3 ms·

Do you have a source? Economists disagree about this issue. Lots of the people who are affected by the minimum wage support it. Remember, it's okay to not kno

• malandrew 9y ago
  If the number of restaurants declines, so does the number of restaurant jobs. Those that still have a restaurant job are better off until they find themselves in the market again, at which time they will be competing with more people for fewer jobs. Effectively, you've just transferred income from some restaurant workers to other restaurant workers and eliminated the income for some restaurant owners who went out of business. Those restaurants that do survive also end up reducing the number of staff or shifts available to maintain their profit margin.
  • acover 9y ago
    No. You've transfered from customers/restaurant owners/unemployed to the workers. The unemployed get unemployment, which is a transfer from the workers. There are smarter people than us who are debating this. Maybe you shouldn't hold this opinion so strongly. Edit: Downvotes for what?
    • malandrew 9y ago
      > There are smarter people than us who are debating this. Maybe you shouldn't hold this opinion so strongly. An ad hominem is not an argument. If we're going with logical fallacies to make our case, I'm going to appeal to authority: I understand this pretty well as I used to work directly on macro-economic reports at the largest broker dealer in Latin America upon which many international institutional investors based their investment decisions. Unfortunately, the citizens of the country whose economy I covered (Brazil) didn't understand these economics issues (among many), which among the reasons why its economy has contracted over 3% for the past 2+ years. You're assuming that it's a strict wealth transfer where the size of the pie stays the same. It does not. The pie gets smaller when you reduce economic activity, which raising the minimum wage accomplishes as it eliminates jobs and puts businesses out of business. You can lie to yourself by using welfare to prop things up, but that doesn't work so well when the amount of taxes you collect to fund your welfare state drops as the economy shrinks. Eventually that gravy train runs out of steam.
      • acover 9y ago
        I didn't assume that. I was just correcting your statement about what transfers were occurring. I do not consider myself an expert on this topic. It's good that you do. However, your evidence is weak. You have made a leap from restaurant exits to minimum wage is bad for the workers. That there is disagreement among people better informed than I suggests I shouldn't hold my opinion strongly without good reason.
• Spooky23 9y ago
  The source isn't particularly meaningful. Restaurants need to be cheap or great. No middle ground survives. The 3.5 star restaurants, who are generally dead men wakling anyway just hasten the their exit. It's better to look at similar localities where there are constrasting costs. There are still stores in Philadelphia and Trenton even though sales tax is 0% in Delaware. Likewise, counties or adjoining states with higher wages than neighbors are still able to compete. I worked for a retail chain in college and saw the regional numbers. The marginal differences in wages between stores in different jurisdictions was insignificant. Our stores had about 100 employees -- a $1 delta was a few thousand bucks... peanuts that barely registered in the bottom line.