re: Minimum Wage - Change my mind, or point me somewhere that can

quote:

---

But the people pushing these policies don't understand that.

---

I don't understand how people don't understand that the company isn't going to eat the cost increase. Or, they are going to minimize the impact on themselves as much as possible, via cutting employees, reducing benefits, increasing prices of goods and services, etc...

It's absurd that people just think these corporations (or small businesses for that matter) will just eat these costs

I just don't get why people who are making minimum wage and aren't happy with their pay, not try and develop skills to make a better wage? Most people who make minimum wage, deserve what they make if that at all. A lot of shitty arse employees out there who have such a shitty attitude and want to do the least amount of work, and then no skills on top of all of that. And they want more money? Most of them are already life time section 8'ers and ebt swipers.

I know plenty of people and I have too, who started at the bottom and worked their way up through the company. If you can prove to your boss or owner that you can make the company money, they will reward you for it, and other companies may notice it too, depending on your job. Like my last job I've had so many job offers from other companies who see me doing quality work with a great attitude. People who put in the work, usually get rewarded for it.

And if we just going to try and make the poor feel good, why stop at $15, and make it $30/hr or better yet make it $50/hr so they can make $100k a year working full time.

quote:

---

I believe pretty firmly that a $15/hour minimum wage is fool's gold. I'm more than happy to be wrong about that, I just can't seem to find an unbiased, or at least a 2 sided, nuanced discussion regarding the subject that seeks to be intellectually honest about its net effect.

Is it not obvious that companies just pass those expenses on to consumers in the form of higher prices, resulting in actual less spending power for most other people?
Isn't that what we experience now? Hasn't inflation severely outpaced real wages for quite some time?

If you've got some links/podcasts/books or your own qualified opinions, I'd love to hear them.

---

The biggest problem with the whole $15 minimum wage debate is that they keep treating minimum wage as if it is the goal and not the starting place. I start my guys at 12.50 and if they are worth anything at all, they get a bump fast. I have a guy who has a good attitude and a driver's license and he got a dollar raise after a month. If you have any skill or value, you don't make minimum wage for long. Couple this with the fact that I don't know any place that pays minimum wage, you have a disaster.

Does anyone really think they will stop at $15?
The goalposts will continue to move until socialism as an economic theory is fully implemented.

quote:

---

My personal opinion is that no one working a full-time job should be below the poverty line or reliant on government subsidy - that to me is a failing

---

Some people choose to fail. It’s not the government’s job to artificially force them to not fail no matter how hard they try

quote:

---

I start my guys at 12.50 and if they are worth anything at all, they get a bump fast. I have a guy who has a good attitude and a driver's license and he got a dollar raise after a month. If you have any skill or value, you don't make minimum wage for long.

---

Congrats, assuming 8 hr days you just saved $176 vs paying him a higher amount up front. But tell me more about how an extra $2.50/hr is going to bankrupt you.

Raising the minimum wage might not be the best solution, but arguments against a minimum wage rely on assumptions of market efficiency that are demonstrably false such as asymmetrical info about compensation, asymmetrical leverage, and asymmetrical ability to relocate.

If markets are efficient, why does a boss try to argue against a raise before giving in? Because he wants to maximize profit and thinks he can convince me to work for less. Which is fine, but don’t tell me companies across the board can’t afford to pay workers more or that the current situation is an efficient outcome for workers

Fiscal policy since min wage’s inception has proven that raising it is an overall bad thing for all the reasons everyone is mentioning. The problem is you can provide data to basically support anything, which is what the dems and media put out for stuff like this. High percentage of the country does not understand how they are being lied to because you kinda need some basic economics education to understand that. What disgusts me, is the people that are trying to do these things know damn well how harmful what they are doing is and could give a crap anyway. Power and votes.

When’s the last time you got a 100% raise for doing the same job?

quote:

---

Companies are not sitting on money to payout extra. Either production improves and benefits profitability or prices go up to keep the margins in place.

---

1) this is not always true. How else do companies find money for year end bonuses for executive? They were sitting on cash. How do companies find cash for a 20% raise mid year? They are sitting on it. There is literally a financial reporting requirement for publicly traded companies called “cash on hand”. Sure, they might not want to spend it on wages, but that does not mean they will shut down if wages go up.

2) The efficient markets in Econ textbooks where companies have to cut costs as low as possible to compete for consumers and reach an efficient equilibrium are nice and neat. But they do not reflect the actual labor market. Most Companies want to pay workers as little as they can get away with and not hurt their bottom line. And because of the asymmetries I mentioned earlier, they are often able to.

I already admitted that minimum wages may not be the best way to address the problem. I just want people to stop pretending the current situation is the best workers can hope for.