[{"msgID":"465","topic":"Minimum Wage","message":"I think that minimum wage should be increased because CEO's of companies are making massive amounts of money and the front line employees are not being compensated fairly. There should be more sharing of wealth in companies. I saw in a business class that CEO's are compensated heavily for their work. Although they should be highly valued by the firm the CEO could take some money away from top level and management and increase the pay of front line employees. The way that the instructor described CEO compensation changed my belief on how they should be compensated.","count":"8","completed":"6"},{"msgID":"427","topic":"Minimum Wage","message":"I believe that the minimum wage should not be raised to $15 an hour. In places that have higher minimum wages the cost of living is constantly higher than places with lower minimum wage. When cost of living goes up, all the positive gains realized from making slightly more money from minimum wage get washed out. Overall, minimum wage will still not be enough to live off of and people would have wasted their time trying a faulty solution when other more effective ideas could be attempted. The other alternative to higher cost of living is a reduction in minimum wage workers at companies. So either way by raising minimum wage either all minimum wage workers or ones laid off will still be either in the same boat or worse off.","count":"8","completed":"6"},{"msgID":"481","topic":"Minimum Wage","message":"My parents own a small restaurant in San Francisco, where they have increased the minimum wage. Although I strongly believe it's unjust for massive corporations where the CEO is making millions or billions of dollars to fail to pay their employee a living wage, I think people often fail to consider the strain that places on struggling small businesses. Instead of paying people more the owners inevitably take on more hours and it's worse for everybody involved. Furthermore, lots of economics experts point out that raising the minimum wage won't actually solve anything since basic supply and demand dictates that if the price of labor goes up, companies will \"\"buy less labor.\"\" That being said, people deserve to make a living wage and the concept of someone working 80 hours just to support themselves is insane. Also tips should not be calculated in the wage, they should be external and additional.","count":"8","completed":"5"},{"msgID":"377","topic":"Minimum Wage","message":"I don't really agree with the concept of a required federal minimum wage, as the cost of living varies state to state. Consequently, the minimum wage should vary from state to state. I have held minimum wage jobs as a teenager and no the value the present to the younger generation but have not experienced them from the perspective of living off minimum wage or using a minimum wage job to support a family. For example, the minimum wage in DC should be higher than the minimum wage in rural Alabama Regardless, I think the minimum wage should probably be raised to better conform with the high cost of living in order to meet the ultimate purpose of why the minimum wage was created in the purpose. However, I do not want de-incentivize the importance of education and obtaining high-skills jobs, as these jobs should pay more than low-skill minimum wage jobs. There is also the notion that there will be less jobs available as employers will end up paying the same amount of wage expense to a smaller number of employers which could lead to an increase in the unemployment rate. Thus, I believe the minimum wage should be raised on a state-by-state basis rather than on a federal level, but not by a significant amount. ","count":"8","completed":"5"}]