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A surprising amount of people seem content with a minimum wage earning underclass. "Minimum wage was never meant to support..." Why not? Can we not define what

A surprising amount of people seem content with a minimum wage earning underclass. "Minimum wage was never meant to support..." Why not? Can we not define what it is meant to do? How will it detract from your life that someone else existence is worth living? And when you earn that little, as much as $20 dollars a weak extra goes a long way. Better yet, they spend that $20 a week extra. It's good for everyone.

dragonwriter 5y ago
> Why not? Because minimum wage sets the minimum value job that can be done. > How will it detract from your life that someone else existence is worth living? Minimum wage isn't minimum standard of living. There's a certain level where minumum wage mostly mitigates lack of bargaining power in low wage labor, but as you get further and further beyond that point, you are raising wages less and causing unemployment more. If you want to set a minimum standard of living, you want a UBI, not a minimum wage.
- JimTheMan 5y ago
  Only 2.3% of Americans earn minimum wage. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm The relationship between unemployment and minimum wage is not as concrete as you might think. Economics 101 predicts it would, but empirical studies don't actually tend to support or refute that notion. Unsure how UBI doesn't results in massive inflation. Not against the concept, but not sure why we couldn't just have a functioning welfare system.
- bsd44 5y ago
  It's actually the opposite of what you wrote. Minimum wage is precisely "minimum standard of living", not a "minimum value job". There's no such thing as a standardised minimum wage for various types of job, every job has a different requirements that set the minimum wage. The reason why we (at least in Europe) set the minimum wage is to cover basic costs such as housing, health insurance and food or in other words basic costs of living.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > Minimum wage is precisely "minimum standard of living" No, its not. Because while it compels someone who employs you in a covered job to pay you a certain hourly wage, it doesn’t require anyone to employ you at all, nor does it require them to employ you for a minimum number of hours per (say) month if they do. It sets a floor on value of work for which it is economical to hire workers, but it does not set a floor on standard of living for the jurisdiction, or even for those employed in the jurisdiction.

dragonwriter 5y ago

> Why not? Because minimum wage sets the minimum value job that can be done. > How will it detract from your life that someone else existence is worth living? Minimum wage isn't minimum standard of living. There's a certain level where minumum wage mostly mitigates lack of bargaining power in low wage labor, but as you get further and further beyond that point, you are raising wages less and causing unemployment more. If you want to set a minimum standard of living, you want a UBI, not a minimum wage.

JimTheMan 5y ago
Only 2.3% of Americans earn minimum wage. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm The relationship between unemployment and minimum wage is not as concrete as you might think. Economics 101 predicts it would, but empirical studies don't actually tend to support or refute that notion. Unsure how UBI doesn't results in massive inflation. Not against the concept, but not sure why we couldn't just have a functioning welfare system.
bsd44 5y ago
It's actually the opposite of what you wrote. Minimum wage is precisely "minimum standard of living", not a "minimum value job". There's no such thing as a standardised minimum wage for various types of job, every job has a different requirements that set the minimum wage. The reason why we (at least in Europe) set the minimum wage is to cover basic costs such as housing, health insurance and food or in other words basic costs of living.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Minimum wage is precisely "minimum standard of living" No, its not. Because while it compels someone who employs you in a covered job to pay you a certain hourly wage, it doesn’t require anyone to employ you at all, nor does it require them to employ you for a minimum number of hours per (say) month if they do. It sets a floor on value of work for which it is economical to hire workers, but it does not set a floor on standard of living for the jurisdiction, or even for those employed in the jurisdiction.