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Not everyone needs college, there are trade schools and the like that can help you get a better job. Why can’t minimum wage be raised to provide a better stand

Not everyone needs college, there are trade schools and the like that can help you get a better job. Why can’t minimum wage be raised to provide a better standard of living?

sparkie 9y ago
Because when you raise minimum wage, that means employers of the minimum wage earners need to push up their prices so that they're still making the same profits. (Actually, the same is not good enough, the profits need to exceed the previous years). The price of everything ends up inflating and minimum wage earners end up getting less for their money, despite having "more of it".
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
  Yes, but you're acting as if they're not better off. Minimum wage workers will be better of despite a slight increase in the price of goods.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  That would only be true if the goods minimum wage workers produce are being bought only by minimum wage workers. In reality the price also goes up for incomes above minimum wage so in a sense raising the minimum wage is a transfer of money from higher earners to lower earners.
  - jjeaff 9y ago
    In reality what happens, is those jobs go away (jobs like retail) and they are replaced with slightly higher paying jobs (like Amazon warehouse worker) except at a rate of about 1 new job for every 10 previous jobs.
    - deleted 9y ago
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    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
kccqzy 9y ago
Minimum wage only really encourages businesses to hire fewer people and train those fewer people to do more and be more productive, if not to raise prices. There are many small bookstores and mom-and-pop stores that are going to be closed when the minimum wage is raised because they literally can’t raise prices any more or hire fewer people. That’s why in some other countries, instead of a minimum wage, which is the government forcing businesses to pay a certain wage, the government itself makes up the difference between the actual wage and a desired wage. So if the government decides that everyone should earn at least $15/h but the market price for flipping burgers is only $10/h, the government itself will provide the additional $5/h. This effectively raises the standard of living without pressuring businesses and also without the adverse effects like pushing up prices or creating more unemployment.
- chrisbennet 9y ago
  The government in the US already subsidizes businesses that can’t or won’t pay a living wage - with food stamps and such for their workers. Perhaps having government make up the difference in pay, as you say they do in other countries, would be better.
  - astura 9y ago
    Yep Keeping minimum wage low is $153B/year "corporate welfare" check. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/13/study-when-companies-pay-low-wages-taxpayers-end-up-with-the-rest-of-the-bill/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/1...
- megy 9y ago
  > Minimum wage only really encourages No, it also means those people are paid a liveable wage, as opposed to a pittance.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Depends on one's definition of "livable wage." Minimum wage and "decent standard of living" are often conflated but minimum wage was not imposed and has never been intended to provide that. It's always been a wage that was at or slightly above the federal poverty line. The lowest minimum wage I remember hearing about as a kid was $1.50/hr. I thought that sounded like a lot of money at the time, but I probably was not even 10 years old. That would have been in the first half of the 1970's when the federal poverty line was around $2,500. So working full time, you'd make $3,000 or about 120% of the poverty level. Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and the poverty level (2016) is $12,200. So still, a full-time minimum wage worker earns nearly 120% of the poverty level. Source: Table 1, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p.. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p....
scarface74 9y ago
Anytime you artificially set price floors and ceilings you have unintended consequences. Why put the burden on private businesses? There is a better answer - keep the minimum wage where it is until it becomes meaningless because of inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit and make it easier for employers to pass it on to workers each month. They already take out taxes, it shouldn't be hard to do the opposite. The EITC has historically been supported by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Not everyone needs college, there are trade schools and the like that can help you get a better job. Why can’t minimum wage be raised to provide a better standard of living?

sparkie 9y ago

Because when you raise minimum wage, that means employers of the minimum wage earners need to push up their prices so that they're still making the same profits. (Actually, the same is not good enough, the profits need to exceed the previous years). The price of everything ends up inflating and minimum wage earners end up getting less for their money, despite having "more of it".

frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
Yes, but you're acting as if they're not better off. Minimum wage workers will be better of despite a slight increase in the price of goods.
maxxxxx 9y ago
That would only be true if the goods minimum wage workers produce are being bought only by minimum wage workers. In reality the price also goes up for incomes above minimum wage so in a sense raising the minimum wage is a transfer of money from higher earners to lower earners.
- jjeaff 9y ago
  In reality what happens, is those jobs go away (jobs like retail) and they are replaced with slightly higher paying jobs (like Amazon warehouse worker) except at a rate of about 1 new job for every 10 previous jobs.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

kccqzy 9y ago

Minimum wage only really encourages businesses to hire fewer people and train those fewer people to do more and be more productive, if not to raise prices. There are many small bookstores and mom-and-pop stores that are going to be closed when the minimum wage is raised because they literally can’t raise prices any more or hire fewer people. That’s why in some other countries, instead of a minimum wage, which is the government forcing businesses to pay a certain wage, the government itself makes up the difference between the actual wage and a desired wage. So if the government decides that everyone should earn at least $15/h but the market price for flipping burgers is only $10/h, the government itself will provide the additional $5/h. This effectively raises the standard of living without pressuring businesses and also without the adverse effects like pushing up prices or creating more unemployment.

chrisbennet 9y ago
The government in the US already subsidizes businesses that can’t or won’t pay a living wage - with food stamps and such for their workers. Perhaps having government make up the difference in pay, as you say they do in other countries, would be better.
- astura 9y ago
  Yep Keeping minimum wage low is $153B/year "corporate welfare" check. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/13/study-when-companies-pay-low-wages-taxpayers-end-up-with-the-rest-of-the-bill/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/1...
megy 9y ago
> Minimum wage only really encourages No, it also means those people are paid a liveable wage, as opposed to a pittance.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Depends on one's definition of "livable wage." Minimum wage and "decent standard of living" are often conflated but minimum wage was not imposed and has never been intended to provide that. It's always been a wage that was at or slightly above the federal poverty line. The lowest minimum wage I remember hearing about as a kid was $1.50/hr. I thought that sounded like a lot of money at the time, but I probably was not even 10 years old. That would have been in the first half of the 1970's when the federal poverty line was around $2,500. So working full time, you'd make $3,000 or about 120% of the poverty level. Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and the poverty level (2016) is $12,200. So still, a full-time minimum wage worker earns nearly 120% of the poverty level. Source: Table 1, https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p.. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p....

scarface74 9y ago

Anytime you artificially set price floors and ceilings you have unintended consequences. Why put the burden on private businesses? There is a better answer - keep the minimum wage where it is until it becomes meaningless because of inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit and make it easier for employers to pass it on to workers each month. They already take out taxes, it shouldn't be hard to do the opposite. The EITC has historically been supported by both Republican and Democratic presidents.