5 ms·

Yes. Much of the political rhetoric about the minimum wage seems to ignore obvious questions like, "What happens to the people whose labor is only worth (e.g.)

Yes. Much of the political rhetoric about the minimum wage seems to ignore obvious questions like, "What happens to the people whose labor is only worth (e.g.) $12 per hour, when the minimum rises to $15?" What problem are we really trying to solve by making it unlawful for people to hold a job, people whose labor is worth less than the minimum wage? Making it illegal to work (for a certain wage) is certainly a roundabout way to help poor people, if that's the goal. There are certainly people in any economy whose labor is not worth the total cost to an employer, for any given price. For an obvious extreme, consider a minimum wage of $1000/hour: this would not magically make everyone rich; instead, it would create a giant black market for labor. Intuition says that $1000/hr is obviously the wrong number. But what really is the justification for saying that $5 or $10 or $15 per hour is the right number? If the goal of such a policy is to help the lower class earn more, then minimum wage seems like a very indirect and blunt instrument by which to effect it.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
The idea is that people should be pushed up the value chain of productivity as well as just being paid more. Yes, we don't allow for $1/hour productivity like other countries (even when allowing for PPP) because that is just not acceptable use of human labor in a developed country. So minimum wages do create pressure to stay productive enough to keep employed, which is entirely intensional.
- deleted 9y ago
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- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  > comment replied deleted Think about it: it's not just the work, it's the quality of the housing and the food, and everything else. Sure, someone could "work" for $1/hour but they could never live on that in a rich country. There is a bottom on labor productivity below which labor is not viable for the minimum standard of living for the country. Pushing up the min wage forces productivity improvements as well as standard of living increases. Otherwise, we would have something like India, supporting a wider variety of living standards; I.e. We wouldn't be a developed country anymore. Below that level of employability, social services are supposed to take over, but this being America....
  - wooter 9y ago
    > Pushing up the min wage forces productivity improvements as well as standard of living increases. The evidence in this study shows precisely the opposite.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Sure, but that is just one study, and anyways, doesn't negate that the theory exists at all. Besides, minimum wage laws aren't the only way to do that, the market does it naturally (those worth employing at all already demanded more than minimum wage anyways).
- coredog64 9y ago
  FLSA 14c allows employers to pay developmentally disabled person less than the minimum wage. I'm fine with that. Employing them as bag boys frees up other people for more productive work, and they almost certainly wouldn't have a job otherwise.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

The idea is that people should be pushed up the value chain of productivity as well as just being paid more. Yes, we don't allow for $1/hour productivity like other countries (even when allowing for PPP) because that is just not acceptable use of human labor in a developed country. So minimum wages do create pressure to stay productive enough to keep employed, which is entirely intensional.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
> comment replied deleted Think about it: it's not just the work, it's the quality of the housing and the food, and everything else. Sure, someone could "work" for $1/hour but they could never live on that in a rich country. There is a bottom on labor productivity below which labor is not viable for the minimum standard of living for the country. Pushing up the min wage forces productivity improvements as well as standard of living increases. Otherwise, we would have something like India, supporting a wider variety of living standards; I.e. We wouldn't be a developed country anymore. Below that level of employability, social services are supposed to take over, but this being America....
- wooter 9y ago
  > Pushing up the min wage forces productivity improvements as well as standard of living increases. The evidence in this study shows precisely the opposite.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Sure, but that is just one study, and anyways, doesn't negate that the theory exists at all. Besides, minimum wage laws aren't the only way to do that, the market does it naturally (those worth employing at all already demanded more than minimum wage anyways).
coredog64 9y ago
FLSA 14c allows employers to pay developmentally disabled person less than the minimum wage. I'm fine with that. Employing them as bag boys frees up other people for more productive work, and they almost certainly wouldn't have a job otherwise.