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$9/h minimum wage

daenku32

Master Poster
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Dec 27, 2002
Messages
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The President proposed it in his State of the Union.

Didn't watch it but it sounds good to me. Helps low income workers afford things much better.
 
At a cost.

Every job that an employer would only be willing to provide at less than 9 dollars, and that a person would find preferable to their given position, will never exist.

Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

And is the government the most effective vehicle we have to answer this?
 
I think the jobs themselves are fairly flexible. Most would just end up paying more. Gas station attendants for example, will always be needed. But now they would start at $9 rather than $7.25/h.

I think the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. A current minimum wage worker would get a 20% pay increase. But those wages are very teeny tiny portion of total wages paid in the country.

We used to have labor unions do this so that governments didn't need to get involved. But labor unions are dying.
 
I recall reading somewhere that min. wage increases often result in a net loss in buying power due to the cost increase incurred by business. They won't lower profit margins, so they just increase prices to make up for it.

Then again, this COULD be that the various times when Min. Wage increases occurred happened to also coincide with high inflation (which would give off the same looking graph at a casual glance)
 
Modified said:
Unrelated. Just index the minimum and stop the haggling. If there is deflation, it can go down.
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So, continue to let them steal, and then mandate that legitimate business people and the formerly employed subsidize the theft. Good work.
 
daenku32 said:
I think the jobs themselves are fairly flexible. Most would just end up paying more. Gas station attendants for example, will always be needed. But now they would start at $9 rather than $7.25/h.
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It's almost as if, overnight, the gas station attendant, without working any harder, or any smarter, suddenly started providing an extra $1.75/h in value to that gas station!

Except, of course, they didn't. So why are they getting a 20% pay increase?
 
I worked as an unarmed security guard in the mid 1980s in Boston. I was paid $4.50 an hour till I had completed 40 hours and then $9 an hour for anything over that.

It sounds like basic wages have remained at 1980s levels if you are saying the proposed minimum wage is $9 an hour.
 
Nessie said:
I worked as an unarmed security guard in the mid 1980s in Boston. I was paid $4.50 an hour till I had completed 40 hours and then $9 an hour for anything over that.

It sounds like basic wages have remained at 1980s levels if you are saying the proposed minimum wage is $9 an hour.
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My first job I was 17 (1990) min wage was $3.35 an hr. Now it's like $7.25 an hr
 
theprestige said:
It's almost as if, overnight, the gas station attendant, without working any harder, or any smarter, suddenly started providing an extra $1.75/h in value to that gas station!

Except, of course, they didn't. So why are they getting a 20% pay increase?
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Because their value would be rated at $9/h.
 
The minimum wage in the UK is £6.19 ($9.36) for people over 21 and £4.98 ($7.75) for 18 to 21 year olds.
 
There are various different benefits, but if you have been working before then £51.85 per week for those aged 16-24, and £65.45 for those aged over 25.

So the equivalent of 10.5 hours work at the minimum wage before you start to earn more than just benefits. The problem is when you start to factor in being on one benefit seems to attract more benefits and being in work results in travel and child care costs. So then things can even out and mean it is not worth going to work.
 
Might not be a bad idea... but I just find that if a business is going to pay 200k in wages a year... that is what they are going to pay. Maybe the teenager will get a $2 an hour pay increase, but in the end there is still going to be 200k in wages going out the door. Maybe pay increases for the rest of the staff doesn't happen to make up the difference.
 
cost of living there is higher though. Median home prices in Australia are very high compared to where I live.
 
BobTheCoward said:
At a cost.

Every job that an employer would only be willing to provide at less than 9 dollars, and that a person would find preferable to their given position, will never exist.
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We've raised the minimum wage before. Can we look back and see a direct correlation between the increase in minimum wage and employment numbers?

Surely there are some historical data that show for every 10% increase in minimum wage we have an X% increase in unemployment.

Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
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Again, isn't there data to be applied to this?

And is the government the most effective vehicle we have to answer this?
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Yes.

Unless you want every employer to deal with unions. Really, eliminating the minimum wage would be the best thing that ever happened to the union movement. If you could couple it with a repeal of overtime laws I think the AFL/CIO may flood the streets of Detroit in champagne.
 
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