4 ms·

You think wages wouldn't go down to compensate? Especially minimum wage jobs?

• jasonmp85 10y ago
  People in minimum wage jobs are _already_ being subsidized by the government. Walmart holds training sessions for new employees to help them apply for food stamps, Medicaid, and public housing. The slack is either picked up by public debt or private debt and the lower the minimum wage is, the more business get to skate by on the largesse of the federal government. So, no, minimum wage jobs wouldn't go down (they couldn't at any rate, without concomitant changes in law), and it's entirely possible the federal burden would be _lower_.
• noonespecial 10y ago
  I think that they would not necessarily go down. They might go up. If much of the working poor no longer had to desperately work multiple Mcjobs just to feed their kids they might take fewer of them (especially the particularly miserable ones) and spend more time at home. Employers would be forced to pay more and make working conditions better just to get those positions filled. Basic minimum income is loaded with unknowns. There really is no way to know the ultimate results without trying it. Lots of us are starting to think it's worth a try. We've tried worse.
• NPMaxwell 10y ago
  You mean near-minimum-wage jobs: would employers lower pay for near-minimum-wage jobs to minimum, because employees would be willing to take the pay cut since it is balanced by the basic income? That's a good question with an empirical answer: What happened in Alaska when the pipeline payments started? I'm sorry I don't know. I'm also not sure how a drop in near-minimum-wage pay plus the basic income would feel to workers in those near-minimum-wage jobs.