4 ms·

> If you give workers higher wages using the minimum wage most of the extra money they get comes from the place they work raising prices. ...and then people wi

> If you give workers higher wages using the minimum wage most of the extra money they get comes from the place they work raising prices. ...and then people will stop shopping there and go somewhere where they keep their prices lower by paying their executives more reasonably. If you're going to make naive pro-big-business arguments then don't stop, follow the naive logic to its full conclusion.

URSpider94 11y ago
Why couldn't that happen today? Presumably Wal-Mart could lower their executive pay and undercut Target in the current wage environment, and yet they don't. If you raise the minimum wage, it will raise the costs of all businesses in a market by the same amount, assuming that they all have the same cost structure (same basic wage and worker efficiency). Usually that causes prices to rise uniformly.
- copsarebastards 11y ago
  > Why couldn't that happen today? Presumably Wal-Mart could lower their executive pay and undercut Target in the current wage environment, and yet they don't. You're really asking why executives don't cut their own pay? > If you raise the minimum wage, it will raise the costs of all businesses in a market by the same amount, assuming that they all have the same cost structure (same basic wage and worker efficiency). They don't all have the same cost structure, so it would be rather silly to assume that. There are many companies that are not gigantic corporations with overpaid CEOs. If you only care about Walmart and Target, then yes, prices will rise uniformly. But employee-owned cooperatives, for example, will be completely unaffected. Places that already pay their employees a living wage would also be unaffected.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > But employee-owned cooperatives, for example, will be completely unaffected. Cooperatives (this will depend on details of structure, etc.) are often still subject to minimum wage laws, and of those that are, paying workers minimum wage as the only guaranteed payment with dividends/profit sharing/etc. on top is, as I understand, a not uncommon arrangement. So a minimum wage increase does increase the labor cost to the corporation (and, since wages are taxed differently than capital income, it has a net effect on the worker/owners, as well.) Now, obviously, the effect on a labor coop or its worker/owners will be different than the effect on a traditional corporation or its shareholders, but there will not necessarily be no effect on the former.
    - copsarebastards 11y ago
      Okay, that's technically true, but that's a distraction. My point is that increasing minimum wage rewards businesses who already paid a living wage. Ultimately I've seen zero evidence that raising the minimum wage has any negative effects on the economy. There are only hypotheses about how it could affect it negatively, but economies are too complicated for us to be making decisions based on hypotheses without evidence.

URSpider94 11y ago

Why couldn't that happen today? Presumably Wal-Mart could lower their executive pay and undercut Target in the current wage environment, and yet they don't. If you raise the minimum wage, it will raise the costs of all businesses in a market by the same amount, assuming that they all have the same cost structure (same basic wage and worker efficiency). Usually that causes prices to rise uniformly.

copsarebastards 11y ago
> Why couldn't that happen today? Presumably Wal-Mart could lower their executive pay and undercut Target in the current wage environment, and yet they don't. You're really asking why executives don't cut their own pay? > If you raise the minimum wage, it will raise the costs of all businesses in a market by the same amount, assuming that they all have the same cost structure (same basic wage and worker efficiency). They don't all have the same cost structure, so it would be rather silly to assume that. There are many companies that are not gigantic corporations with overpaid CEOs. If you only care about Walmart and Target, then yes, prices will rise uniformly. But employee-owned cooperatives, for example, will be completely unaffected. Places that already pay their employees a living wage would also be unaffected.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > But employee-owned cooperatives, for example, will be completely unaffected. Cooperatives (this will depend on details of structure, etc.) are often still subject to minimum wage laws, and of those that are, paying workers minimum wage as the only guaranteed payment with dividends/profit sharing/etc. on top is, as I understand, a not uncommon arrangement. So a minimum wage increase does increase the labor cost to the corporation (and, since wages are taxed differently than capital income, it has a net effect on the worker/owners, as well.) Now, obviously, the effect on a labor coop or its worker/owners will be different than the effect on a traditional corporation or its shareholders, but there will not necessarily be no effect on the former.
  - copsarebastards 11y ago
    Okay, that's technically true, but that's a distraction. My point is that increasing minimum wage rewards businesses who already paid a living wage. Ultimately I've seen zero evidence that raising the minimum wage has any negative effects on the economy. There are only hypotheses about how it could affect it negatively, but economies are too complicated for us to be making decisions based on hypotheses without evidence.