Posted on 07/17/2019 7:22:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
Democrats in Congress have again brought the minimum wage to the national political stage.
Legislation moving forward in the House, H.R. 582, the Raise the Wage Act, would increase the national minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour in increments spanning the next five years.
Minimum wage is a highly partisan issue, reflecting the very different ways the two parties view economic reality.
When the Pew Research Center surveyed voters during the 2016 presidential campaign, 82 percent of Hillary Clinton supporters favored raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, while only 21 percent of Donald Trump supporters favored the idea.
What drives the difference between the parties?
Some would like to say it's because Republicans are pro-business and Democrats are pro-worker. Some would like to say it's because Republicans are for the wealthy and Democrats are for those with low income.
But I reject this take on things.
The thrust of all my work focuses on improving the lot of low-income Americans.
And I think the minimum wage is a terrible idea.
I operate a business, albeit a nonprofit business.
How do I decide how much to pay employees? I determine what I can afford and then try to get the best people I can at that wage.
Suppose what I decide I can afford is not enough to attract the kind of person I am looking for. I won't get any applicants. I've got to figure out how I can pay more, or if it is viable to hire people less qualified and hope they will learn on the job and then not quit if their salary does not grow with their performance.
In short, these are dynamic and highly personalized calculations between a business owner, workers and the marketplace.
How can it possibly work if the government gets involved telling me what I should pay people? It can't work, and it doesn't work.
Minimum wage advocates want to claim that it's different on the lowest rung of the pay scale. But no, it's not different.
Every employer pays as much as he or she can to get the best possible workforce.
If the government sets a floor on what can be paid for a certain kind of job, either the job won't be filled; someone overqualified will do it; or automation will substitute.
There's tons of research on the minimum wage. But the bottom line is common sense. All employers will hire the best workforce they can afford. If government limits what they can afford, the workforce will be constrained.
A new report from the Congressional Budget Office confirms the common-sense conclusion. Although a $15 minimum wage would lift some 1.3 million out of poverty, at the same time, 1.3 million jobs would be lost -- in the mid-range scenario. And 3.7 million jobs would be lost in the worst-case scenario.
This is even giving Democrats pause.
But what is even missing from this analysis is how many would benefit from minimizing government interference in the marketplace altogether, rather than government stepping in and manipulating and distorting the marketplace.
The bread and butter of Democratic politicians is convincing voters that they can make their lives better by expanding government and getting it more involved in private lives.
But data convincingly shows that the most prosperous nations are the ones with the freest economies.
Democrats also cause collateral damage by getting many Americans to believe what isn't true -- that politicians can make their lives better.
The headline of a Wall Street Journal report from a few days ago reads, "A Record Expansion's Surprise Winners: The Low-Skilled." The subheadline reads, "As unemployment remains at near generation lows, the fortunes of low-wage workers have improved markedly."
Want to help those struggling at the bottom? Reduce regulations. Cut taxes. Minimize government interference. And unleash the creative human potential of the free marketplace.
Wages are developed in business based on the dollar value the employer places on the employment opportunity. It’s as simple as that.
Does criticism hold when country flooded by illegal or legal immigrants?
Yes, a terrible idea but endorsed by a clear majority of America’s economically illiterate voters.
There’s also the fact that minimum wage increases also raise prices on consumer goods, making it a moot point.
SeaTac passed a $15.00 minimum wage law a few years ago. The SeaTac Hotel, which employed hundreds, had to let people go. They had to Cut out perks like a free meal during your shift, free parking and health benefits for those that were able to keep their jobs.
An employee is hired when he can produce more for the company than the cost of employing him. In other words if there is a profit to be made, there will be a hire.
Artificial minimum wages distort the free market. Many positions that were profitable before are not longer so and so the business is stifled and so are potential workers.
The artificial minimum wage also increases the desire for illegal aliens who will continue to flow in and fill the under the table illegal market for labor. If your competition is doing it, you have to do it too to stay in business. Minimum wage increases illegal labor activity.
I talked to a guy who owns a small chain of Ice Cream shops in Illinois. They hire high school kids to scoop ice cream. He told me that when the $15 an hour wage is forced on him, his family will close their ice cream business.
It say no job not worth a certain amount is not allowed to be performed.
The government has no right to set a minimum hourly pay rate. No other consideration matters.
Minimum wage laws were deliberately designed to PREVENT entry level employment. Passed with the enthusiastic approval of the labor unions, the level was meant to provide a base from which increased base wages could be negotiated UP from, as no union member was ever meant to actually WORK at the established basic minimum wage.
Stipends paid to interns or apprentice workers were set to provide a basic bare existence, and never meant to be the basis for support of a family or development of leisure activities. It is difficult to determine why this somehow became subject to a “minimum wage”.
It is presumed that the internship or apprenticeship would be for a predetermined length of time, at which point either the applicant had learned enough of the job to take over and work at it with some degree of competency, or it was revealed that the applicant had little aptitude for the field in which training was provided. At that time, a permanent wage bargain could be struck. Either become a productive asset to the employer, or find other means of support.
Yet, the right will tell us that legal immigration at the present ungodly high levels is ok. Open borders and massive legal immigration + no min. wage = 3rd world.
I agree with the concept that minimum wages laws are unjust in a free society, a free marketplace.
As an employer, I should decide what to pay and will do so after carefully calculating the marketplace. My focus will be on my competitor. What does he pay to produce? If I don’t pay what he pays will I have an inferior employee working for me and my business fails?? If I pay less and make a larger profit margin, will I sell enough, or will my product be inferior because of the cheap labor?? There is much to consider, but the marketplace should rule.
Right wing hypocrites believe in the law of supply and demand except when it come to wages. They will do anything they can, including artificially flooding the labor market with immigrants, to suppress wages.
America’s economically illiterate voters = people who want to survive.
Remember when $1700 bought you a new car? Just sayin.
Another distortion is flooding the STEM market with thousands of imported H-1B visa workers.
Fine. Some other entrepreneur will pick up his business.
It's passed every Constitutional challenge.
Not having read this, I just want to put my 2c in. Yes, MW are price controls that is socialist in nature.
BUT, I want to emphasize that if we get rid of the MW, before long we will get rid of ILLEGAL ALIENS by the opportunity evaporating.
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