“... the minimum wage should have been trashed decades ago.”
For years I’ve been defending the minimum wage jobs. They have a purpose. But the problem is that their use has been distorted by definition for political purposes.
A minimum wage job many years ago was to create a work force of low level, low expectation, jobs to be performed by people that were not even really part of the company payrolls. These were jobs like wrapping packages at Christmas or dumping trash and sweeping floors. They were just some of the small needed things that didn’t require a whole lot of knowledge, education, or experience, and were handled by people that were not interested in being the VP of sales.
The term minimum wage, has now been exchanged for entry level employment. That’s the guy or gal that start in the mail room and maybe someday earn the opportunity to become the CEO of the business. And if they have an education and/or experience, they may be assigned to work in a higher degree of responsibility to start which should garnish a higher wage.
So by misusing the term, it offers employers the possibility of restructuring their wage scale and raising it with success at a lower rate rather than establishing a fair wage for a fair job completion at different levels with a low payment. And it also creates the illusion of success with pay raises to get to where they could have been paid to begin with. And there are more people working in the mail room than at a desk on the first floor doing filing but each is getting the same money. One has better bathrooms.
wy69
I don't give a damn about good intentions and touchy feely socialism. Setting a minimum wage is a price control on labor. It does not work. It never has worked.