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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (858949)	5/20/2015 11:57:43 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574005

Myth: Raising the minimum wage will only benefit teens. More a straw man that a myth. Its not that it will only teens get minimum wage, but that many people who do get minimum wage (some of whom are teens) do not have the minimum wage job as the sole support of a family, or even of themselves. If its raised some teens will benefit. Some will get harmed. Same with adults. Its not a well targeted anti-poverty measure because much of the benefit goes to the non-poor, and a lot of the pain goes to the poor. Myth: Increasing the minimum wage will cause people to lose their jobs. Not true: A review of 64 studies on minimum wage increases found no discernable effect on employment. Additionally, more than 600 economists, seven of them Nobel Prize winners in economics, have signed onto a letter in support of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016. Not a myth, its true. "Cause people to lose jobs" is a given, even without an overall effect on employment. Most of the studies do however show a negative impact on employment, and all or most of those that don't only consider short term effects of a modest increase, not an increase like the current push for $15, or the longer term effects of the increase. Myth: Raising the federal tipped minimum wage ($2.13 per hour since 1991) would hurt restaurants. Not true: In California, employers are required to pay servers the full minimum wage of $9 per hour - before tips. Even with a recent increase in the minimum wage, the National Restaurant Association projects California restaurant sales will outpace the U.S. average in 2014. A rather silly argument. CA already had the $9/hour requirement. Its not something new. It impacted the old job levels, but it doesn't provide a constant major drag on growth forever. Also one state for one year isn't that meaningful for this type of argument. San Francisco (mentions in your next quote about the exact same point), is a high cost high wage area. $10.74 there isn't nearly as harmful as it would be in say rural Mississippi. In any case San Francisco has had above average minimum wages for some time now. So the current growth is not a sign of lack of harm. San Francisco grows primarily from workers who can generate a lot more wealth for their employer then minimum wage. All the tech and other money helps a San Fran restaurant make more revenue than is typical in many places around the country. The extra money floating around bids up the price of low end labor as well. The harm (and the benefit) of such a minimum in San Francisco is thus greatly reduced. It doesn't increase wages as much (perhaps not at all in many cases even for low end labor) thus it doesn't help as many people with a bit raise or hurt as many people by pricing them out of jobs. The absolute bottom of workers, the barely employable because of both attitude and skill, might be hurt, but they have a problem getting jobs anyway in all but very strong booms. Myth: Increasing the minimum wage is bad for the economy. Not true: Since 1938, the federal minimum wage has been increased 22 times. For more than 75 years, real GDP per capita has steadily increased, even when the minimum wage has been raised. That's not even an argument (let alone a good one) that the minimum wage is not bad for the economy, its an argument that modest increase is not disastrous for the economy. Increases in GDP and GDP per capita are the norm. Lots of "bad for the economy" things can happen while both still go up over time. Myth: Increasing the minimum wage lacks public support. Not true: Raising the federal minimum wage is an issue with broad popular support. Another straw man rather than a myth.

To: tejek who wrote (858949)	5/20/2015 11:58:09 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574005

federal tipped minimum wage ($2.13 per hour since 1991) Shameful "Calif. employers are required to pay servers the full minimum wage of $9 per hour - before tips." More than just servers. Tipped workers include porters and skycaps, hotel employees, etc; anybody making .$30/month in tips. Guess which coast requires full MW for tipped employees.