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I don't know what the right number is. The trouble is, $15 per hour is unlivable if you live in some areas and way more than sufficient in others. But our economy can't handle the added crushing blow of raising the minimum wage until we're fully recovered.
The amusing thing to watch is going to be Donald Trump. If the economy recovers quickly and if he gets re-elected, keep on eye on the man. He never was a real Republican. He still champions many causes that are straight outa the Democrat playbook. He champions LGBT voices within the GOP as well, which would have been complete madness before. He at least tries to help American minorities, with a strong emphasis on black and Hispanic communities. The GOP seemed to have given up trying a long time ago. You remember him saying he's thinking about expanding Medicare to cover the 30 million uninsured in the last couple days? Kinda pulling the rug out from under the Democrat talking points there. He might just be the president who does with minimum wage the thing that should have been done all along: Tie it to inflation and forget about it forever.
Frankly, he's a quirky bastard and I have no idea what he's going to do. Still, I'll probably laugh for a week straight if he ends being the genius who raises minimum wage and ties it to inflation.
Thanks for your response, but again I raise the point... What happens if we have deflation? Obviously, if Trump ties minimum wage to inflation, and we experienced deflation, you would expect minimum wage to decline.
With the appearance of coronavirus, many people have been surprised to find that most of our medicines are made in China... and the Chinese govt is less than enthusiastic about sending them to us all of a sudden. Many have questioned why we let this situation develop.
We let it develop because it costs less to buy it from China, at about the same quality we could produce here. A housewife who has to pay rent, pay bills, buy clothes and food for her kids etc. etc. might see China-produced Tylenol on a shelf for $4.00/bottle, and see US-produced Tylenol right next to it, same quality and quantity, for $9.95/bottle. Same for everything from clothes to computer parts to paper to car parts etc. If you were her, and struggling to make ends meet, which would you buy?
To (should have been) no one's surprise, massive amounts of our manufacturing have moved to China.
And that keeps happening because Chinese workers have much lower wages than American workers.
Want to get rid of that urge to buy a clearly less expensive product, and buy the US-made one instead?
Get rid of the U.S. Minimum Wage. Problem solved.
Now, do you want to get people to buy U.S.-made products? Or don't you?
Sure, we could get rid of the minimum wage.
But then that housewife will be making $2.00/hr instead of $7.00. So she wouldn’t be able to buy Tylenol for anything over $0.50/bottle. The race to the bottom.
...That minimum number you speak of is the absolute min just to keep the doors open...
So we're in agreement.
Quote:
...Right now, I am down to just my skeleton crew as business has just about ceased...
Well first off, as stated earlier, we're dealing with a pandemic right now which is a black swan event and will be a short-term problem. Changes in business operations due to it don't change the overarching fact that labor costs for a typical business in normal times are fixed.
That being said, I do acknowledge each business is different.
A small landscaping company for example will hire most of staff temporarily during warm weather months and then lay them off when business slows in the winter. Their labor is indeed variable.
However, you also have a business like Ford that will constantly need thousands of accountants, buyers, engineers, assembly workers, etc. This "skeleton crew," as you describe it, makes up most of their workforce and it's not variable because the company wouldn't be able to function efficiently if they were let go.
Most businesses, including small ones, are like Ford (not the landscaping company).
Well first off, as stated earlier, we're dealing with a pandemic right now which is a black swan event and will be a short-term problem. Changes in business operations due to it don't change the overarching fact that labor costs for a typical business in normal times are fixed.
That being said, I do acknowledge each business is different.
A small landscaping company for example will hire most of staff temporarily during warm weather months and then lay them off when business slows in the winter. Their labor is indeed variable.
However, you also have a business like Ford that will constantly need thousands of accountants, buyers, engineers, assembly workers, etc. This "skeleton crew," as you describe it, makes up most of their workforce and it's not variable because the company wouldn't be able to function efficiently if they were let go.
Most businesses, including small ones, are like Ford (not the landscaping company).
Small businesses are like Ford?
Uh, ok.
Small businesses don't have layers of middle management to add to their fixed costs.
Take a local mom/pop restaurant. There is mom and pop (skeleton crew), and any other employees are hired as needed due to business demands (variable).
But then that housewife will be making $2.00/hr instead of $7.00. So she wouldn’t be able to buy Tylenol for anything over $0.50/bottle. The race to the bottom.
Thanks for your response, but again I raise the point... What happens if we have deflation? Obviously, if Trump ties minimum wage to inflation, and we experienced deflation, you would expect minimum wage to decline.
I don't think that deflation is likely to happen, but if it does then yes minimum wage would of necessity go down.
As long as the purchasing power of minimum wage remains unchanged, I don't see it as a problem. Why would it be?
They should just make it 10K an hour now and skip the wait. Make the minimum wage $10k an hour or $2 an hour, it makes no difference. The minimum is the minimum meaning you will be poor if that's all you make. Playing number games might make stupid people feel like they are better off, but it won't actually help anyone.
Besides, many states and businesses have already started conditioning themselves for that day to come.
True. Many businesses and regional governments have already made strong moves in that direction.
The only real reason it's still bandied about though is because it's a devastating Senate wedge issue to low cost of living rural states.
Personally, I think that minimum wage should be split into 3 zones or so with gradients by cost of living. Then you can have $9 in the cheap areas, $12 in medium and $15 in high or something along those lines. Heck, go higher but one-size-fits all is INTENTIONALLY not meant to pass.
Is $15/ min wage really going to be possible across the nation with upwards of 25% of the population out of work? Won't those out of work people have to be able to afford the stuff those $15/hr workers are offering? If we have deflation, which is sometimes an outcome of prolonged periods of high unemployment, recessions/depressions, $15/hr minimum wage makes even less sense. People that complain about tariffs because of the unnecessary expenses created should be particularly appalled.
With the Cost of Living so different across the country a NATIONAL COL wage is asinine!
"Mississippi has the lowest cost of living in the U.S. with a cost of living index of 84.5. Most notably, Mississippi’s housing index is 67.1, the lowest in the country. The average home cost in Mississippi is $128,000 and the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $746. The living wage in Mississippi is only $46,084 for two adults and one child."
"The state with the highest cost of living index is Hawaii, whose index is 192.9. This means that the cost of living in Hawaii is 92.9% higher than the U.S. average. Hawaii’s housing index is 318.6, where a two-bedroom costs about $1,895 per month and the median home value is about $660,000. Groceries are also significantly more expensive in Hawaii since it is an island and most goods need to be shipped in."
You might say it is unfair to use Hawaii but, it IS a state and would have the SAME minimum wage.
How about Wash D.C and Ca?
The District of Columbia has the second-highest cost of living index of 158.4. The housing index in the District of Columbia is 267 with an average rent price of a two-bedroom apartment going for $2,776 per month. The living wage in D.C. is $67,867, the highest in the country."
"California has the third-highest cost of living index of 151.7. Aside from Hawaii, California has the highest transportation index of 138.9, thanks to notoriously high gas prices (the highest in the country). The housing index is 227.3 with a two-bedroom apartment running at $2,495 and even higher in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco."
Last edited by Quick Enough; 04-05-2020 at 06:41 AM..
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