Should there be a minimum wage? If so, what should it be?

I don't think there should be a minimum wage. Certain jobs, many that are just taken by teenagers, are not worth seven dollars an hour. As long as we have people willing to do these jobs for any ammount, there should be no minimum wage. Telling private businesses how much they must pay their employees should not be the government's job.

No I don't think that there should be minimum wage. I think that a business should be allowed to set their pay rates as high or as low as they want. You can choose if you think the job is worth the pay or not. If not then try to get a different job.

I think that there should be a minimum wage. Some of the jobs that pay min. wage are the very jobs that deserve a little extra. I am an Admin Asst. but I am often saddened when I go to say a fast food joint and the employees are working like slave for a meager pay check. It's not fair. I think that the min. wage should be at least 6.50 but not over 7.00. So be it to inflation. It happens yearly, shoot, monthly.

A minimum wage is necessary for the same reason that enforced overtime pay is necessary - it prevents employers from taking advantage of the desperation of the unskilled labor force. If the minimum wage does not exist, then unskilled labor - people who can be replaced with a minimum of cost to the business - will be even further from subsistence. In this situation, people either need to work more (10-hour workdays, no days off, multiple jobs), or they are dependent on government welfare. Outsourcing is a straw-man argument for most of these jobs - while manufacturing sector jobs can be outsourced, more manufacturing is semi-skilled labor that is above minimum wage when done in the U.S. The real minimum wage jobs are in the service industry - and they can't be outsourced, because you can't get your retail business staffed or your fast-food prepared in India, China or Latin America - the work has to be done in the place where it's needed. So, while inflation is a risk (though minimum wage is hardly the largest factor in inflation) outsourcing isn't as much of a factor. And, a minimum wage reduces dependence on welfare programs, by increasing the work-to-earning ratio for the unskilled, to be closer to where it is for skilled labor. Since the people recieving the minimum wage will need to get subsistence from somewhere, the more they recieve from employment, the less they need to get in the form of government aid.

A minimum wage is necessary for the same reason that enforced overtime pay is necessary - it prevents employers from taking advantage of the desperation of the unskilled labor force. If the minimum wage does not exist, then unskilled labor - people who can be replaced with a minimum of cost to the business - will be even further from subsistence. In this situation, people either need to work more (10-hour workdays, no days off, multiple jobs), or they are dependent on government welfare. Outsourcing is a straw-man argument for most of these jobs - while manufacturing sector jobs can be outsourced, more manufacturing is semi-skilled labor that is above minimum wage when done in the U.S. The real minimum wage jobs are in the service industry - and they can't be outsourced, because you can't get your retail business staffed or your fast-food prepared in India, China or Latin America - the work has to be done in the place where it's needed. So, while inflation is a risk (though minimum wage is hardly the largest factor in inflation) outsourcing isn't as much of a factor. And, a minimum wage reduces dependence on welfare programs, by increasing the work-to-earning ratio for the unskilled, to be closer to where it is for skilled labor. Since the people recieving the minimum wage will need to get subsistence from somewhere, the more they recieve from employment, the less they need to get in the form of government aid.

I think that there should be a minimum wage. Some of the jobs that pay min. wage are the very jobs that deserve a little extra. I am an Admin Asst. but I am often saddened when I go to say a fast food joint and the employees are working like slave for a meager pay check. It's not fair. I think that the min. wage should be at least 6.50 but not over 7.00. So be it to inflation. It happens yearly, shoot, monthly.

No I don't think that there should be minimum wage. I think that a business should be allowed to set their pay rates as high or as low as they want. You can choose if you think the job is worth the pay or not. If not then try to get a different job.