Minimum Wage Ripples ( How the minimum wage hurts my daughter's chances of working )

NewsMax ^ | 11/21/2006 | Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak

[SirLinksalot]

Minimum Wage Ripples

Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak, M.D., The Medicine Men

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006

The impacts of minimum wage laws on marginally productive workers are well known among thoughtful and economically minded people.

I think the voters in the states which passed ballot initiatives increasing the minimum wage in their states were not aware of the ill effects of such laws.

As Thomas Sowell writes, "Young, inexperienced and unskilled workers are especially likely to find it harder to get a job when wage rates have been set higher than the value of their productivity."

If the government mandates increased wages, workers earning the minimum wage are more likely to find themselves without a job at all than with a higher-paying job.

Yet many people cannot produce enough to earn any given arbitrary minimum wage. My 37-year-old daughter Ruth is one such person. She has been developmentally disabled since birth. She has many difficulties; for example, her speech is usually limited to a few words and a rare short sentence. Socially, she functions at about a 3- to 4-year-old's level. The same goes for her job performance.

She works several hours every weekday in a Seattle-area sheltered workshop.

She does simple assembly and packaging work. Her wage is based on productivity, essentially piecework. In a good month, she makes $100, a fraction of what minimum wage laws would require.

How does the sheltered workshop get away with flouting these laws? The answer is simple. My daughter's workshop has an official, government-issued "Exemption from Minimum Wage" certificate posted on its wall.

The law does recognize that some people cannot and do not produce enough to earn a minimum wage. Sheltered workshops exist because of this fact. But the mechanism and paperwork to qualify for an official special certificate is far from simple.

As a result, very few businesses even try.

As a consequence, minimum wage laws have extinguished all but a very few employment opportunities for my daughter.

Many years ago now, I hired an employment consultant to try to find a job for her. Without Ruth even appearing for an interview, she did get one offer of a job retrieving shopping carts from a shopping center parking lot. But because she is prone to wander off on her own, she needs 24-hour supervision; she wouldn't be safe out in a parking lot on her own.

I'd be willing to have Ruth work for a prospective employer (such as a business or institution needing food preparation help in the kitchen) for nothing, on a trial basis. After she's had a chance to show what she could do, we could negotiate a reasonable wage.

I'd even be willing to pay an employer to try to find a productive niche for her. But as I understand these laws, all these activities would be flat-out illegal, without spending a great deal of time and money seeking special certificates and exemptions, which might or might not be granted.

As Rev. Robert Sirico writes in this month's "Acton Notes," "If politicians enact legislation to coerce employers to pay more, employers often have little choice but to lay off some unskilled workers or even to close shop."

These enterprises have no chance at all to consider new hires from even less-skilled workers, such as Ruth.

Yes, minimum wage laws do protect — they protect people such as my daughter from working — and they protect unions and other workers from competition by the lesser skilled.

Minimum wage laws severely limit my daughter's opportunities for work and the self-respect that can come from productive work.

Recently the Chicago city council passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10 per hour. According to Sowell, "Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley denounced the bill as 'redlining,' since it would have the net effect of keeping much-needed stores and jobs out of black neighborhoods. Both Chicago newspapers also denounced the bill. The crowning touch came when Andrew Young, former civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta, went to Chicago to criticize local black leaders who supported this bill."

I hope this common-sense backlash spreads widely.

All Ruth can give me is her trust and love. What more can I ask of her?

But of you, dear reader, I ask you to remember the harm done her and others by minimum wage laws.

Editor's Note: Robert J. Cihak wrote this week's column.

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Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a senior fellow and Board Member of the Discovery Institute and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., comments on medical-legal issues and is a visiting fellow in Economics and Citizenship at the International Trade Education Foundation of the Washington International Trade Council.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

"liberals" don't like the law of supply and demand which is the fundamental rule of a free market. "Liberals" actually would like to control all transactions, control all prices, own all property and employ all workers. They can't do it yet, but are hoping to do it as soon as congress reconvenes.

[zendari]

A change in the minimum wage won't do much; as the market has already risen wages well above the minimum for just about any job.

I have not seen a single minimum wage job or met a single minimum wage earner since 1997 when it was increased.

Raising it won't do as much harm as people think though; the inflation increase isn't as bad as some people argue. That said, if you want to raise it, it should be done when inflation is better under control than it is now.

[John Lenin]

I used to eat out 4-5 times a week. They raised the min wage and my $6 meal went to $9. The new raise will push the price closer to $11-12.

[absolootezer0]

yeah, and while everone under the new minimum wage gets raises, no one else (except some unions) gets raises. in order to "improve" the quality of life for some, they worsen the quality of life for the everyone.

[Edit35]

My two kids both worked their way through High School, and they ALWAYS made more than minimum wage.

My son started at Boston Chicken (Market) making $7.50 and after a few months it was upped to $8.50. (and this was in the mid 1990s)

My daughter worked several jobs at the local Mall, in clothing stores such as Abracombie & Fitch, each time making about $8 an hour, plus benefits in one case.

So this entire minimum wage thing is so bogus.

In fact, I dont even know anybody who has EVER made minimum wage.

[dalereed]

"You, sir or madam, are one cold, heartless son-of-a-bitch."

I more than qualify!

[Obie Wan]

To hell with their minimum wage.Pay em under the table the same way illegals are being payed and even if they make less then minimum wage they are still making out better because there are no taxes being taken out !!!

[jonathanmo]

The minimum wage has nothing to do with the "bottom" end. It has to do with the other employees.

For example, in Missouri, the Min wage went to 6.50. My entry level employees make 5.75. Every year, they get a 3% raise, roughly 25c/hour. So I have 3 employees with me over 2 years making 6.25. Then, BAM

Now, thanks to the thoughtfulness of MO voters, I am forced to raise entry level to 6.50, valuing them HIGHER than people that have been with me for 2 years.

So I have to raise my 2 year employees to $7.00 and my Manager to 8.50 to keep them proportionate, even though they are NOT worth that rate (otherwise I would have been paying that).

So, I get the same productivity for more cost. I'm in a business where I can't raise prices, so I have to either absorb $3500 a year, or fire somebody, which I did. And the poor SOB said to me, "Can't I just work for you for the rate you had me at?"

That's the reality.

[traviskicks]

My daughter's workshop has an official, government-issued "Exemption from Minimum Wage" certificate posted on its wall.
---

thanks for posting that, I didn't know such a thing existed.

[mountn man]

The authors daughter is 37 years old. But she has the faculties of a 3-4 year old. A 3-4 year old sees daddy working on the car, and wants to help. She sees mommy baking or cooking and wants to do the same. A 3-4 year old wants to be a Big Boy or Big Girl. This 37 year old little girl wants to be like mommy or daddy. She might know she's not like others, but she doesn't truely understand. What she knows is that she goes to a job, just like daddy, and she gets paid just like daddy. She might hear from her boss "good job". And more than likely hears from her dad "I'm proud of you sweetheart". For her, that means she's worth something. And that WORTH is worth more than a dollar sign.

Simple math.
Question 1: 1 average 17 year old highschool kid can make 1 do dad an hour. He works 3 hours a night 5 nights a week, and earns $6.66 an hour. How much is he worth?

Question 2: Ruth and 3 of her friends make 100 do dads each in one month. They each make $1 per do dad. How much are they worth?

Question 3: Which one is worth more?

There is a center for mentally handicapped people here in town. They used to own the house next door to me and housed 6 people who weren't able to quite live on their own, but institutional living was unneeded. These people looked forward to going to work. To bowling. And to going out with their friends. They would often talk about their work, or bowling, or any number of things they did. Granted they were beyond a 3 or 4 year old, but probably not much beyond 8,9 or 10. The one thing they wanted was to be like everyone else.
To feel important.
To feel wanted.
To feel needed.
And to feel loved.

What good is it if a person makes $30 million dollars a year, and has none of those?
What good is it to take those things away from somebody, for minimum wage?

[mountn man]

That said, if you want to raise it, it should be done when inflation is better under control than it is now.

And what exactly is wrong with our inflation level right now???

Have you been reading or listening to MSM headlines and talking points????

[Rays_Dad]

As Rev. Robert Sirico writes in this month's "Acton Notes," "If politicians enact legislation to coerce employers to pay more, employers often have little choice but to lay off some unskilled workers or even to close shop."

-----
What is so damn hard about this. When I was in high school I worked for Albertson's at 4.xx an hour for right about 30 hours a week. When the minimum wage went up .15 cents I wound up losing about 4 hours a week. As did the rest of the part time folks such as myself. So some jackass could feel good about himself - I got an extra .15 but lost 17 dollars because my hours were cut. Can people really not see what is going to happen when wages go up two, three, four, and five dollars. That has the possiblity of effectively ending high school and no skill employment.

[Rays_Dad]

In fact, I dont even know anybody who has EVER made minimum wage.

-----

Hello my name is Chip and I made the minimum wage for about two months while I was in high school 10 years ago.

[JoeGar]

Government has no business dictating wages.

Democrats make it their business since many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When the minimum wage goes up, so does the union pay -- even if it is well above the minimum wage.

[Scutter]

Are you guys sure the comments about "developmentally disabled" having a hard time finding jobs is accurate? I ask because I'm pretty sure that about 80% of the people I work with on a daily basis are mentally challenged. Especially those folks in executive management. They must be mentally challenged because they keep making stupid decisions, over and over.

Note: I'm just kidding. Please don't flame me. Happy Thanksgiving.

[DugwayDuke]

There are quite a few folks here on FreeRepublic that support this minimum wage increase. After all, this argument is essentially that everyone is entitled to a job that pays an amount sufficient to support a family.

There are a lot of folks here that believe that. Just check out the free/fair trade threads or the anti-walmart threads.

[DugwayDuke]

"I used to eat out 4-5 times a week. They raised the min wage and my $6 meal went to $9. The new raise will push the price closer to $11-12."

According to the theories of some here on Free Republic, you must be doing quite well as a result of this. After all, if you pay the waiters more, then they will have more money to spend. If they have more money to spend, then they will buy more of your product and you'll be much better off. See, isn't economics simple?

[Western Phil]

"Democrats make it their business since many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When the minimum wage goes up, so does the union pay -- even if it is well above the minimum wage."

Unless I am mistaken, the union wage increases by some multiple of the minimum wage increase.

It is my opinion that the minimum wage is a primary reason for the teenage unemployment in the getto.

[sig226]

What else are you going to do with them? Like any other human being, they need something to do. If they have nothing to do, they get bored and find something to do. They might wander off looking for a new experience. Then you have to find them before they wander into traffic or find some other trouble. Even though this woman thinks at the level of a four year old, four year olds still want to accomplish things and believe that they are doing something productive. The workshop provides a place for the person under sympathetic watch. The people running the workshops know the people they work with and know what to expect from them, know how to treat them. It is a positive experience for the disabled person. They get to do something, like the other adults they see.

Besides that, I'm sure that being the parent of a 37 year old woman who thinks as a four year old is a never ending personal challenge. I'm sure the parents are delighted that they can get a little time out, so they don't have to worry about watching the daughter full time. Lord knows they have enough weight on their shoulders.

[sig226]

Executive positions don't count. 8<)