in to it, it's not worthy. And I cannot help but noticed that most people in the lebel was black or brown, and low-educated, the poor people ask for fairness. And if they can't even get on with their lives, saving extra money won't even be put into consideration.
They asked to raise the wages to 15/hr. In my mind, if the company makes millions or billions of dollars, and can't even pay their employees the amount of money enough for them to live, that is capitalism.
Since the poor are struggling with their lives, if the amount of wages increases, it would help them a lot, but also they will push the general material prices goes up. And then again, they have to pay more money for the same item they bought long ago because of raising prices. Inflation, taxation and alot of othe things would come along with this.

steven gissentanner

5/1/2015 09:26:31 am

Minimum wage jobs back then had more teenagers working at them but now into days society the young and sometimes the elderly work these jobs that pay a none liveable wage. First Poverty is one of the big themes to me because the majority of the workers are victims of poverty. Working at a fast food place that pays very little to live off would require them to have not one but two jobs just to make ends meet. Second minimum wage going up would help the community's that are in poverty. If it went up families could put money aside and save up to use instead of using their whole pay. Third unions should increase so that they could fight against the low wages the job offers.
The conflict between the community more people would go on strikes to get a better wage. The conflict with the corporation would have to respond by ether paying the wage or ignore and get more angry protestors. The consequences of having low wages is that people who are in need of a job to live off wouldn't make much money working at a fast food place. But if the wage change to 15$ an hour people would b able to spend a little more instead of blowing it all on your livings. I think the businesses should raise there wage because they would be doing the community's around them a good favor. This would mean more food and other things for the poverty homes.

Zane Samuel

5/3/2015 05:20:06 am

Its very interesting to hear upper class Americans with Masters degrees talk about lower class citizens in poverty barely making ends meat. Capitalism is a major issue, multi-billion dollar corporations should pay their employees livable wages and provide health care. Instead many people who work for these rich corporations live in poverty and can barely afford to take care of their families.

Another major theme is classism, however the people fighting for higher wages were people of color and were made out to seem unfortunate when in reality these individuals were dehumanized and treated unequally. These people were made out to seem as if they were less than higher class citizens as these stories seem to be made for upper class citizens.

When minimum wages increase, prices will increase and companies will also be more selective on who they hire. Since they can’t afford to have as many employees they will choose people with a higher education or with more experience.

There has been a recent pay increase in Oakland and San Francisco which I have even noticed has lead to the decrease in hours for certain employees. This has even lead me to attempt finding a job closer to home that will give me more hours as my job in SF has drastically cut my hours.

Nafi Watson

5/3/2015 03:53:14 pm

Yes. I agree with you it is crazy how the lower class is viewed in this world and it makes it hard for young adults to make a living in america. especially if they are people of color because they already are faced with so many stereotypes its hard to bypass that to get a good descent paying job.

A.J. Roderos

5/3/2015 01:11:43 pm

The debate on minimum wage focuses on the ideas of low income that minimum wage employees make primarily, and how it is vital for them to live and budget under these unfortunate circumstances, and how corporate businesses thrive based on these conditions that employees have to go through. The focal point of community interests involves having wages that can support and maintain their living conditions. For instance, it is demonstrated that the Latin woman, who is interviewed at first, has to work hard to provide for her children, especially after a divorce; nonetheless, the mother has to maintain an unhealthy lifestyle to do so. Corporate interests primarily include maximizing profit and minimizing the income for their employees. These interests conflict with each other because the incomes provided by corporate businesses are not sufficient enough for their employees to live a healthy lifestyle. Having a minimum wage high as $15.00 will only make the matter worse because again, corporate interests involve maximizing profits and minimizing costs. Corporate businesses will only raise everything to compensate for loss in profit. In more of recent news, Oakland has raised its minimum wage. Businesses should not increase their prices because it is already expensive to live in the Bay Area.

Nafi Waston

5/3/2015 03:45:07 pm

What were three major themes that you have learned from the reading and videos regarding the debate on minimum wage?
What I learned was that they corporations do not want to raise the minimum wages. That the people working these minimum wage jobs are in poverty and can’t really make a living of the wages they get, and if they raise the minimum wages it would cause bigger problems.
What are the conflicts between community and corporate interests regarding minimum wage? How, if at all, can they be resolved?
The conflict between community and corporation is that the corporation doesn’t want to give more money or benefits out because they want to work people without equal pay. If they raise minimum wage then the cost of living will increase.
What do you believe are the consequences of having a low minimum wage vs. a higher rate like $15?
Low wages you can’t afford anything but with higher wages you can afford things but the cost of living will increase such as taxes on food and rent.
Now that we know minimum wage is going up in Oakland - how should businesses respond? Should they increase prices? Why or why not?
Businesses should not increase their prices. They should keep their prices the same because they will get more business, now that more people can afford it they will pay.

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