Tip jars

[Mike Blakesley]

Most states DO have minimums that are above the federal. In Montana, ours is currently $10.55 and it goes up every year according to the rate of inflation. (Last year it was $10.30.) But even with that, a lot of employers pay anywhere up to $15 because otherwise it's hard to find workers. At the Roxy we pay our teenagers $11.00 or more, except during their first 90 days when they get the minimum. All of the above is perfectly reasonable for Montana. If we had to base our minimum on what it costs to live in California, for example, it would put a lot of businesses out of business.

[Tim Reed]

I got the job (offered to me by said higher-up) because of the excessive down time and film and equipment damage.

After a while of me being there and getting things running without fail, the rare times the film break alarms went off (They had them in the two main booths, the box office and behind the candy counter) had the staff wondering if I'd died in the booth.

That's awesome. You go in there and just do your normal level of work, and everyone takes notice because of the great difference in your skill and what they were used to.

[Bobby Henderson]

That's great, but how do you get people to agree to what a livable wage is? This is why the "federal minimum wage" is a dumb thing. It should be left to the states, or maybe even to counties. You can live in my town here for about a tenth of what it would cost to live in a city like Seattle or Chicago. A house that sells for $150k here would be worth a million bucks in Los Angeles. Even a movie ticket here costs half of what it does in a city, to say nothing of a restaurant meal.

Can someone afford to buy a house or at least find some place decent to rent in Fortsyth, Montana making $7.25 per hour? That's the current federal minimum wage -a level that has been in effect since July of 2009. It's a level so low that 30 states adopted higher minimum wages. Quite a few local governments have followed suit with their own minimum wage increases.

Unfortunately the act of hiking the minimum wage fails to address other structural problems, like housing availability.

We have a great deal of income class segregation in place all over the United States due to housing. We see it every where. There's the "good part of town" and "the bad part of town" as well as the various quality levels in between. A bunch of this segregation was created by local zoning policies. Many cities and towns are dominated by "R-1" zoning. That's single un-attached homes. Local politics make it very difficult to build multi-unit housing, especially anything deemed "affordable." Any such developments are confined to certain areas of town, if they're even allowed at all. Of new stand-alone homes being built, most are designed for high income earners.

The US has a severe shortage of "starter homes" and affordable apartments, town houses, etc for young adults just getting started in their lives and for older adults wanting to down-size. The shortage has been worsened thanks to America's residential real estate markets being turned into a global investment playground. Various "bad parts of town" in many cities, such as New York City, have gone through gentrification. People who work in lower wage service industry jobs end up having a far more difficult time finding an affordable place to rent. The people who operate such businesses, like movie theaters, end up having a much more difficult time keeping employees.

Some cities are starting to relax zoning policies and allow more of a mix of housing types in the same neighborhood. Until there is a lot more of that kind of housing integration allowed we're going to see problems like falling birth rates continue to get worse.

[Mike Blakesley]

Can someone afford to buy a house or at least find some place decent to rent in Fortsyth, Montana making $7.25 per hour? That's the current federal minimum wage

Well, if they had a roommate they might be able to. But the minimum in Montana is $10.55 per hour, and most places (including my own movie theater) pay more than that, except for entry level people. And it goes up every year based on the inflation rate. That's the way it should be -- minimum wages should be set by the states. The fact that some states refuse to go above the minimum is their problem. Why visit that on all the other states?

If some people get their wish, the federal minimum would be at least $15 per hour, which would put a lot of Montana businesses out of business. Or at the very least, it would cause businesses to slash their workforce or their hours, and/or raise their prices to cover the added wages. Tell me how any of that would be an improvement.

[Bobby Henderson]

If some people get their wish, the federal minimum would be at least $15 per hour, which would put a lot of Montana businesses out of business. Or at the very least, it would cause businesses to slash their workforce or their hours, and/or raise their prices to cover the added wages. Tell me how any of that would be an improvement.

Maybe those business owners need to be politically advocating for policies that allow low wage workers to survive or $10 per hour or just the current $7.25 federal minimum. That means things like affordable housing built in safe neighborhoods. Or decent grocery stores built within walking distance of modest priced housing. If anything, I see the opposite taking place. It's just a lot of punching down at people on the bottom.

Recently some hardline assholes were making noise about restricting what people can buy with food stamps. No processed "junk food." These same people were outraged when a certain former first lady suggested people need to be eating more healthy foods. These country club pricks don't seem to realize or care that many low income workers poor enough to receive food stamps often don't live within a close distance to a good quality grocery store. What do they have in their neighborhood? These fucking dollar stores that sell only garbage quality food. Technically just about anything those stores sell could be restricted from SNAP for being unhealthy. Many so-called health foods are priced high. Whole Foods being nicknamed "whole paycheck" is no joke. Even fresh produce has grown more expensive and is set to get even more so. American produce growers are having a tougher time since a bunch of their work force has disappeared or been deported. We'll have to import more of our produce, which will be hit with new tariffs. Florida thinks it has a good idea by relaxing child labor laws so 14 year old kids can replace those Mexicans. We'll see how that works out.

Anyway, the math doesn't add up for this crap. I'm worried about it out of my own selfish concern for retirement prospects. America is setting itself up for a baby bust of South Korean proportions. Like it or not America needs lots of new manpower and tax payers born into existence. Right now the country has a pretty intense anti-immigrant vibe going on. 20 years from now we might be begging for any immigrants we can get. But America might be such a broke, failed shit hole by then that no one would want to come here.

[Ryan Gallagher]

We obviously live in different times with different costs of living. $0.25 in 1938 when a federal minimum was established carried forward with inflation is only $5.56 in 2024.

It was last raised in 2009 to $7.25 but even that is only $10.60 in 2024, which might pass in some areas for entry level 1st jobs out of HS when living with family still, but certainly not for any adults or families living in urban population centers.