Quotes About Wages

Raising the minimum wage, as President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address, tends to be more popular with the general public than with economists.

The minimum wage is not something that you want to stay on as a permanent basis. For example, if you have a minimum wage job, you don't stay there 20 or 30 years. You don't put your children through college working on minimum wage.

Firms don't just try to pay as little as possible to get the needed bodies on board; when there is unemployment, they ask themselves how wage cuts would affect the behavior of the employees. Would they quit or feel dissatisfied and work less hard on the firm's behalf if they feel that wage policies are unfair?

Minimum wage laws have never worked in terms of having the middle class attain more prosperity.

My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've probably had to go through and raise every menu price now by 50 cents because it took away my profit. I just underestimated what it was going to cost.

We have to raise the minimum wage.

The minimum wage in Denmark is about twice that of the United States, and people who are totally out of the labor market or unable to care for themselves have a basic income guarantee of about $100 per day.

It takes so long for the folks who are earning minimum wage to finally see a little bit of a rise... that it takes a little nudge, I think, from government.

The first job I ever had was at a pool-liner-manufacturing plant. Minimum wage was $4.25, and that's what I was making. It was this huge, hot, un-air-conditioned factory staffed with all women and me. This is in Georgia, during the summertime, so it was pretty ridiculous.

What I want to do is create jobs that make the minimum wage irrelevant.

Instead of focusing on this sort of defeatist mentality where we've gotta up the minimum wage, why don't we focus on creating better-paying jobs?

Obviously, we want people to be paid a wage that could help make ends meet, but when you increase artificially the cost of labor to do a job, then oftentimes, those jobs will just go away.

I have said, on a number of occasions, that we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage.

Prosecutors and public defenders deserve to make a living wage.

When you work extra, you should be paid extra. That's what the Fair Labor Standards Act said. And I've met so many people who are working 60-70 hours a week, and they are effectively working 20 hours for free because they are making a little bit above the minimum wage, because the 2004 regulation enables employers to do that. That's not fair.

Morally bankrupt wage practices and laws cannot hold.

If we want to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, it starts with a fair wage, adequate working conditions, and the resources and support to succeed. Remember: teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions.

Middle-income wage earners have essentially had no pay increases since 2000.

I have serious concerns with the discussion around minimum wage because it drives up costs, and it could harm jobs.

Let me just go on record and say this: I am not for decreasing the minimum wage.

In a perfect world, people don't have to move to another country to get a higher wage. Ultimately, they need only be able to participate in producing output that is sold internationally.

For many young people, the minimum wage is a stepping stone to higher employment levels.

I think we've got to be competitive here in Illinois. It's critical we're competitive. We're hurting our economy by having the minimum wage above the national. We've got to move back to the national.

Increasing minimum wage doesn't build a stronger economy.