Posted on 02/11/2021 12:34:59 PM PST by Brian Griffin
The scheme would most importantly take local housing costs and employer & employee status into account.
The basic housing cost factor would be the square root of the pre-Covid 2019 HUD fair market rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the zip code area of the employee's most common work site divided by 10, rounded.
Typical HUD fair market rents might be around $1,200/month in much of America, $2,000/month in some big cities and $3,000/month in prime SF Bay areas.
The basic housing cost factors for those amounts would be $10.95, $14.14 and $17.32, respectively.
To compute the base minimum wage, the basic housing cost factors would be adjusted for CPI inflation since January 2019 and then rounded up to the next dollar.
People would have to work somewhat more hours to cover their big city rent. The big city rents are higher for many reasons, such as better lifestyle attractions, commute time value and long-term income growth opportunities.
Some smart aleck might say four weeks of 40-hour $18/hour work won't cover $3,000/month SF rent. I would first say share a place or take the BART to & from Richmond, CA. I would then say high SF & NYC rents have fallen.
With 160 work hours a month, people might gross $1,760 in a small town and $2,400 in a big city, or about $560 and $400 a month above typical rents, at a minimum. That may not seem much, but most people start their first job while living with family and then develop skills and experience that command a premium above the minimum wage.
In 2024, after say 10% inflation, the base minimum wages would be $13/hour, $16/hour and $20/hour, respectively.
The employer status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off for unincorporated/Chapter S unaffiliated[i.e. not a franchise] businesses and persons,
B. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons operate from just one location(excluding equipment/supply storage),
C. $1/hour off if such businesses/persons had no other direct employees except the substantive owner(s) during the same employer standardized hired employee pay period.
The employee status factors might be:
A. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be unemployed on his/her written job application,
B. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to be under age 18 on his/her written job application,
C. $1/hour off if the employee claimed to have a criminal/drug court record on his/her written job application.
These factors allow for a quite appropriate amount of targeted wage flexibility in the labor market.
The maximum reduction for any employee would be $3/hour.
A small business in a modest housing cost locale might be able to get help for $10/hour($13/hour less three $1/hour discounts).
I'm sure many of you would say this is too complicated. However, one basic rule coupled with an inflation adjustment and six employer optional exceptions is actually quite a simple system. It has been my lifelong experience that employers will readily go through a great amount of effort to pay most employees as little as possible.
In practice the federal Department of Labor would compute the base minimum wages annually by zip code and small employers would check the DoL website annually for their most expensive zip code place of business (or listen to their fellow employers kvetch). Status factor application would be an employer option.
There are many of you that object to a federal minimum wage. However, federal minimum wages are necessary when the federal government subsidizes rents to below $300/month for many millions of people. Refugees are entitled to full welfare benefits by treaty.
If there was no federal minimum wage, many employers would simply collect job applications until they find a federally subsidized person (or some older mortgage-free homeowner) who could afford to work for say $6/hour. The federal welfare system, which is not going away in my lifetime, badly corrupts the job market.
Many of you might say having a federal minimum wage costs jobs. It does, but not as much as supposed since the services provided by low wage workers, such as fast food preparation and shelf stocking, are often highly desirable and avoid the need for impossibly high capital investment. Moreover, if a college student misses out on a $6/hour job, he can borrow tuition money and pay the borrowed money back when he gets a $50,000/year job after graduation. The student who misses out on a job will have more time to study and may even have his educational debt wiped clean by vote-buying politicians.
It should be understood that a federal minimum wage also increases the ready availability of quality labor by making jobs more financially attractive to workers and by greatly reducing the number of job applications a person has to fill out to get a job since employer fishing for $6/hour labor is outlawed.
I suspect that the federal government should set federal minimum wages with the goal of minimizing federal welfare costs.
Bear in mind, President Joe Biden would gladly sign a 'historic' nationwide federal $15/hour minimum wage bill into law. The average federal employee salary in Washington, DC was about $108,000/year a few years ago. To Nancy, Chuck and Joe, $15/hour is chump change.
I would suggest that a revised federal minimum wage law not go into effect until January 1, 2022 because the small businesses that remain need to recover from Covid restrictions and massive amounts of Covid financial "relief" are still being handed out to individuals.
I have no idea to whom you’re referring as Mom and Pop. Are you suggesting that the primary occupiers of minimum wage jobs are parents?
All you Bushie Republican know are fear tactics?
It’s not a fear tactic, it’s reality. Sorry it offends your sensibilities, Snowflake.
Sure, great example! Let’s use the example of a Mom and Pop business—a small farm that runs, say, a horse stable. The farm also bales hay and straw for sale. Let’s say this Mom and Pop business is located outside of Cedar Rapids, for the sake of argument.
In your mind, you think it’s perfectly acceptable to tell the owners of this stable that they must pay the guy who mucks the stalls and the guys who toss the bales of hay onto the trailers, and then into the barn lofts, $30k/year each. Do you think that mucking a stall somewhere in the Midwest should pay $30k/year? If so, why do you think that—what’s your opinion based on? If you don’t think it should pay $30k/year, then why are you pimping for a minimum wage increase?
It’s a serious question. I’d like to hear your answer.
The other option is to "muck" it themselves...
So these hypothetical manure slinging cowboys full time employees or are they hired by the job?
I’m guessing that, despite your name, you’ve never set foot on a working farm—if you had, you’d know why your suggestion is ridiculous. You have absolutely zero concept of running a business of any type. It’s as though your knowledge of economics stopped at the Third Grade.
Crack an economics book if you want to educate yourself. In the meantime, just understand that a minimum wage causes unemployment. That’s all you need to know.
It’s full-time. Livestock don’t eat and crap on a seasonal basis.
Yes it does.
I wonder why legislators hate poor people so much.
Last time I went to a McWhopper, they charged my over 21 flipping bucks for 2 burgers 2 frys and 2 small cokes. It took them about 2 minutes and the order was ready. In an hour or so that tells me they’re putting out about $600 per hour out the drive through window alone.
So I would guess, if these people were making 15 bucks an hour, they are worth way more than their value in labor.
Minimum wage is very appealing to socialist ignoramuses and other people who don’t have a clue about economics. Is goes along with government price controls in the category of “things that cause economic disasters”
Sling your own sh!t cowboy.
And you should crack a history book. Politics and economics ARE THE SAME THING.....
So what? The fact that something stupid has existed since 1938 doesn't mean that it is a good idea.
How about we stop making illegal the jobs that are worth less than minimum wage?
That’s all minimum wage does. It isn’t the amount that must be paid to all jobs, it is making menial jobs illegal.
I don’t run a farm now, but I have. As for the minimum wage increase, you can bet your last dollar that it will be enacted by this Administration.
Not sure why you hate manual laborers so much. That’s really too bad, and un-Christian of you.
Exactly. It’s blindingly obvious, and yet central_va et al. can’t open their eyes enough to see it.
One of their options is always $0.
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