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How would businesses respond to this? Would this really cause businesses to just pay people one dollar an hour or would it cause them to pay competitive wages so that they can compete with other businesses to attract and keep workers?
In today's job market, yes, too many people would be paid very low wages. However, jobs would be more available for the under-skilled and undereducated.
In an employee's market, employers have to compete for employees, even lower-skilled ones.
We need an employee's job market for many reasons.
There would be less demand for illegal labor. Illegal immigration is a construct of small business to get around paying even minimum wages to their employees.
One thing that many do not appreciate is that minimum wages push up everyone's wages. The middle class, actually, is the biggest beneficiary when minimum wages are raised. When the wages of the working poor go up, it just goes to subsistence spending - making ends meet but not raising standard of living much if at all. But when wages of the middle class rise much of it goes to discretionary spending as their subsistence needs are already met. If minimum wages did not exist it would not be just the people at the bottom who would be paid less, it would go all across the board except for the wealthy who would have even more than their current out-sized share of the pie. The middle class would lose discretionary income and would pay the greatest price in quality of life.
In today's job market, yes, too many people would be paid very low wages. However, jobs would be more available for the under-skilled and undereducated.
Yeah, God forbid that low education and low skill people be allowed to develop them in the real world.
I have an analogy for this.
A town along a river is expecting a flood. So, the townspeople all turn out to fill sandbags. It's discovered that some are fast, some are average, and some are slow. But they all get "paid" $0.25 a bag to fill them, from the town's budget.
Along comes the mayor and says "That's not fair". So, he says "anyone who makes less than 40 bags an hour has to leave". And he distributes the payment from the fast people to the ones sitting around. A few folks were handing filled bags to slower people to turn in as theirs, but now nobody is.
The town fails to fill all the sandbags needed and is flooded.
The mayor insists "Next time, we'll raise the quota to 60 bags an hour, we need better people filling sandbags to get more done".
It may be the skill less, uneducated guy making $4.00/hr isn't doing much... but he's doing SOMETHING, which is more than NOTHING. Contributing to the whole of things being done improves the whole.
"Along comes the mayor and says "That's not fair". So, he says "anyone who makes less than 40 bags an hour has to leave". And he distributes the payment from the fast people to the ones sitting around. A few folks were handing filled bags to slower people to turn in as theirs, but now nobody is. "
"Along comes the mayor and says "That's not fair". So, he says "anyone who makes less than 40 bags an hour has to leave". And he distributes the payment from the fast people to the ones sitting around. A few folks were handing filled bags to slower people to turn in as theirs, but now nobody is. "
Yeah, God forbid that low education and low skill people be allowed to develop them in the real world.
I think it's sad that today's youth literally cannot (mayn't) work - when they want to - and increasing min wage only makes it worse. No one is 'forced' to work if they don't want to.
Years back, I knew a young boy, and when he was in grade school (about 13 YO) he 'got a job' at a tire shop. (I think his dad knew the shop owner.) Everyday he would bicycle there after school and sweep the garage for a couple hours before it closed for the day. He made a couple/few bucks an hour (CASH). He really liked seeing the 'guys' work and getting to know them and helping out. He enjoyed it and took a lot of 'pride' in his 'job'. And later he even had 'references' for his first 'real' jobs, as to his reliability, etc.
His work wasn't supplanting a 'regular' position or anything. And, it was an awesome and important experience for him. But it was --> ILLEGAL!!! And, it's too bad that people/kids cannot gain new experience, training, etc, like internships. But we don't allow it. YOU can't make that decision for yourself. And that's unfortunate. And the minimum wage yellers just push the possibilities farther away.
When pigs fly... but, I totally AGREE - there should be NO minimum wage.
I think it's sad that today's youth literally cannot (mayn't) work - when they want to - and increasing min wage only makes it worse. No one is 'forced' to work if they don't want to.
Years back, I knew a young boy, and when he was in grade school (about 13 YO) he 'got a job' at a tire shop. (I think his dad knew the shop owner.) Everyday he would bicycle there after school and sweep the garage for a couple hours before it closed for the day. He made a couple/few bucks an hour (CASH). He really liked seeing the 'guys' work and getting to know them and helping out. He enjoyed it and took a lot of 'pride' in his 'job'. And later he even had 'references' for his first 'real' jobs, as to his reliability, etc.
His work wasn't supplanting a 'regular' position or anything. And, it was an awesome and important experience for him. But it was --> ILLEGAL!!! And, it's too bad that people/kids cannot gain new experience, training, etc, like internships. But we don't allow it. YOU can't make that decision for yourself. And that's unfortunate. And the minimum wage yellers just push the possibilities farther away.
When pigs fly... but, I totally AGREE - there should be NO minimum wage.
I know this story - I had 5 kids.
Living in a small town, nobody had the money to formally hire kids for a few bucks to do menial tasks. My son learned some great skills working for an upholstery shop, but did it under the table - until he found out the owner was drunk all the time and he got tired of his bad behavior and then he quit.
The best educations about the real world are in real world situations and informal employment. It teaches many things about being valuable vs taking up space.
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13 year old works for couple bucks an hour....
