WHO LOSES FROM MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES?

The Cypress Times ^ | 3/14/10 | Kevin Price

[Patriot1259]

We have all heard the saying that "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." This saying could not be more true than when it comes to minimum wage. Liberals determine whether a policy is "good" entirely on what it should do, rather than what it actually does. Liberal policy makers decide they want to raise the incomes of individuals (salaries), when they should seek to increase the spending power of individuals (which would happen from increased productivity and the lower costs that follows).

[donmeaker]

Why not just double everyone’s wage? That way we all win...

Duh...

[highlander_UW]

My son is 14 and I've made sure that he understands this sort of question. He knows what happens when you increase the minimum wage. He's more qualified to be president than Obama because he has a basic grasp of economics.

[mlocher]

Why not just double everyone’s wage? That way we all win...

Bernanke has that one covered.

[ricks_place]

Raise the minimum wage and many entry level jobs are simply eliminated. Raise minimum wage high enough and maybe there’s no reason for a worker to move up the skilled work scale. If a janitor pays as much as a machinist, then there is no financial incentive to develop skills. I’ve done both jobs!

[SonOfDarkSkies]

WHO LOSES FROM MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES?

Let's see...

• Businesses, because they must pay higher than the market determined wage for a specific job and therefore they do not hire until the need is much greater than it otherwise would be,

• Potential employees, because the law slows the hiring flow until the need is much greater,

• Local economies, because job growth is retarded by the law,

• State and Local governments, because the local economies and the revenues they produce are retarded by the law,

• The National economy because all local economies are retarded by the law, and...

• the Federal Government, because a slower economy produces fewer tax revenues.

So who benefits from the minimum wage? Well, no one...

• The Employees getting the higher than market wage find that prices rise to reflect the fact that there are now more dollars chasing the same number of goods.

[Thermalseeker]

So who benefits from the minimum wage? Well, no one...

Actually, two groups of people win when the minimum wage increases. First, union workers because many union contacts have clauses that tie their wage scale to the minimum wage. When the minimum wage goes up, the union pay scale goes up. Second, the politicians who vote for minimum wage increases win because they gain more union votes. This has been the plan behind the minimum wage scheme since it's inception. It was never designed to help the people the DemocRats claim to be helping. Typical of all DemocRat vote buying schemes, exactly the opposite is true.

[LearsFool]

Raise the minimum wage and many entry level jobs are simply eliminated.

Precisely!

It's my suspicion that minimum wage hikes are driven by nothing less than racism:

Young black men are undereducated and underskilled. They therefore need the lowest of entry level jobs in order to even enter the workforce, where they would: gain skills, learn responsible behavior required of men, earn self-respect and the respect of others (particularly women), begin the climb out of poverty, and progress toward being able to support a family. Absent this course of life, we can expect young men - of any race - to become renegades and rogues.

If I wanted to keep the black race dependent and "at heel" as an underclass, I can think of no better place to begin than by ensuring young black men are priced out of the job market.

[Just another Joe]

Young black men are undereducated and underskilled.

And why is that?

Are we to blame race?
Are we to blame behaviour?
Are we to blame society?

Why is it young black men that need all the breaks they can get?

Is it possible, just possible, that the problem is individuals? That they follow the wrong role models? That they don't think about the long haul, all they care about is the NOW?

I don't think racism has anything to do with it at all, or at least only peripherally.
I think it's individual choice.

[Bernard]

Raise economic activity and profits, and more demand for labor will raise wages. Raise a person's skill set and that person will be able to command a higher wage. If it costs $7.00 per hour to keep a floor clean, or clear tables in a resturant, raising the price to get that floor or table clean does not raise the value of a clean surface, just raise the price.

So this all goes back to a lack of value systems in certain people, who equate price with value.

[GenXteacher]

You left out consumers, who have to pay higher prices for goods made/handled by minimum wage workers.

[PapaBear3625]

Raise the minimum wage and many entry level jobs are simply eliminated.

Perhaps not immediately, but certainly over the long term. Employers are always having to decide between hiring a new person, or buying a piece of labor-saving equipment which will allow them to do more work with the same people. And if they raise their prices, then consumers will tend to buy less of what they're selling, which also reduces the incentive to hire more people.

[SonOfDarkSkies]

Sorry bout that...but you’re correct!!!

[ricks_place]

...Young black men are undereducated and underskilled...

This certainly doesn't apply to all Black young men, as my son's high school friends are great kids, ambitious, college-bound, motivated, and good. But there is an underclass that needs to be reached.

[codercpc]

I think the ones that hurt the most are the employees that have worked one to two years at a job. They have gotten the expected, and deserved raises throughout that time period only to become minimum wagers once again.

[xrmusn]

But there is an underclass that needs to be reached.
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Definitely, but it is not only the black underclass. The class that has been mired in welfare, single parenthood, poor school systems, no desire to want to learn or get ahead, being advanced for what you ARE, not what you are capable of doing. This includes all races and ‘groups’.

“THEY” have virtually made it impossible for a teenager to learn work values as the hiring modes put on a teenager working are very restrictive. Even the age old ‘money makers’ such as shoveling snow, mowing lawns and baby sitting are going by the wayside due to ‘regulations etc’.

I (kind of) realize the goal was to stop child abuse in the work place, but the days of a kid getting/or earning a couple of bucks from the corner grocer for sorting his apples or leaning on a broom are gone due to “labor laws”.

I personally was setting pins in a bowling alley while in high school (nights & weekends) (pegs, not auto or even semi auto) which was just one of the many opportunities I had to supplement my mothers income... Because I played sports, I preferred not to get tied up with lawns and snow shoveling, even though I did my fair share of it.

Kids today can’t do that, or at least not without the offerer being subject to heavy punishment etc ...

[ricks_place]

...Definitely, but it is not only the black underclass...

Agree. I was responding to a comment that focused on Black young men rather than underclass in general.

[LearsFool]

And why is that?

Because the culture tends to repeat the cycle from one generation to the next.

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not absolving anyone of his crimes, laziness or other irresponsible and unmanly behavior. Certainly individuals, through great effort, can and do break free of the cultural ruts. They are to be applauded, of course.

My argument, though, focuses on the ruts: Who made them, and why? No doubt blacks themselves bear much responsibility. And (call me racist if you like) innate racial proclivities have contributed.

But slavery having been rejected as a solution to what white Northerners called "the negro problem", and Margaret Sanger's eugenics solution (i.e. abortion of "undesirable" black babies) having been rejected publicly as abhorrent, those who wish to keep blacks in an underclass position have had to resort to other means.

To discover what means they've used, we must look for factors which blacks have not chosen for themselves. (Again, this is not to absolve them from responsibility. But that's another discussion in itself.)

The question is, "Who loses from minimum wage increases?" My answer is, "By design, black society in America loses."

[driftless2]

The proponents of minimum wage always use the hoary argument “try to raise a family on minimum wage.” When I was growing up it was understood that no one wanted a permanent minimum wage job. Everybody knew that they were temporary jobs on the way to something better. So if you have a kid who can’t get a job to make a little spending money, you can thank a liberal.

[driftless2]

"more qualified than Obama"

Yes, but that's a very low hurdle to jump over. I'm sure your kid is pretty smart (heck, you're a Freeper), but Obama is dumbest president ever regarding basic knowledge of economics.