$15 an hour makes plenty of sense. (program, companies, wages, cost)

[hurricane harry]

What about people already on fixed incomes like retirees? Raising minimum wage would devastate their incomes.

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

There is no such thing as "exploit" in economics. It is a free market exchange of labor for wages.

Well then your economic theory is too incomplete to describe all the real world factors that are relevant to a decision with tangible human impacts. The minimum wage certainly fits this description.

[ContrarianEcon]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

There is no such thing as "exploit" in economics. It is a free market exchange of labor for wages.

there is such a thing as paying less than what is necessary to sustain life. Doing that comes with some moral hazard.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

There is no such thing as "exploit" in economics. It is a free market exchange of labor for wages.

[lieqiang]

Originally Posted by ContrarianEcon

there is such a thing as paying less than what is necessary to sustain life.

Yes the people who work for minimum wage are dying in droves.

[TaxPhd]

Originally Posted by ContrarianEcon

there is such a thing as paying less than what is necessary to sustain life. Doing that comes with some moral hazard.

And what exactly would that moral hazard be?

[ncole1]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

And what exactly would that moral hazard be?

Employers relying on their employees getting taxpayer assistance...

[ContrarianEcon]

Originally Posted by TaxPhd

And what exactly would that moral hazard be?

French revolution, Cambodian killing fields, China's cultural revolution. If you don't pay your workers enough to keep them alive they will revolt.

[jertheber]

Originally Posted by ncole1

Employers relying on their employees getting taxpayer assistance...

That little fact apparently doesn't tread on free market values...

[ContrarianEcon]

Originally Posted by lieqiang

Yes the people who work for minimum wage are dying in droves.

Not currently but in China before WWII the going rate of pay for a Rickshaw driver wasn't enough money to the driver alive. It wasn't a standard of living, it was a standard of dying.