4 ms·

Blaming wage stickiness relative to prices is different than blaming inflation. And, outside unions and jobs with competitive labor markets, the best advocate f

Blaming wage stickiness relative to prices is different than blaming inflation. And, outside unions and jobs with competitive labor markets, the best advocate for wage un-stickiness many workers have is government involvement via the minimum wage.

WillPostForFood 10y ago
96% of hourly workers already earn more than minimum wage, so it shouldn't be the first place to look at improving wage stickiness. Start with the cost of employment, primarily health care, which has sucked up a lot of money that should have gone to wage increases. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm
- oconnore 10y ago
  Minimum wage sets a floor which affects wages close to it, too.
  - WillPostForFood 10y ago
    Let me try a different tack. Wages used to go up without relying on minimum wage. Wages have flattened, so there are a bunch of other issues that should be looked at before just forcing wages up, which can have all sorts of unintended consequences, especially if the real reasons wages are flat aren't addressed first.
    - oconnore 10y ago
      You're right. Raising or lowering minimum wage purchasing power is worthy of caution, but having minimum wage track inflation is an economic no-op, not a shift in policy.
      - dnautics 10y ago
        it's not an economic no-op, because then the fight begins over who gets to measure inflation. Moreover, if the tracking isn't continuous (which it can't possibly be), during the 'between periods' there's wage devaluation which disproportionately affect the poor. The WHOLE POINT of inflation is that it screws over wageearners: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-higher-inflation/ https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hi... "even in the long run, it’s really, really hard to cut nominal wages. Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."
    - heurist 10y ago
      So the choices are wait for the economy to suddenly unfuck itself or give our lowest earners am immediate boost?
      - WillPostForFood 10y ago
        Turns out there are more than two choices, so no. http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy

WillPostForFood 10y ago

96% of hourly workers already earn more than minimum wage, so it shouldn't be the first place to look at improving wage stickiness. Start with the cost of employment, primarily health care, which has sucked up a lot of money that should have gone to wage increases. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm

oconnore 10y ago
Minimum wage sets a floor which affects wages close to it, too.
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  Let me try a different tack. Wages used to go up without relying on minimum wage. Wages have flattened, so there are a bunch of other issues that should be looked at before just forcing wages up, which can have all sorts of unintended consequences, especially if the real reasons wages are flat aren't addressed first.
  - oconnore 10y ago
    You're right. Raising or lowering minimum wage purchasing power is worthy of caution, but having minimum wage track inflation is an economic no-op, not a shift in policy.
    - dnautics 10y ago
      it's not an economic no-op, because then the fight begins over who gets to measure inflation. Moreover, if the tracking isn't continuous (which it can't possibly be), during the 'between periods' there's wage devaluation which disproportionately affect the poor. The WHOLE POINT of inflation is that it screws over wageearners: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-higher-inflation/ https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hi... "even in the long run, it’s really, really hard to cut nominal wages. Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."
  - heurist 10y ago
    So the choices are wait for the economy to suddenly unfuck itself or give our lowest earners am immediate boost?
    - WillPostForFood 10y ago
      Turns out there are more than two choices, so no. http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy