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This is an honest question - Can small businesses in rural areas afford a $20/hour minimum wage? I can't imagine a grocery store in a small town being able to m

This is an honest question - Can small businesses in rural areas afford a $20/hour minimum wage? I can't imagine a grocery store in a small town being able to maintain much of a staff (or any) at that rate, for example.

schwartzworld 6y ago
Counterpoint: your business not being profitable enough isn't a reason not to pay a living wage.
- _nothing 6y ago
  Again, honest question: Is $20/hr the minimum living wage in a small rural town?
  - eesmith 6y ago
    In the US, the minimum age to purchase alcohol is 21. It used to be 18. In other places it's younger, and/or it depends on the alcoholic content of the drink. So, is 21 the right age? Is 18? Is 16? Honest question: how would you go about answering your question? Economists disagree with each other, so it's not something that an HN comment is going to resolve. Me, I based it on how the minimum wage from the 1950s, adjusted for productivity, would be about $25/hour - https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inflation-productivity/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inf... . This means the productivity benefits are going somewhere, but not to the poorest people who are working the most. Raise minimum wage to $20/hour (and/or increase collective barganining power), and raise taxes on the wealthiest, and increase the social safety net - pretty bog-standard social democratic viewpoints.
  - schwartzworld 6y ago
    The real answer is that you should pay what the labor is worth. $20/hr may or may not be the right amount.
    - eesmith 6y ago
      It's a complicated answer because of laws nerfing collective labor power in the US, like Taft-Hartley. That is, I believe there's a big thumb already lowering wages to below its worth. So the real question is, how do we determine "worth"? Some countries with strong unions, like Denmark, have an equivalent of $20/hour minimum wage for McDonald's employees, even though Denmark has no minimum wage.
vb6sp6 6y ago
It depends. Some can. There would be some that cannot. Rural grocery stores are already more expensive so we would have to determine where this extra money is going.

schwartzworld 6y ago

Counterpoint: your business not being profitable enough isn't a reason not to pay a living wage.

_nothing 6y ago
Again, honest question: Is $20/hr the minimum living wage in a small rural town?
- eesmith 6y ago
  In the US, the minimum age to purchase alcohol is 21. It used to be 18. In other places it's younger, and/or it depends on the alcoholic content of the drink. So, is 21 the right age? Is 18? Is 16? Honest question: how would you go about answering your question? Economists disagree with each other, so it's not something that an HN comment is going to resolve. Me, I based it on how the minimum wage from the 1950s, adjusted for productivity, would be about $25/hour - https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inflation-productivity/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inf... . This means the productivity benefits are going somewhere, but not to the poorest people who are working the most. Raise minimum wage to $20/hour (and/or increase collective barganining power), and raise taxes on the wealthiest, and increase the social safety net - pretty bog-standard social democratic viewpoints.
- schwartzworld 6y ago
  The real answer is that you should pay what the labor is worth. $20/hr may or may not be the right amount.
  - eesmith 6y ago
    It's a complicated answer because of laws nerfing collective labor power in the US, like Taft-Hartley. That is, I believe there's a big thumb already lowering wages to below its worth. So the real question is, how do we determine "worth"? Some countries with strong unions, like Denmark, have an equivalent of $20/hour minimum wage for McDonald's employees, even though Denmark has no minimum wage.

vb6sp6 6y ago

It depends. Some can. There would be some that cannot. Rural grocery stores are already more expensive so we would have to determine where this extra money is going.