Can anyone play devils advocate for $15 minimum wage?

[alvincullumyork]

Like the post says can anyone give a logical and reasoned argument for it. One of my friends had this to say, which at the surface makes sense.

"$15 may be a bit high but the minimum wage has to be at least what the current min wage was worth when it was implemented. In other words, actually being corrected for inflation. If people can actually make a living and pay the basics without having multiple jobs, they start buying more consumer goods and services they could not before and they have time to actually get more training to move up which they do not have when they are just trying to feed and clothe themselves."


I may ride a little fast and someday it may catch up and bite me in the ass but maybe not if I give it just a little more gas.

[ralph]

I'm old enough to remember when minimum wage was $2 hr.. (and in reality that wasn't that long ago) When I started as a apprentice pipefitter, I was paid $5 hr, and this was in 1980. Handing someone a sack of shit out of a drive up window was never designed to be a career.. It was designed for high school kids for a first job, collage kids working thru the summer to help pay for collage, and for retirees as a part time job to pickup some extra bucks. As we all know, one generally gets better wages when he/she gets a better skillset. Those working in fast food,(or any other minimum wage job) demanding a $15 minimum wage need to get kicked to the curb. I'm sorry, but it's not my fault they made poor decisions in life and minimum wage jobs are the best they can do. So, OP no, I can't make a logical or reasoned argument for it.

[Belmont31R]

Why does min wage have to be equal to what it was when it first started? That's assuming the wage was 'good' back then.



Funny that most people (leftists) who support raising the minimum wage also support mass immigration. Mass immigration by no skill low skill people has done more to harm wages of non educated people than a lack of higher minimum wage ever could. The best thing for people's wages on a macro level is fewer job competitors. If you're in that job segment you can easily find yourself competing against millions of newly legal residents.

[TehLlama]

Like the post says can anyone give a logical and reasoned argument for it. One of my friends had this to say, which at the surface makes sense.

The only argument that resonated even remotely with me was that in our current system employers wind up paying the remainder of that minimum wage salary in taxes that then go forth and cover the rest of that 'living wage' indirectly through welfare/TANF and other support programs, and that companies paying over minimum wage are being disproportionately harmed by helping pay for the economic welfare of employees of other firms making minimum wage.

The aggregate demand increase by increasing buying power of minimum wage earners is crap, the concept that the wage floor should be a wage worthy of building a career on is a political straw man, and the idea that the quality of labor received will improve is again not backed by real world data.

[Onyx Z]

There is no logical reason for raising the minimum wage. As said above, minimum wage jobs were not meant to be a career. With any given skillset comes opportunity. With opportunity comes a higher salary. Handing a bag of "food" through a window is not a skill. It never will be.

When the minimum wage rises, so does inflation. There's no way around it. The only people getting a raise are the minimum wage folks. Everyone elses wage remains the same.

The theory that production will rise with higher pay is a pipe dream. Production = higher pay, not the other way around. Minimum wage will never be enough for these people. A couple years down the road, they will be begging for another increase.

[skydivr]

It's about as bad as giving the same gov't guaranteed student loan to the engineering student and the basket weaving student...

[Caeser25]

There is no logical reason for raising the minimum wage. As said above, minimum wage jobs were not meant to be a career. With any given skillset comes opportunity. With opportunity comes a higher salary. Handing a bag of "food" through a window is not a skill. It never will be.

When the minimum wage rises, so does inflation. There's no way around it. When minimum wage goes up, everyone doesn't get a raise. Why should someone with no skillset get a raise?

Exactly. Either that employer that eats that cost(yeah right :-/ ) goes out of business or raises prices.

Ever order food at Sheetz? Touch screen menu.

The REAL discussion we should be having is WHY do we have inflation? Who causes it? Who benefits? Who suffers? How do we fix it?

Start here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/091298...&robot_redir=1

The rest is just window dressing, or BULLSHIT. Straw man is another excellent term. This is ALL by design.

[jpmuscle]

Well if you want massive inflation and the eventual government pricing fixes via industry takeover, there is that I suppose.

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[AKDoug]

If $15 is good enough, why not $30?? When does it stop?

[NWPilgrim]

Wage and or price controls = shortages. It has been tried many times under different guises but the result is always the same. Want a shortage of jobs? Then pass a law freezing the upper or lower limit to some arbitrary amount.

You end up with fewer jobs, price inflation for all goods, rinse and repeat.