Amusement park workers exempt from minimum wage increase in Ohio

CP&LE RR Guy, I think that our wages back then were a carry over from when George Roose operated the road as a concession. That plus the fact he was still around to oversee "his baby". From what I have been able to learn from you and others is that the engine crews today are chosen with more of an eye towards people who are truely interested in the ways of the Iron Horse. In my time it was more or less a reward for employees who survived being a foreman on Shoot the Rapids. Anyone who was interested in steam railroading was looked upon with a certain amount of suspecion by the zone super at that time. (How I made it in there is still a bit of a mystery).

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I'd REALLY like to see a breakdown by age and gender of those working for minimum wage...can't help but think there's a LOT more to that picture than teenagers living at home with mom and dad.

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Wish I had noticed this sooner.

According to the Dept. Of Labor:

As of 2005 (the latest info), 479,000 workers made the federal minimum wage of $5.15 and 1.9 million workers made less than that. Those folks represent 2.5 % of all hourly-paid workers.

• Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth of workers earning at or below the minimum wage were age 16-19.
• About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less.
• Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was about 3 percent.
• The proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less has trended downward since 1979, when data first began to be collected on a regular basis.

There's more at the link. :)

My mind isn't working this morning...but if half of the minimum wage workers were under 25, wouldn't the other half be 25 and up...instead of 2%?

Yes, but that's not the statistic. That's 2% of all workers.

So how that plays out is that 50% of minimum wage (or less) workers are over 25 and they represent 2% of all workers.

I think... :)

No wonder it was 70 degrees last weekend. Gonch and I actually agree on something in here.

Here in PA, the minimum wage has been raised to $6.15 on January 1, and it will be raised to $7.15 on July 1. The $2.00 hourly increase works out to $4160 (gross) for a person working full-time. Of that, about 3 percent goes to state tax, and there will be the deductions for SS and Medicare. Many will find themselves in a higher federal tax bracket too (from 10 to 15 percent), and many people who didn't make enough to file before will have to file now. I wonder how much additional take home pay they'll actually end up with.

I read somewhere that in many retail and service places, the supervisors and managers are only making 7-9 dollars an hour. So now they'll barely be making more than minimum wage, but with much more responsibility than the minimum wage worker. Is that fair? Should they get a dollar or two an hour raise? And then what about the people making 10-12 an hour, and so on and on...?

What I'd be interested in seeing is a study of what people getting wage increases do with their increase in take home pay Do they try to save some or do they just go out and spend it? Do they spend it on necessities or frivolous things? There's probably not much difference whether the person makes 5 or 500 grand a year.

Yeah, but if Hell froze over wouldn't it be colder out? (just had to find something to disagree with :) )

But all I can say to RGB's post is exactly, exactly, exactly.

Comment to the "get a better job" talk. I know alot of people are lucky to have gone to college, and found a great job we love and it just happens to be the top paying job out there. But for most people in america that hasnt happened. And before you get high and mighty about pissin on the little guys for being fools for flipping burgers or washing cars. If everyone took your advice, who would do it?? You think your doctor would take a second job to keep your gut full of fast food? What about when you are too lazy to get out of the car in the winter and pump your own gas? Do you call them idiots for stooping so low to do it for you? For minimum wage no less? You should be thankful for those little people "beneath" you. If they all went to college, and had better jobs, you most likely would be out of a job. Considering EVERYONE in the world would be highly educated and highly paid. And if you are one of those lucky people that are highly paid, why are you worried about an extra 15 cents for a loaf of bread?

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Considering EVERYONE in the world would be highly educated and highly paid.

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It wouldn't work that way. There's a finite number of jobs. If every single person went to college and got a degree, then you'd just have college educated people flipping burgers.

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You think your doctor would take a second job to keep your gut full of fast food? What about when you are too lazy to get out of the car in the winter and pump your own gas? Do you call them idiots for stooping so low to do it for you?

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Not one bit. In fact, I respect the work ethic. But the second they complain and claim to 'deserve' more, then the "who's fault is it really" arguement becomes valid.

Basically you have a crap job for one of two reasons:

1. It's meaningless to you. (high school kid, extra cash sort of thing, etc.)

or

2. You made some poor decisions and/or had some bad luck in life.

In the case of #1, the minimum wage thing is just as meaningless as the job. In the case of #2, well that's pretty much where the opinions/arguments in the thread come into play.

Based on the many viewpoints here, it seems most feel that raising minimum wage hurts more than it helps...even those making that wage.

Gonch, I was going more with the earth twisting about its axis angle.

LMStand, you're right that 15 cents more for a loaf of bread won't affect me much. But it will affect the people more just getting the wage increase. And probably by the time you add up the 15 cents more for bread, quarter more for milk, increases in produce, higher bus fare, and everything else that will go up to pay for increased labor costs, people making $7-something an hour won't be much better off than they were making $5-something.