Posted on 06/23/2014 7:07:01 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Seattle recently raised the minimum hourly wage that employers in the city must pay to $15. That puts Seattle out in front in America’s Living Wage Derby – hooray!
Mayor Ed Murray boasts that the high minimum wage makes his city “the model for the nation.”
Not only that, but the big increase, over Washington state’s minimum wage of $9.32 per hour will, he says, enable the city to “regain economic strength.”
Great objectives, Mr. Mayor, but I don’t know why you’re being so stingy. You have at best taken a baby step towards fairness for workers and economic vitality. Please consider my Modest Proposal.
First of all, $15 looks like a hefty increase, but you could go higher. Because, as President Obama repeatedly reminds us, economists have proven that raising the minimum wage does not have bad effects on employment. One study even showed that increasing the minimum leads to more jobs, not less!
Therefore, I recommend that you raise the minimum to $30 per hour. That will put much more money into the pockets of workers who struggle to get by.
Since lots of workers are (for some reason) now working only 29 hours per week, paying them $15 per hour gives them a measly $435 per week. Living on that amount is pretty hard, especially in a city where prices are high. Doubling it to $870 per week would be much more socially just.
...
I don’t want to be responsible for planting more bad ideas than already exist in the minds of economically naïve politicians. All of the above suggestions are horrible.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Minimum wage workers in Seattle are likely in for a nasty surprise. They may actually see their take home pay shrink due to higher taxes and may lose all the “benefits” like free school lunches for their kids, Medicaid eligibility, earned income tax credits etc. they currently enjoy as a result of their low wage.
I think a good MBA thesis would be to answer where minimum wage workers spend their money. If they mostly spend it at location that have other minimum wage workers, where prices have had to increase due to the minimum wage increase, there is a diminishing return for their increased wages.
Do MBA students do a thesis?
Will they build a wall around Seattle to keep people from leaving ?
When I was a kid, I worked 10 hrs. per day in the fields at 50¢ per hour. At no point did I ever consider making a career out of it.
I think Seattle should raise the minimum wage for all jobs inside the city limits to $1000 an hour. Then everyone could be rich, right? Stupid is as stupid does.
Here’s hoping Seattle shows us the future of such a wage increase before the government forces such insanity on the whole US.
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