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Should minimum wage be tied to cost of living, really? I mean under 5% of American workers make minimum wage.
And a small percent of Americans receive income from Social Security, which is tied to COLA increases. Either index minimum wage, or get rid of it altogether. Once a socialistic idea is introduced, either make it work or do away with it.
Are you saying that the 95% of Americans who make more than minimum wage never receive regular upward adjustments to their income (barring promotion)?
One thing is for sure minimum wages are cheaper than keeping a slave....
When you own a slave you have to keep them healthy...That means medical care and a healthy diet. After you throw in clothing food and shelter slave keepin is an expensive proposition.....
Now with minimum wage for employees, one has none of that. Pay erm and keep unemployment high so they can be easily replaced. Besides all that the capitol investment of buying a quality slave was put to bed.
When I was 16 years walkin minimum wage was $1.25,one could buy 5 gallons of gasoline for an hours work..
Who ever invented inflation was quite the scam artist..
Today the richest 85 people in the world have more money than the 6.5 billion of poorest people in the world..Something is wrong with that picture.. If the minimum wage is to be viable it must reside with a maximum wage.....Quid pro quo.....If one can argue against that morality and reason has to be put aside...
Last edited by USAGeorge; 11-08-2014 at 07:31 AM..
Raising minimum wage will raise payroll costs for employers, and if you aren't an idiot business owner? You pass that increase along to your customers.
So it all ends up being a wash.
You can get your $20/hr for asking "Would you like to supersize that?", but the increase in your rent/consumables, etc. are going to leave you right where you were when you were making $8.25/hr for asking "would you like to supersize that?"
Businesses aren't going to eat that increase in payroll, and especially not small businesses.
No minimum wage earner is going to get ahead with an increase in minimum wage for longer than 2 minutes because reality will catch up and very quickly.
It's a fact that liberals and progressives and everyone else who doesn't understand how to run a business can't seem to wrap their minds around.
You are ignoring the fact that a business does not spend 100% of its money on low-wage workers. If you raise minimum wage by 10%, their prices will rise by something less, maybe by 2%, maybe 4%, but NOT 10%. This means that the minimum wage worker has INCREASED purchasing power, just less of an increase than you would think if you didn't account for the price rises.
If they're spending 30% of their money on low-wage employees, then a 10% increase in minimum wage only requires their prices to go up by 3% to cover the cost. And in reality, it's somewhat less than that because the price elasticity of labor costs is less than 100%.
Empirical data suggests that increasing the minimum wage does not lead to so much inflation that the wage-earner's purchasing power is unchanged.
Notice that the big increases in minimum wage (e.g. 1990,1996,2008) *do* result in higher purchasing power, at least for a time. When there is no increase in the minimum wage, purchasing power decreases gradually.
So we see the net effect as a jagged line in purchasing power, jumping up when min wage is raised and then falling during the interim times. We do *not* see it falling more steeply immediately after a wage hike than long after. So even a "delayed" effect does not show up enough to see by eye looking at the graph.
.....If you raise minimum wage by 10%, their prices will rise by something less, maybe by 2%, maybe 4%, but NOT 10%. This means that the minimum wage worker has INCREASED purchasing power, just less of an increase than you would think if you didn't account for the price rises.
Then why stop at a 10% increase, why not take minimum wage to $25 an hour? Screw it....$50 an hour!! You know the higher minimum wage leads to higher economic benefits according to you leftists so why are you stopping at $10.10? Put that sucker at $50!
Then why stop at a 10% increase, why not take minimum wage to $25 an hour? Screw it....$50 an hour!! You know the higher minimum wage leads to higher economic benefits according to you leftists so why are you stopping at $10.10? Put that sucker at $50!
You know the old Chinese proverb "all things in moderation".
Just because a little of something is good, does not mean twice the amount is twice as good.
Okay, now we are getting somewhere lol! So here's the next question....and what POINT does that "something" become "too much"? In other words, at what point does the minimum wage amount begin to cause harm? Many would argue it's already too high.
Okay, now we are getting somewhere lol! So here's the next question....and what POINT does that "something" become "too much"? In other words, at what point does the minimum wage amount begin to cause harm? Many would argue it's already too high.
As with many things in economics, the question cannot be answered with high precision because there are a lot of unknowns and imperfect models.
However, as a first approximation, we can look at the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage over several decades and compare it to other relevant economic indicators such as the rate of unemployment. We should not raise it so high that we will cause massive unemployment, but fortunately, it has had an inflation-adjusted value equivalent to $9.00+ per hour several times without causing high unemployment. So as a starting first approximation we might consider that.
Now of course no economic model is ever truly complete and perfectly precise and no economic parameters are known with absolute certainty; but this is no more a reason not to act than your .00005% chance of a fatal car crash tomorrow is reason to stay in bed the whole day.
Okay, and what are you using to determine the concept of "high unemployment"? It's truly difficult to estimate how many people are affected by the minimum wage in terms of unemployment when the "Unemployment Rate" and the "Official Unemployment Rate" are vastly different. Plus the way that the BLS even calculates unemployment has always been a little weird to me.
How about this? Can we agree that the minimum wage was DESIGNED as a bottom floor pay scale for individuals with little to no skills? You agree, correct?
Wouldn't you also agree that these individuals are in three main groups:
- Teenagers just starting out in the work force
- Newly minted US citizens who just came to this country and are starting out in the workface
- "Losers" who have made bad decisions in life and are stuck in a minimum wage position due to refusing to acquire additional skills
If you increase the amount an Employer has to pay these three groups, without increasing their level of productivity, wouldn't common sense say that you are hurting the business of that Employer IF you do not have a copy of their financials on the side showing this enormous pool of "profits" that the business has that it could pass down and "share" with the employees?
You are under the assumption that these businesses are booming in profits, some might be, some might NOT be. Instead of implementing a broad increase across the board, why not AT LEAST cherry pick those businesses based on the financials you are reviewing in terms of who "could" share more and who "couldn't"? Of course, doing this would violate privacy laws and also would be a form of Government Communism.....which in my opinion is exactly what the minimum wage increases are. It's Government Communism by having the Government come in and TAKE profit pools away and distribute them out to other groups (the workers). The issue with this is that as I pointed out, you could be depleting the resources of the business by doing this and prices would need to be raised or employees CUT to accommodate.
The minimum wage, as I stated, should not be tied to inflation and it shouldn't be tied to a "living wage". It should be a bottom floor pay scale for those with NO skills. It should only be a starting point and once you have...hell.....6 months on the job you should be able to demand higher than minimum wage. Also, as I stated prior, what about commission sales people? What about interns? What about volunteer workers? All of these individuals WORK a full work week but there's no MINIMUM payscale to their positions.
I believe all this minimum wage debate is, is for Democrats to round up their "voting base" of single mothers, ex-convicts, and losers in life who all vote Democrat because they believe "THE MAN" has caused their "lot" in life rather than the screwed up choices they have made.
Outsourcing has been strong despite the low minimum wage... since I see the current fraction reserve system run by the western banking cabal as 'broken' and near insolvent or unsustainable, I vote to end debt based currency and go the treasury reserve note route.... about time we had an elite that cared more about the people than their own wealth and power.....
No. You clearly have no comprehension of how fractional reserve banking works. "Debt" is just the name of deficit spending. "Debt" in money creation is not analogous to a mortgage debt. A currency issuing bank cannot become insolvent. It creates money out of thin air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
Increasing the minimum wage will lead to inflation.
Increasing the minimum wage will increase unemployment.
Increasing the minimum wage will encourage companies to outsource.
AND...it doesn't need to be done. If a person wants to earn more, they can improve their skills and demand more. If they are not doing that, they have no one to blame but themselves. No one owes you a livable wage for doing a minimum wage job. Improve yourself and improve your employment options.
No. You don't understand inflation. Minimum wage does not lead to inflation. Minimum wage has no correlation to unemployment.
Stop drinking the hyper-individualism kool-aid. Minimum wage means employers would pay these people less, but it is illegal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tall Traveler
We should because of the poor income distribution currently in the USA which is increasing the income disparity.
We shouldn't because it takes away the freedom of the marketplace.
We don't have anything near freedom of the marketplace. Bigger companies just buy the government, pay workers crap wages, than leech of the taxpayer every chance they get.
I don't have an argument against waging the minimum wage. Ohh... the wealthy will have more money I guess.
For minimum wage... less welfare subsidized by taxpayers.
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