The minimum wage is always $0.
To me nothing reveals how out of touch, small minded and myopic the true Republican rank and file are when the issue of the min. wage comes up. The GOPers get all riled up over it but when ENTIRE INDUSTRIES. like micro chip manufacturing for example, gets off shored to the 3rd world they could give a rats a$$. A pox on both houses. Believe me the “normals” see this stupidity and watch in amazement.
Sure, there are unpaid limited-time internships young people take on for the experience, or perhaps a very short-term job someone working for room, board, & expenses but no wages, like a foreign au pair, but I always hated that argument. Paying $0 to an employee $0 when that person is working long-term because they need $ for living and not work experience is slavery, which is outlawed by the USC.
Minimum wage is just that: the lowest amount an employer can or will provide a worker with the worker willing to work for that amount because it would pay some bills. A true minimum wage is always more than $0. If bosses want employees to pick berries at $10/hr, but no citizens are willing to work for less than $15, and then bosses outsource to “migrants” or illegals, that is not market economics; that’s cheating the system. Market economics goes both ways. If an employer pays such low wages that no citizen will work for him, market laws dicate high demand for employees increase wages. And if demand for employment is very high because there is an exceeds of workers, wages will decrease, because employers can then pay the lowest a citizen is willing to work for.
Then again, there are citizens willing to work very short term (an hour or so) to pick their own strawberries and pay the owner $16 to pick their own 2 lbs of strawberries or $4/quart, removing the middle man (the migrant or illegal) whose low wages allow berries to get sold for $2/quart. We pay very little for some things because we have an artificial work pool willing to work for near slave wages because the government subsidizes them via free education, medical, & legal. Plus they live 11-20 in a home, whereas avg US households consist of 2.5 people. Illegals and foreign workers are what keep minimum wage artificially low. 25 years ago $5/HR for a lowskilled worker was fine. Today, inflation & cost of living increases demands at least 2.5 times more, maybe more in some places.
TL;DR: Minimum wage in a fair market economy for citizen workers will always be greater than zero, but only as much as an employer can afford to pay and as low as the citizen agrees to work for. In some cases, consumers will be willing to pay more for a product if it means eliminating the “monkey in the system” ie, the imported low-wage worker who doesn’t cost the employer much, as those costs are the tax payers’ burden to subsidize.
That reminds me of the politician Charlie Rangel. When young, he worked for a radio station for free - for the experience. Charlie likes “raising the minimum wage.” What he does not seem to realize is that most people working the minimum wage are young and are gaining experience.
In effect, Charlie (and many rich kids) can afford to work for free to gain experience. He and others have made it illegal for a poor kid to work for $5.00 an hour for experience.
Oh I realize that most minimum wage jobs are not as interesting as working at a radio station. However, most teach the importance of punctuality, dependability, conforming to some kind of dress code, having a good attitude, speaking at least somewhat properly, and getting along with people, especially the boss. For many, these are valuable lessons.