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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (744)	6/14/2005 9:04:30 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541673

dol.gov this is a very cool site

To: Dale Baker who wrote (744)	6/14/2005 10:28:23 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 541673

The national minimum wage isn't very high. The jobs that might be gained if it was lower or didn't exist wouldn't be very good jobs. But you would have some marginal people without very low qualifications for work that could get jobs that are currently priced out. It might not have any effect in the better off areas of the country were even the most entry level jobs pay better than minimum wage, but in the poorest least developed areas there are people who are unemployed because of the minimum wage law, and probably many others who work off the books (where they would benefit by avoiding taxes, but lose out by having no record of work history and less protection against abusive employers). But the real issue I was raising was not the national minimum wage law, but rather the idea of "living wage" laws. Were a city or county, or perhaps even a state either already has a law, or is considering a law to raise the minimum wage to something like $10/hour or even more. Usually the places where such laws are considered a fairly wealthy, but anywhere in the country there will be people priced out of work by a $10+/hour minimum wage. Tim

To: Dale Baker who wrote (744)	6/15/2005 1:38:59 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541673

Thanks for the polite inquiry. I sense you support higher minimum wages. It has been proven that raising the minimum wage causes a recession. I doubt that eliminating it would cause a significant economic expansion. In many markets the minimum wage is only a bar to very marginal employment. What of the summer employment desires of students? It has been consistently shown that increasing the minimum wage causes a spike in unemployment of non Caucasian males of school age. A smaller spike has been documented among other persons desiring seasonal employment. Is increasing minimum wages discriminatory? What about people with disabilities that make them unable to compete for jobs at even the minimum wage? Some peoples’s disabilities manifest themselves in reduced productivity. For every Steven Hawking, there are a hundred thousand that are socialized to allow perceptions to limit them. They may qualify for assistance, and be willing to work for half the wages of what people who produce twice what they do earn. Minimum wage makes an arrangement like that illegal. might end up with more people dividing the same pool of wages (more workers, lower salaries) so you would have to decide if that is a social good or not. Many markets have developed higher minimum wages based on supply and demand. If wages fell enough in high labor supply markets, people would vote with their feet. Supply and demand are more efficient than government mandates. Thanks for the thought provoking exchange.