5 ms·

This is a dangerous statement; but I know that raising the minimum wage doesn't really hurt people making six figures; but, doesn't it hurt people making only a

This is a dangerous statement; but I know that raising the minimum wage doesn't really hurt people making six figures; but, doesn't it hurt people making only a small multiplier of minimum wage? Like people making 1.25x minimum, and 1.5x minimum, because they'll now be making 1.05x and 1.15x minimum wage, reducing their own personal buying power once the prices settle again..? I'm all for people earning more functional income. I've said before that I hate the corporate-level, money-hungry models of wages; but I had been taught that increasing the minimum wage, though it helps for a short while, ends up hurting in the end

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
This is the wrong approach - simply ask what level of wage is needed to prevent a worker having to claim state benefits. Anything else is subsidising the employer
- sukuriant 14y ago
  I believe my point was that, as wages change, so does that number. Isn't that part of the whole "cost of living" differences from one place to the next? People make different amounts of money, therefore they can spend different amounts of money on things they need, and the supply/demand curve adjusts accordingly? See: price of an apartment in Washington vs Texas Long complaint short: It's broken. How do we fix it?
  - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
    An apartment in Austin Texas is more expensive than one in Spokane Washington, your point?
- crapshoot101 14y ago
  not true and way too simplistic. If they can't get employed at all because the minimum wage is too high, the entire burden falls on those same state benefits.
  - stan_rogers 14y ago
    That assumes that a business would be willing to rage quit. It either needs employees, or it doesn't. How many businesses do you think are carrying an excess of employees at the moment just because the wages are cheap? How many are supplying customers who woulld no longer decide they want the product/service because a small percentage of the total cost of delivery has increased my a relatively small amount, increasing prices very slightly? It is only those jobs that can be offshored at little or no (overall) cost that would be affected, barring ideology-over-sense zealots out to prove a point.
    - crapshoot101 14y ago
      No, it assumes that in a flexible labor environment in the medium term, a business will adjust to the value of the worker. If the minimum wage goes up to $20 tomorrow, I may not let go of a lot of my temp employees today, but I will certainly do so in time. This isn't rocket science - this is economics 101. And I say this as someone who supports a gradual rise in the minimum wage (ie, a legislative solution that would link it to the CPI seems like the best way to take it out out of the hands of future legislators who want to play politics) - but the idea that there is no cost to increasing the minimum wage is silly. Also, the "small percent of the total cost of delivery" is is a red herring; labor cost as a portion of total delivery cost varies greatly according to industry. To use a silly example, if the minimum wage was increased to $30 tomorrow, you don't think McDonald's starts firing employees?
    - pixl97 14y ago
      >How many businesses do you think are carrying an excess of employees at the moment just because the wages are cheap? More then you think. Increased insurance costs has done more to get rid of excess employees then minimum wage will. >It is only those jobs that can be offshored No, not only. Now that costs increase it makes more sense for the employer to take a harder look at replacing parts of the employment chain with software or automation. Where at one point employes kept people around for their flexibility it tips more in favor of machines (software or hardware) for there efficiency.
  - lifeisstillgood 14y ago
- protomyth 14y ago
  The teenager at home trying to get some spending cash or save for college doesn't need to support a family. Every job doesn't need to support a family.
  - lifeisstillgood 14y ago
    So, you will ring fence certain jobs as only for people without families? Perhaps like paper rounds? But if a job is available to a teenager it is available to the fifty year old who just got laid off and unless it's working in a strip bar, is likely to be a better worker all round.
    - crusso 14y ago
      Right and so the teenager is left with no options to get a job because adults are working extremely low skill jobs. The adult has little incentive to quickly move to a higher paying job because the minimum wage has flattened out the slope of lower end jobs meaning that the manager at the McDonalds isn't making that much more than the burger flipper... so why would the adult bother making the effort? Meanwhile, the teen gets no experience at just getting up and doing something simple like flipping burgers so wastes his time watching TV or worse. When the teen gets to be an adult, he has zero work experience so what are the only jobs he is qualified for? Minimum wage entry jobs. The minimum wage is a vicious lie that causes inflation hurting those at the bottom end of the economic ladder while destroying entry level positions for new workers and creating inefficiencies in the trade of money for value.
      - Evbn 14y ago
        What valuable skills are developed over a year of flipping burgers, that aren't taught in the most basic highschool classrooms?
        VMG 14y ago
        Earning money.
        14y ago

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

This is the wrong approach - simply ask what level of wage is needed to prevent a worker having to claim state benefits. Anything else is subsidising the employer

sukuriant 14y ago
I believe my point was that, as wages change, so does that number. Isn't that part of the whole "cost of living" differences from one place to the next? People make different amounts of money, therefore they can spend different amounts of money on things they need, and the supply/demand curve adjusts accordingly? See: price of an apartment in Washington vs Texas Long complaint short: It's broken. How do we fix it?
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  An apartment in Austin Texas is more expensive than one in Spokane Washington, your point?
crapshoot101 14y ago
not true and way too simplistic. If they can't get employed at all because the minimum wage is too high, the entire burden falls on those same state benefits.
- stan_rogers 14y ago
  That assumes that a business would be willing to rage quit. It either needs employees, or it doesn't. How many businesses do you think are carrying an excess of employees at the moment just because the wages are cheap? How many are supplying customers who woulld no longer decide they want the product/service because a small percentage of the total cost of delivery has increased my a relatively small amount, increasing prices very slightly? It is only those jobs that can be offshored at little or no (overall) cost that would be affected, barring ideology-over-sense zealots out to prove a point.
  - crapshoot101 14y ago
    No, it assumes that in a flexible labor environment in the medium term, a business will adjust to the value of the worker. If the minimum wage goes up to $20 tomorrow, I may not let go of a lot of my temp employees today, but I will certainly do so in time. This isn't rocket science - this is economics 101. And I say this as someone who supports a gradual rise in the minimum wage (ie, a legislative solution that would link it to the CPI seems like the best way to take it out out of the hands of future legislators who want to play politics) - but the idea that there is no cost to increasing the minimum wage is silly. Also, the "small percent of the total cost of delivery" is is a red herring; labor cost as a portion of total delivery cost varies greatly according to industry. To use a silly example, if the minimum wage was increased to $30 tomorrow, you don't think McDonald's starts firing employees?
  - pixl97 14y ago
    >How many businesses do you think are carrying an excess of employees at the moment just because the wages are cheap? More then you think. Increased insurance costs has done more to get rid of excess employees then minimum wage will. >It is only those jobs that can be offshored No, not only. Now that costs increase it makes more sense for the employer to take a harder look at replacing parts of the employment chain with software or automation. Where at one point employes kept people around for their flexibility it tips more in favor of machines (software or hardware) for there efficiency.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
protomyth 14y ago
The teenager at home trying to get some spending cash or save for college doesn't need to support a family. Every job doesn't need to support a family.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  So, you will ring fence certain jobs as only for people without families? Perhaps like paper rounds? But if a job is available to a teenager it is available to the fifty year old who just got laid off and unless it's working in a strip bar, is likely to be a better worker all round.
  - crusso 14y ago
    Right and so the teenager is left with no options to get a job because adults are working extremely low skill jobs. The adult has little incentive to quickly move to a higher paying job because the minimum wage has flattened out the slope of lower end jobs meaning that the manager at the McDonalds isn't making that much more than the burger flipper... so why would the adult bother making the effort? Meanwhile, the teen gets no experience at just getting up and doing something simple like flipping burgers so wastes his time watching TV or worse. When the teen gets to be an adult, he has zero work experience so what are the only jobs he is qualified for? Minimum wage entry jobs. The minimum wage is a vicious lie that causes inflation hurting those at the bottom end of the economic ladder while destroying entry level positions for new workers and creating inefficiencies in the trade of money for value.
    - Evbn 14y ago
      What valuable skills are developed over a year of flipping burgers, that aren't taught in the most basic highschool classrooms?
      - VMG 14y ago
        Earning money.
      - 14y ago