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By that logic, do you think we should be lowering the minimum wage to help reduce inflation? Or has the minimum wage miraculously remained at the exact right le

By that logic, do you think we should be lowering the minimum wage to help reduce inflation? Or has the minimum wage miraculously remained at the exact right level without adjustment for the last 15 years despite its volatility in real terms?

schnable 3y ago
In most places in the US, it's too low to make a difference.
prottog 3y ago
The minimum wage should be lowered or dispensed with due to its deleterious effects on those most marginalized on the fringes of the modern economy, not due to any effect on inflation.
- tivert 3y ago
  > The minimum wage should be lowered or dispensed with due to its deleterious effects on those most marginalized on the fringes of the modern economy, not due to any effect on inflation. That's just free-market dogma. People already can't support themselves on minimum wage, and it's not going to do anyone (besides exploitative employers) any good to have them paid even less.
  - flextheruler 3y ago
    I lived in Northern Virginia most of my life until after college moving to Oregon. Virginia infamously stuck to a 7.25 wage until the last two or 3 years. I thought it was the worst and I worked a job for one month getting paid that. But now that I’m in Oregon I’ve noticed small businesses can’t compete with corporations here at all on price. It’s honestly crazy how much worse it is to get food at a small business. It’s definitely partially because of the overhead high minimum wage creates. Only small businesses that I see who can compete are entirely within a family so they probably have family members helping out without expecting $22 an hour or whatever it is here. Point is minimum wage laws aren’t black and white.
  - prottog 3y ago
    > and it's not going to do anyone (besides exploitative employers) any good to have them paid even less I disagree, on the basis that a poorly-paid job is better than no job at all in the long run for the employee. A price floor causes a surplus, in this case of labor, meaning unemployed people; the people for whom the economic value of their labor is less than the minimum wage. You can call this free-market dogma if you'd like, but it's a well-established phenomenon. The second-order effect is that those unemployed people become less and less employable over time, since they lose out on the experience, skill-learning, and relationship-building that they would have gotten on the job, poorly-paid though it may have been. They become further less competitive than the lucky ones who made the cut above minimum wage and were employed, and runs the risk of being a permanently unemployable underclass. Countries like Norway and Singapore do quite well with no legally-mandated minimum wage.
annexrichmond 3y ago
1.5% of US workers make minimum wage, who probably have much less to spend. So I don’t think it’s the same token of logic at all

schnable 3y ago

In most places in the US, it's too low to make a difference.

prottog 3y ago

The minimum wage should be lowered or dispensed with due to its deleterious effects on those most marginalized on the fringes of the modern economy, not due to any effect on inflation.

tivert 3y ago
> The minimum wage should be lowered or dispensed with due to its deleterious effects on those most marginalized on the fringes of the modern economy, not due to any effect on inflation. That's just free-market dogma. People already can't support themselves on minimum wage, and it's not going to do anyone (besides exploitative employers) any good to have them paid even less.
- flextheruler 3y ago
  I lived in Northern Virginia most of my life until after college moving to Oregon. Virginia infamously stuck to a 7.25 wage until the last two or 3 years. I thought it was the worst and I worked a job for one month getting paid that. But now that I’m in Oregon I’ve noticed small businesses can’t compete with corporations here at all on price. It’s honestly crazy how much worse it is to get food at a small business. It’s definitely partially because of the overhead high minimum wage creates. Only small businesses that I see who can compete are entirely within a family so they probably have family members helping out without expecting $22 an hour or whatever it is here. Point is minimum wage laws aren’t black and white.
- prottog 3y ago
  > and it's not going to do anyone (besides exploitative employers) any good to have them paid even less I disagree, on the basis that a poorly-paid job is better than no job at all in the long run for the employee. A price floor causes a surplus, in this case of labor, meaning unemployed people; the people for whom the economic value of their labor is less than the minimum wage. You can call this free-market dogma if you'd like, but it's a well-established phenomenon. The second-order effect is that those unemployed people become less and less employable over time, since they lose out on the experience, skill-learning, and relationship-building that they would have gotten on the job, poorly-paid though it may have been. They become further less competitive than the lucky ones who made the cut above minimum wage and were employed, and runs the risk of being a permanently unemployable underclass. Countries like Norway and Singapore do quite well with no legally-mandated minimum wage.

annexrichmond 3y ago

1.5% of US workers make minimum wage, who probably have much less to spend. So I don’t think it’s the same token of logic at all