Dems trying to increase minimum wage

[mamab]

Do you think it's a good idea? Why or why not?

Do you think the President will allow it to become a law?

 

[tater03]

I know that it might not be good for the small business owner but I think it is high time that they raised the mininum wage. You cannot live whatsoever on the amount it is now. Heck you cannot live on what they want to raise it to anyway but it is better than what it is now.

 

[framed]

I don't object to the idea of an increased minimum wage, but I don't understand the need to tie minimum wage to living wage either. There are plenty of people in our society who don't need their wage to be "living". Dual income families, and teens come to mind specifically.

There are also dangers in making the minimum wage too high. The more it costs, the less economical it becomes to have employees at the minimum wage level. To an extent business will absorb these costs and pass them onto consumers, but beyond that extent it becomes better off not to have the employee at all, at which point everyone suffers.

I would just urge caution, because tying the minimum wage to a living wage will make it much higher than it needs to be for a well functioning society, and it will hurt the people its trying to help.

 

[mtatum4496]

I wonder to what degree an increase in minimum wage may mean cutting other benefits like health insurance for persons who are making minimum wage? I'm not so much concerned with larger companies, but with the smaller outfits where they already struggle to make ends meet.

 

[dong]

Aha, we have a thread on this now!

As before, I've posted a link to a paper which asserts that raising the minimum wage will hurt the labor market and effectively worsen poverty, thus being a net negative effect and directly counterproductive to boot.

I was under the impression that "living wage" was subject to different application depending on juristiction. Would tying living wage to minimum wage only apply to those cities/states/countys who have such?

 

[mamab]

Well, then my question is this. If we, being "non-government" can see that raising the minimum wage will actually hurt the economy, why are the Dems trying to push it so hard? Are they just trying to LOOK like they're helping?

 

[framed]

I think a small raise in the minimum wage wouldn't necessarily hurt the economy, and might well help some people who are being taken advantage of in the labor market. One of the big tricks is finding what that "right sized" increase is, which as far as I can tell should be left to the Econ PhD's because its a pretty complicated set of interactions.

The other trick is taking the blinders off about illegal aliens (who are willing to work below minimum wage) and the impacts they have of anyone legally here working at minimum wage. Whether you're pro amnesty or pro mass-deportation, our current approach of ignoring the rules we have because they obviously don't work isn't really tenable long term. (Not trying to derail the thread into this debate, just pointing out that its relevant.)

 

[tater03]

I think I understand what you are getting at when you talk about a living wage. You are right that most families are a dual income family. So the actual mininimum wage doesn't have to be a living wage.
But then you lost me unless I am misunderstanding you when you say illegal aliens, who are willing to work below minimum wage. Correct me if I am wrong but first off they don't get taxes taken out of there pay. And as much as I agree this is a problem alot of the jobs that they do take alot of us Americans would never do. I am not saying all of us but alot of Americans would not do them.

 

[FourBear]

Illegal aliens don't get taxes taken out of their pay, but they are also not offered insurance policies or any other fringe benefit a company may offer to their legitimate employees. Even if severely injured, in some cases they must continue working despite their injury. One section of the book "Fast Food Nation" went into great detail about this, I believe.

 

[Phoenix68]

Aha, we have a thread on this now!

As before, I've posted a link to a paper which asserts that raising the minimum wage will hurt the labor market and effectively worsen poverty, thus being a net negative effect and directly counterproductive to boot.

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New Study Finds a High Minimum Wage Creates Jobs!!!!
May 13, 2023
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"A decade ago, conventional wisdom held that raising the minimum wage would not necessarily benefit low-income workers.

Over the next thirteen years, a long list of cities and states enacted minimum wage increases of unprecedented size. Between 2014 and 2022, California increased its minimum wage by 56 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over a similar time period, New York raised its wage floor by 72 percent.

Permanent double digit unemployment did not ensue.

In fact, not only did these historically large minimum wage hikes fail to put all fast food workers out of job, but a new study indicates that they actually induced job growth.

That redistribution of income away from business owners to workers can, in turn, have a stimulative effect.

Low-wage workers often live paycheck to paycheck and spend a high percentage of their earnings. Affluent business owners, by contrast, can often afford to stow away excess earnings. Thus, when you move dollars from the latter to the former, that money becomes more likely to circulate in the local economy. Which translates to higher demand for goods and services, such as fast food, which gives fast food restaurants an incentive to add more staff."

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