I know I’ve said before that I’m really sick and tired of this subject. I always say the law is going to hurt the very people it’s supposed to help, but the stupid laws pass and the predicted bad things happen. A few years later, they say the fix is to repeat it with a different number for min wage. It’s like watching an imbecile sticking a metal fork in the wall outlet over and over.
The Silicon Graybeard – The Misguided Movement For The $15 Minimum Wage Hits Florida
I wanted to talk about this, but he beat me to the punch and makes all the sense in the world. Yes, in every case it has been implemented, it has become a crap show of gigantic proportions and the people that was supposed to help ended up with a $0 an hour income as in no jobs. That should be a grim reminder that the left is unencumbered by failure to provide with results but just want to achieve political victories and acquire power over you
There is a more general principle at work here.
When you see a statist push any government program “to fix X”, the reality is that the proposal will not fix X. And in fact, it is intended that it not fix X.
The reason is what you said: if X actually ended up fixed, the reason for the government intrusion disappears, and the parasites who were hired to run the “program to fix X” would no longer have a job. That can’t be tolerated.
So what happens instead is that the program is designed to make X worse, or at the very least make it stay the same. Then the next year, the fact that X is still there isn’t allowed to be evidence of the government’s failure, but is instead used as justification for more intrusive “programs to fix X”.
If all else fails and X gets better, the solution is to redefine what X is so its new definition is still a “problem”. This is what the environmental mob does. The environmental legislation, with occasional help from the EPA, actually helped pollution substantially. So the solution chosen by the left was to redefine “pollution” to include essential gases like carbon dioxide. If they could, they would undoubtedly work to add H2O to the list of “pollutants”.
“Its like watching an imbecile stick a fork in an outlet over and over again”. Only not as much FUN. YA. Gotta luv the brain dead who think raising min wage will make everyone rich. Lump it in with the continued pandemic hysteria and it makes ya frighin crazy
I love the “living wage” argument.
Like in some bizarre world, your employer is responsible for ensuring you get a living wage.
The person who holds responsibility for ensuring they are getting paid what they deserve is…. The employee. End of story. IF you do not believe you are getting paid what you deserve, get a better paying job. Simple really.
Had this conversation with an advocate for the $15 min wage once. Every argument they tossed up got shot down with that simple point.
They do not have the experience or skills to get a better paying job…
Then they do not deserve $15/hr. until they get the skills and experience.
There is no business in the area that requires their skills…
Then learn new skills, or move.
The CEO makes 9,000 times what the line worker makes
So, become the CEO.
Costco starts their employees off at more than $12 an hour.
Go get a job at Costco.
In my opinion, the argument against a $15/hr. minimum wage is not about how much it will cost, or lost jobs. It is about returning control of the individuals income to the individual. Want a raise? Earn it. Simple really.
I have that conversation regularly with union reps (my workplace is union-represented). The union supports the $15 minimum, but I don’t.
As I said below, I ask two questions:
– “How long were you working and how much education did you have before you earned the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $15 per hour?”
The vast majority needed a 4+-year degree and/or 10+ years of experience. Trade workers need at least Journeyman status.
– “Why should brand-new workers with zero experience and no education beyond high-school — if that — expect a starting wage it took you and I 10+ years and/or a degree or certification to earn?”
They generally don’t have a good answer for that one.
I don’t really expect the unions to stop supporting $15/hour, but if I can get through to enough reps to make them question the wisdom, maybe — just maybe — enough will pass the message up the pipeline.
If nothing else, the conversation keeps them on the phone so they’re not bothering anyone else, and maybe eventually they’ll mark me down as a lost cause and quit calling me. 😉
The unions support a higher minimum wage because many union contracts are tied to minimum wages.
And that means more money for the union bosses and their Democrat masters.
It does until layoffs happen because the businesses simply cannot support the wage hike.
The unions will find that they enjoy less support when their policy pushes force many of their members out of their jobs, and the union that’s supposed to protect and provide for them has nothing substantive to offer.
Our union dues amount to about 2% of our salary. Union bosses figure that 2% of $15 is more than 2% of $12, and they’re right — more money in their coffers to pass on to “Progressive” pols.
But they still haven’t realized that 2% of $0 is somewhat less.
I’m going to age myself here, but….
When I started my first food-service job as a teenager, I made the minimum wage, which at the time was $6/hour in my state (federal was, I think, around $4 or so). To a cash-starved teen still living at home, this produced a small fortune.
I have always voted against minimum wage increases, because even as a teenage minimum wage worker, I could see that when wages go up, prices go up accordingly, and so minimum wage workers aren’t any better off, but those above minimum wage (especially those slightly above) take a hit. More so if raising the minimum puts them back at minimum, as happened to me more than once. The message to guys like me was, “Work hard enough to earn a raise, and then have that taken away and given for free to the next guy.”
Federal minimum wage is now $7.25, and the state is $11.25, which is more than when I took a “professional” job (I was hired at $11.06), and I had to earn a Bachelor’s degree and change jobs again to get above $15. At this point, counting the first food-service job, I had been working solidly (continuous employment) for close to 15 years.
When union reps call me about supporting raising the minimum wage to $15, I ask them two simple questions, the first being: “How long were you working and how much education did you have before you earned the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $15 per hour?”
Almost without exception, they — like me — had been in the workforce for over a decade and/or had Bachelor’s or higher degrees before they achieved that milestone. Many in skilled trades were journeyman-level, which takes years; apprentice-level workers don’t make near that.
I then follow that up with, “Why should brand-new workers with zero experience and no education beyond high-school — if that — expect a starting wage it took you 10 years and a degree to earn?”
It make a lot of them think, as it’s supposed to. It’s a different tack; they’re used to hearing the normal boilerplate about job losses and increased taxes and businesses closing because they can’t afford to hire … but this hits them personally.
That the unions are pushing the $15/hour minimum wage is an insult to their hard-working members, and does them a huge disservice.
“When I started my first food-service job as a teenager, I made the minimum wage, which at the time was $6/hour in my state (federal was, I think, around $4 or so). To a cash-starved teen still living at home, this produced a small fortune.”
Always fun to hear the young’uns pretend they have experience….
Seriously, I had a very similar experience. Had to work my way up to a living wage. And, most folks above the age of 25 are likely in the same boat. It was not until the last decade or so that this ridiculous notion that everyone should be paid a living wage became a rallying cry. Before then, you earned it.
Key takeaway is this: when minimum wage is raised, prices are soon raised across the board. My first job was McDonald’s, and I made $1.60 an hour. BUT, the Big Mac cost 49 cents. A hamburger cost 25 cents. A Volkswagen cost $2000. A Corvette cost $4,400.
You get the picture.
Bingo. If wages go up 5%, which drives the cost of living goes up 5%, minimum wage workers haven’t gained anything.
Going from $12 to $15 isn’t 5%. It’s 25%, which is HUGE. But the cost of living will go up, too, probably about 25%. Minimum wage workers aren’t any better off, but everyone else is worse.
Then again, that’s socialism for you.