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

To: combjelly who wrote (932468)	4/29/2016 11:21:03 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578557

a similar experiment has already been run No it hasn't. Federal minimum wage applies to all states. Until 2009, the state of Kansas had a minimum wage significantly lower than the rest of the country. Not at all true. Again the federal minimum wage applies. Both in 2009 and now much states effectively have the federal minimum wage (including some states that don't have any minimum wage law of their own at all, states that have a minimum wage equal to the federal wage, and states that have a minimum wage law that absent federal law would allow for a lower minimum wage). And many of the state that do have a higher minimum wage have one not much higher then the feds. Some states have passed laws calling for much higher minimums but I don't think any state (and relatively few local jurisdictions) have current active minimums above $10/hour. It is true that higher minimum wages are likely to go along with higher nominal (and to a lesser extent higher real) per capita wealth and income, simply because richer places are the places where high minimum wages will be less harmful. Politicians, regulators and voters often act on mistaken ideas about economics, but they normally have enough sense that a place like Pine Bluff, AR, or McCallum TX, or Little Eagle SD are unlikely to cripple their economy with a $15/hour minimum wage. San Francisco may be able to get away with it. They can't.

To: combjelly who wrote (932468)	4/29/2016 11:31:59 AM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Respond to of 1578557

A data point on minimum wages April 29th, 2016 John Quiggin I’m currently working on a section of my Economics in Two Lessons book dealing with minimum wages in the context of predistribution policies, so I thought I would compare Australia with the US, where the idea of a $15/hour minimum wage is currently a hot topic. In Australia there are two kinds of minimum wage. The PPP exchange rate is estimated at $A$1.30 = $US, which is fairly close to the market exchange rate at present, so I’ll give both $A and estimated $US equivalents The standard minimum wage for workers aged 21 and over is $A17.29 hour ($US13.30) applying to employees under standard award conditions. These include four weeks annual leave, sick leave, employer contributions to pension plans and so on. More comparable to the situation of US minimum wage workers are “casual” workers, employed on an hourly basis. Casual workers get a loading of at least 25 per cent, bringing the wage up to at least $A21.60 an hour ($US16.60), to compensate for the absence of leave entitlements. In addition, they have entitlements including: * “Penalty” rates for weekend and night work (usually a 50 per cent loading, 100 per cent on Sundays) * For workers employed on a regular basis, protection against unfair dismissal. The policy question is: what impact have these high minimum wages had on employment and unemployment. That’s too big a question to answer comprehensively, but we can look at the obvious data points: the official unemployment rates (5.7 for Oz, 5.5 per cent US) and the 15-64 employment population ratios (72 per cent for Oz, 67 per cent US). So, it certainly doesn’t look as if the Australian labor market has been crippled by minimum wages. Note: I’ll respond in advance to the widespread misconception that Australia is a special case due to mineral resources. Mining accounts for about 2 per cent of employment in Australia, and (because most mines are owned by multinationals) its contribution to Australian national income is also so, probably around 5 per cent. * Workers aged 18 get about 70 per cent of the adult minimum, equivalent to around $US11.50 for casuals. But the great majority of US minimum wage workers ( about 80 per cent) are 20+. johnquiggin.com