Posted by Littlelady8451 (anonymous) on July 20, 2009 at 11:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)

How do they thing a family can live on that I would have to work 2 jobs to pay all my bills And at some point in time I would have to sleep,care for kids,wash,dishes,clean my home and help with home work.No wonder america's are dieing younger every year they have to work so many jobs to make it in this life.They need to raise that up alot more than that.

Posted by angieid (anonymous) on July 20, 2009 at 11:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

i think its too low.. lets see here if your housing payment or rent should not equal more than 28% of your monthly income... 28 percent of your monthly income if you work 40 hrs per week is around $350... you tell me where you can find reasonable housing rentals or housepayments for around 350 a month and ill happily agree that minimum wage is adequate. if you are lucky enough to have two people working two 40 hr a week minimum wage jobs then you could possibly find an apt or trailer or house to rent in chilton county around 700.... but from what ive seen advertised in the mule trader and the newspaper they mostly seem to be in the 800 to 900 and up range....

Posted by bamamom (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 5:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree way too low. Very hard to may a living, eat.

Posted by angieid (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 7:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)

kw please dont even get my brain started on the evil empire of wally world. UGH! I HATE WALLY WORLD!

Posted by steve42 (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I understand that people are struggling right now, and I have been laid off in the past, but minimum wage (aka the going rate for mediocrity) was never designed for raising a family.

It was originally created to protect relatively unskilled workers from sweat shop conditions. It should still be used to protect relatively unskilled workers. If you are performing anything more than routine tasks, you should have earned the right to do better than minimum wage, and you shouldn't be waiting on those increases to raise your income.

The mininum wage was created in 1938 and was 25 cents. It is now $7.25 61 years later. That is a 2800% increase over 61 years, or an average of 45% per year by my rather weak math skills.

I've worked minimum wage jobs when that was all that was available to me, but the idea that the only way to get ahead is for the Department of Labor to grace you with yet another increase in the minimum wage is a sure sign of a lack of ambition.

The fact that the register biscuits who refuse to look the customers in the eye and who can't get an order right unless it's placed using a number ("I'll have a number 3") are now making what I did as an IT worker for a mid-sized company in 1995 is disgusting.

If you are working for minimum wage after having been with an employer for more than 90 days, you have made some mistakes. Either you didn't let them know you expected to earn merit raises for excellent work, or you're not performing excellent work.

When I interview for a job, the first thing I do is find out if there's a 90 day review, and if so, what I have to do to earn a raise at that review. If there's not a way, then I will look elsewhere. I don't need the mayor, the governor, the president or anyone else to tell my employer to give me more money.

I worked one job where the salary didn't increase for 3 years due to the way the government wrote the contract. I knew that was a possibility, but the pay was light years ahead of the averages for this community, so I took the chance. When a better opportunity presented itself, I took it.

Again, I *know* sometimes you have to settle for a starter job with starter wages, but if you work for decent folks and you set out to be the best employee they've got, you'll get raises.

Posted by kittycreek (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 4:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Well, it's a catch 22 - min. wage goes up - everything else goes up. It's a bummer, but it's true. How much is the spending power of the min. wage worker, in the long run?

Posted by kittycreek (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 4:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Businesses shouldn't be sniveling; this increase was not a surprise. They have known it was coming since 2007. This was the third (and final) increase of a series.

The cost of groceries went up, first because of high gas prices, but then, they didn't come back down when the gas prices became lower. I hope that is because they were getting ready for this wage increase. Otherwise, guess what....

Posted by getbizi (anonymous) on July 21, 2009 at 5:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Steve, you are right on point. Min. wage is intended for those with "minimum skills and education". If you want to make more, you've got to BE more. I completed my AA in biz. in 1993 and then quit. I found out a few years ago that if I intended to branch out into another field, it would require me completing my B.S.. So after my 8 hours at work are up, I head to Troy in Mtgy. and get home around 10pm. It would have been much easier before I had a family and job, but it's what I have to do now.