Quote:
Originally Posted by widebody911
I do not think this is true. This argument assumes that if someone is flipping burgers they're either a wet-behind-the-ears teenager or being punished for some poor life choice or just not being bright in general
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Well then, we will just have to agree to disagree. Making the assumption that they are stupid, made poor choices or are kids is not what I am doing.
If it is a
minimum wage job, it is a job an employer is not willing to pay much to have done. If it goes from $9 to $15, does that mean that all the people who had formerly made $15 get $21 now? If not, why not?
Does the employer eat this added expense? No they do not. They do the job with fewer employees, they raise prices or most likely both. If they can't do that, they close their doors. It does not necessarily mean a business model is not viable if it can't survive when labor costs are artificially increased 65%. It more likely indicates that they were operating on a margin narrow enough that they can't absorb the additional expenses.
Unless every book on economics I have perused is wrong, raising minimum wage will almost certainly result in fewer entry level jobs.
For example, if wages go from $9 to $15, and your payroll for two weeks is $9000, you get 1000 hours of work from the lower pay rate, 600 hours of work at the higher one. You are going to either have to cut hours for each employee, eliminate employees or raise your prices to cover the difference. Problem with the third option is people may already be paying as much as they will for your widgets.