will boosting the federal minimum wage make a difference?

That is true costs of living do vary by place. I'm sure retailers would raise their prices due to this as well as what they've had to do to avoid obamacare (ie more part time jobs and less full time jobs). Love your analogy about counting hundereds as loose change while the rest of us count quarters, pennies, nickels, and dimes oh my!

I am sorry to tell you, but this is not necessarily true. I have a two year degree, plus several different certificates that apply to the type of work I can find. I make $7.75 per hour. I do not even get interviews when I fill out applications. If the company I work for would put me on "full time" I still would only make $8.50 and they are very reluctant to do that. I worked as a middle management person for this company, on salary, and made $23,600 per year, but was on call 24/7. Even when I was out of state I got calls for my program. It was not worth it at all. What is sad is that I could take a telemarketing job, provided they would hire me, or a housekeeping job, etc. and make more. If I could get hired.

I don't know what field you're in GardenGerty, but I hope you love what you do because clearly, you chose a very low paying field. I'm a librarian and I consider my job low paying for the education and experience required, but I do it because I love it. That said, I'm making a LOT more than minimum wage. The only minimum wage employees in libraries are shelvers, and that's only in the libraries that didn't fire them all when the minimum wage was increased to over $7 an hour. As Fatcat described, that minimum wage hike made it harder for young students to get jobs because most of those jobs were just completely eliminated meaning kids who want to work in libraries have no way to get their foot in the door unless they want to volunteer.

It would also result in more layoff and unemployment.

Where's the like button?????? I so totally agree!

TY for your reply as to the affects since the wage has gone up in your area. I totally understand that as my employer increased the minimum wage as well to compete with other employers who had raised their starting wage. Wich was very hard because I was just making a few cents more than the new "minimum" start wage. Thankfully they are stepping up to the plate in giving the rest of us increases as well. But like you said at what cost? increase in prices? closing locations? fewer workers?

Well, it appears one needs to look at the type of degree on gets. My son is graduating with a Chemical Engineering degree and will be starting at a salary of about 100k. You have to improve yourself in an area where there are good paying jobs. I do not mean to be rude but this is life. Not all degrees are good degrees. And many are great ones. My second son is going into Music Education. He knows that he will never make very much money, but that is what he wants to do. He could be an engineer also, but he has chosen otherwise.

Simply put, you need to find a better job.

I have put up the negatives of my job, and have not listed the positives. The "staffing crisis" means I can work all the overtime I want, if I want. One positive is that this is not a job that can be downsized or disappear. It is a human services type position. I also need to point out that the economy allows "better paying jobs" to be picky. It is an employer's market. I have done management, with this company, and I have headed up a department in another, similar line of work. I have also worked in companies that provide similar services for more money but with more stress.The stress is not worth it. It is a balancing act. Yes, if certain changes do not take effect in the next two to three months, including full time status for me, I will be applying elsewhere. Like your second son, I have chosen to do things along the lines of service and education and home support. The good side of the company I work for is that they do randomly give us gifts etc. and I have a lot of flexibility if I need to be off work. If I can tell them dates I want off "just for fun" or whatever, enough in advance, I can be scheduled off.There is no prejudice against me for it. We have enough money to live on, which is more than many people have, and if I need more money, I am in control of how I earn it with which articles I write, etc.I can even take my computer and work online while at work at my job. If I was thirty years younger, I would be adding to my education. At this point the return on the investment of more schooling would not be worth what it would cost in time and energy. I have only three to ten more years of actual employable time left, and one reason I do not continue with management is because my husband is several years older than me, and no "better job" would compensate for time with him while we can enjoy it. I have buried one husband, having never had enough time to enjoy each other, and I do not plan to bury the second one and regret not spending time with him. It is all a trade off, but increasing the minimum wage would not really help me much at all.

I agree with that. You know whats sad is if minimum wage went up by productivity, minimum wage would be 21.72 an hour. I have been reading all types of responses on this issue from your typical response of job loss and over inflation. To some people actually wanting the minimum wage cut back to $5 an hour. Some people said if we paid people the 21.72 based on their productivity that people will just spend blindly and this landlord's will dramatically raise rent. and predatory lending will sky rocket. To me these are all excuses. I am sure a few people really have concerns about those issues but most likely these are the people that do not want to have to shell one more cent to their employees than they have to. I do think there is some truth to these comments except the reducing of the minimum wage. That comment was just ludicrous. The only way you would get that to work is if you convinced the private sector to drastically reduce their prices on pretty much everything. Which we all know is not going to happen thus making the $5 dollar minimum wage argument ludicrous. That is just going to drastically drive up poverty. The other points however could be avoided with proper education. Its really not that hard to save money as long as you are earning more than your monthly expenses. Educating people on how to manage their finances is the easy part in my opinion. OF course people need to start making more than what they have to pay on bills first. The harder part is how to teach the private sector not to screw their own customers. They need to learn that if you are driving people into poverty with your prices then that could be why your company is always endanger of going under. They creating a unstable economic environment with their own self inflicted wounds. Also we need to teach them that China and India are not the answer ether. If most everyone does what they are supposed to the system should thrive. Its when people start gaming the system when things fall apart. I also think our whole college system is just crap. Don't get me wrong I know there is still some good schools out there and a lot of good professors but college is more about how to profit off of students rather than teaching them. Of course that's the problem with most everything in this country. It has become about profit instead of doing what actually works that makes our society better and function in a civilized way. I just laugh how complicated and hard we make our own lives when we don't need too.

I have to agree with you in a sense. I mean look how many people felt they were able to buy more when there was a 2% payroll tax cut. Keep the prices as is or raise them a small 1-4%. I say this because in all honesty if you give people more money, they are going to buy and possibly waste more money. Businesses overall would get more because there would be many people who would have the 'I have more money to spend' mentality. That $40 blender which is now $50 (or stays $40) that people would pass on due to not making much, they would suddenly feel as though they are able to buy it but only if prices don't rise up ridiculously. It works for businesses because of that mentality I mentioned. The only people who may lose out are some credit card companies and collection agencies but even then there will still be people in debt because there are people guaranteed to overspend. With the extra $20-40 many people had from the payroll tax cut, I know a woman who took that and bought a rice cooker. Strange example, but yes she did. She always used a pot for cooking rice or a small container in a microwave but since she had extra money she bought that. Now if only businesses would imagine the profits of employees wasting that hard earned money on their numerous products. I think they would be happier depending on the type of business of course. However, I do think minimum wage increases should be decided by state based on costs of living rather than federally mandated. I've had a few temp jobs in which the pay was between $14 and $20 an hour usually lasting a few months sometimes shorter and sometimes longer. Someone in one state may only need a nice $7-9 an hour job to live in their city while someone in perhaps New York might need closer to $20 or $30 an hour.