政府应不应该增加最低工资？

How do you feel about the concept of a 'living wage' where the minimum wage is based on the cost of basic needs in your area versus a flat country-wide rate?

Do you believe that raising the minimum wage might affect the quality of service or products as businesses try to cut costs elsewhere?

How might a higher minimum wage impact your community, particularly in areas where many people work minimum wage jobs?

What are some of the challenges you think teenagers might face finding part-time jobs if employers had to pay a higher minimum wage?

If entry-level salaries were higher, do you think it would change your decision about going to college or choosing a particular career path?

Imagine if your favorite small business had to pay their workers more; do you think it would change the way they operate or the services they offer?

How do you think raising the minimum wage could affect the prices of things you buy regularly like food, clothes, or entertainment?

Can you share a personal experience where earning more would have substantially improved your or another's well-being and how it impacted you?

Have you ever felt that a job you or someone you know had was paying less than what the work was worth, and what would you consider a fair wage?

How would your life change if your first job paid you significantly more due to an increased minimum wage?

only if those receiving the new wage understand the consequences of paying for their own insurance and other benefits now paid for by employers...including their half of social security as do all self employed workers.

I support a sliding minimum wage based on location or profession.

Maybe...but this is NOT the solution, but this may help for the short term...and I would suggest that the increase targeted to specific industry's and firm of a size exceeding a certain threshold

Leave it up to the business world. Fair companies will get good workers. Get the government out of our lives.

No. The government should step out of price controls/subsidies and allow the economy to be an economy truly based in capitalism.

The system is rigged anyway, arguing over these listed points is only keeping the middle class down.

NO, doing that will certainly kill a lot of businesses.

Those jobs are never meant to be homestead supporting jobs. We don't need immigrants coming in to fill these type of jobs either. We do however need to be able to get public transportation to where minimum wage workers can get to those jobs that can not afford cars with high property taxes and high cost insurance. (Ever notice how many of these insurance companies have high dollar television ads? I'm fed up with Geckos and Flo, aren't you?) $4.00 a gallon for gas didn't help either.

yes, and make it dependent on living situation (age, number of dependents, rent costs etc.)

stop the mass importation of foreign workers, this will raise the wages at the bottom

No but corporations with more than 10% of their workforce eligible for government assistance should pay a tax penalty

minimum wage is not meant to be a living wage...it provides entry level opportunities that would not otherwise exist.

We should adjust and raise the minimum wage but we should also address that even starting salaries have not risen with inflation over the last 20 years.

Yes, and maybe there would be a way to offer certificate programs or other higher education to those who are interested, using some of the added income tax to help subsidize them.

Society has an obligation to support each person to live a life worthy of living as defined by each such person

Living wage for people over a certain age. Businesses would not be able to fire people though as they age just for getting older.

Leave the minimum wage alone, but require companies to limit outsourcing, and to produce within the U.S.

Yes. While this is a short term solution to a problem that is much more systemic. Modern economics had reached a stalemate with technology and the need for scarcity has become nothing more than ploy to continue to consolidate power

money should be directed to job training and creating better jobs

Yes, but W Buffet recently made a very good point that adjusting income tax credits could have a more powerful and positive impact

Let free market handle the payment range but have a set standard to ensure safety

Replace minimum wage and welfare benefits with a Guaranteed Basic Income for all Americans.

Yes, and place caps on price increases relative to the wage increase

The minimum wage should have a C.O.L.A. built into it and that would solve the problem. The democrats use it constantly as a hammer at election time then never do anything about it anyway.

Yes and eatablish a maximum wage as well.

First get our currency back on the Gold Standard to secure inflation, than set a minimum wage according to the value of gold.

Minimum wage is not relevant to anything. You are worth what you bring to the workplace. If I choose to have a starting wage of $2.50 per hour and no one applies I will have to raise the wage until I get to a number where I have sufficient applicants to fill the openings. Minimum wage jobs are entry level, they are not now or ever have been intended to support a family on. They are intended for youth as a learning foundation of what is needed regarding job skills, attitude, commitments, work ethic etc. to move to the levels above. Case in point - If I owned a McDonalds franchise I would pay…  Read more very well, say $17.00 per hour to start. That would provide applicants to select from that were way beyond min wage status. A store typically needs upwards of 60 part time people to fully staff a location. A higher starting wage would allow me to staff with probably 20 people. All related employee costs would shrink and customer service would be outstanding. The job would be hard to replace and thus deemed of high value by workers. It would however eliminate most school kids.

There should be two minimum wage levels set, one for smaller independent businesses and for multinational businesses. Smaller businesses can pay the present amount (ex. $8.00) or raise a new floor level to ($9.00). On the other hand, multinational businesses and companies would have to pay at least, for example $9.50 or $10.00.

The issue is the maximum wage, not the minimum. Companies need to distribute profit not only to shareholders, but to employees in the form of increased wages.

Before we talk about raising the minimum wage, taxes for the job providers must be lowered significantly (both on the state and federal levels)and all unnecessary regulations should be eliminated. If that is done, more jobs will be created because the more money the job providers have, the more jobs they can create, the better able existing businesses will be to expand, more businesses can be more easily established thus bringing in more jobs and opportunities; producing a more competitive environment which would provided businesses and corporations to offer better services, and a greater…  Read more variety of products at a competitive pricing level; all of which will help to lower the cost of living; the potential for such, which I have witnessed first hand, not to mention employers will have an incentive to pay higher wages and provide decent benefits to their employees. When all that which is required is done to create better job prospects and a much more competitive market place, then we can discuss whether or not a raise in the minimum wage is needed.

Yes, because we have people starving on the streets because they don't get paid enough.