Economics: Minimum Wage, Who Gets Hurt?

[DBTrek]

When minimum wage goes up a few make more (those keeping their job and hours), many make less, and the minimum productivity level required for a worker to enter the job market acts like a rising bar that a growing number of people cannot clear.

[jediuser598]

This endless fascination with milk prices ...

Do cow milkers make or pay minimum wage? No? Then why people expect the price of milk to be a leading economic indicator of the effects of raising minimum wage is a mystery to me.

Why not look at something like ... the hours worked and job growth or loss of minimum wage positions following the change?

Seattle's minimum wage is $15 an hour. Its unemployment is at 3.3%.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/seattle_ ... yment_rate

"Seattle, WA Unemployment Rate is at 3.30%, compared to 3.50% last month and 3.10% last year. This is lower than the long term average of 5.39%."

[Speaker to Animals]

You could probably raise min wage to 15 without much fuss

It's not a real issue. Vast majority of workers make more than min wage.

[DBTrek]

Switzerland has a 3.3% unemployment with *no* minimum wage.
/shrug

Washington State has a 4.5% unemployment rate. And our most prosperous city, Seattle, with median home values of $727,400, has the same unemployment rate that the nation of Switzerland achieves through not having a minimum wage at all.

Needless to say, not too many minimum wage workers living in Seattle.

[jediuser598]

The myth that "raising minimum wage raises the price of everything" thankfully, is easily disprovable. Name what you want to compare, be it milk, burgers, cars, the price of a big mac, the price of education, the price of gas, and we'll compare. Most of those, you could probably look up yourself easily enough.

If you don't want to do a single item, we could do a basket of items. We list out the basket of commonly eaten items, then each of us goes and finds the cheapest we can, and we report back with our findings.

I would say that's original research, which isn't a bad thing.

Even from preliminary data, I'm seeing that perhaps the price of everything isn't solely dependent on minimum wage. To state it thus, If the price of minimum wage goes up, that doesn't necessarily mean that the price of everything goes up.

Wait, if MHF start pumping out research, would that technically make us a research institution?

[Speaker to Animals]

Explain this: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.kiro7.co ... 992?espv=1


There is no magic money tree, dude.

[DBTrek]

An economic action can still be inefficient, and harm the quality of life for all participants, without making “the price of everything go up”.

We can pass a law mandating that people with History degrees get 10% more than their counterparts, and it won’t make the price of “everything” go up.

It’ll mess me up though, because no one will hire me unless I can prove I’m at least 11% more productive than the other job candidates. And how could I prove that?

[jediuser598]

Explain this: https://www.google.com/amp/amp.kiro7.co ... 992?espv=1


There is no magic money tree, dude.

Guy says what I'm saying, at the bottom:

In a statement to KIRO 7, the Western Washington McDonald's Owners Cooperative said: “Price increases are due to a variety of reasons and there isn’t any one factor that determines menu items pricing. Many of the Seattle restaurants (for example the location where this beverage was purchased) are undergoing major renovations and improvements to bring our customers a fresh new experience, we’ve improved our employment packages (beyond the required wage increase) and have made other changes with the customer in mind, including the incorporation of breakfast all day. All of these initiatives and more contribute to pricing. We remain proud to offer the people of Seattle great food and beverages at a great value.”

[jediuser598]

An economic action can still be inefficient, and harm the quality of life for all participants, without making “the price of everything go up”.

We can pass a law mandating that people with History degrees get 10% more than their counterparts, and it won’t make the price of “everything” go up.

It’ll mess me up though, because no one will hire me unless I can prove I’m at least 11% more productive than the other job candidates. And how could I prove that?

I would argue it's inefficient to have surplus labor. If you don't need that extra employee, in order to keep your business running, then why do you have them?

And we're always competing with others. Your employers aren't hiring the most productive people that apply? What's the deciding factor then if not "I'm <insert percentage> more productive than other job candidates."

[DBTrek]

I would argue it's inefficient to have surplus labor.

You would be right. Among are populace there exist people whose labor productivity is well below $7.25 an hour. This surplus labor is reflected in actual “unemployment”, since the minimum wage means that anyone failing to produce at least $7.25 of productive labor per hour is unemployable. They’re just sitting around with nobody able to pay them for whatever productivity they can muster.

Raise that to $15 an hour and your surplus labor (unemployment) will grow accordingly. The inefficiency will grow worse.

Right on.
You got it.