Minimum Wage: What's the Other Argument?

BvBPL

BvBPL

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There's a movement afoot to increase the minimum wage in highly urbanized US cities to $15 /hr.

#1: What is your position on this? If you generally agree or generally disagree with some reservations then say whether you agree or disagree. I'd like to keep this as binary as possible. If you don't want to comment on the movement above then feel free to say on whether or not your local minimum wage should be increased.

Don't tell us why you have your position. A quick "yes, increase the wage," or "no, don't increase it," is ideal.

#2: Present an argument for the other side (ideally the best argument you can come up with). That is, if you want to increase the minimum wage then argue for it not increasing and vice versa.

Feel free to poke at the other side's argument, but stay in character. So if you really do want to keep the minimum wage as is then feel free to argue with people who want to increase it but are presenting the contrary argument, arguments you may agree with for real.

I'm curious if this will change anyone's mind or be interesting.
 
It would be a good idea to take the setting of minimum wages out of the hands of politicians.
 
1. Increase it.

2. A movement to increase the minimum wage substantially in heavily urban areas neglects the issue of, and exacerbates the base inequity of the population that suffers both the deepest and widest spread poverty.
 
I'm on the fence frankly but leaning more towards raising it. On one hand, I imagine with more minimum wage earners having more money in their pocket, they're going to want to spend that money on goods and services and with more money circulating and more products being bought, the better it'd be for everyone. On the other hand, I understand business owners need to balance things like rent and business costs with their workers.

Either way, we end up paying the same anyway either through an increased wage or a lowered wage plus government assistance because there's an article on how much minimum wage workers are using government assistance to get by, especially in major metropolitan cities.
 
1) Increase it
2) I don't want to increase it because I'm a rich ass[aperture] who hates poor people.

That's seriously the only reasonable argument against it.
 
I'm for raising it...so the argument against it...

If the lowest wage earners are given enough income to build up a cushion against catastrophic events they will be less inclined to avoid catastrophic events. A widespread availability of a cushion like that will make periods of civil unrest much harder to put down without massive bloodshed. Instead of people saying "I can't afford to continue this protest" and going back to work protests and riots will be longer and have more impact against the privileged classes.
 
1. Raise it.

2. Raising the minimum wage too drastically will increase prices for consumers, with lower wage earners ironically bearing the biggest brunt of price increases. Small business owners will have to look for ways to cut hours and/or eliminate jobs to save costs to remain competitive with larger companies that can bear the increase. Finally, the majority if minimum wage earners are not the primary breadwinner of their household and are instead younger adults supplementing parental support within a wealthier household, and minimum wage raises are thus an ineffective tool to truly reduce poverty. :lol: that was easy
 
Raise it as local experiments

I don't like it because it's a regressive tax on business, and regressive taxes interfere with both trade and growth. I'd vastly prefer a Negative Income Tax that is funded off of a progressive income tax.

Additionally, a minimum wage aggravates Automation Induced Unemployment momentum, trading a long term problem for a short term one. An NIT gets around that as well.
 
Zelig said:
Dolla Canadian dolla loonie ya'll.
Click to expand...
Forgive me for respecting the OP's wishes to post under Red Diamond standards. :huh: There's a very noticeable difference between the Canadian and American dollars right now.
 
El_Machinae said:
Additionally, a minimum wage aggravates Automation Induced Unemployment momentum, trading a long term problem for a short term one.
Click to expand...

I don't know that I'd call that a problem. An issue to be dealt with, certainly, but no worse than the human dignity problem caused by people working meaningless jobs that could be automated away.
 
If it is raised and then people are laid off or hours reduced because of it, then what is the net gain? The cost of raising that much has to come from somewhere...so who pays exactly?

1. Raise it, but do so because its time for it, and do it in an increment that makes sense, not something arbitrary pulled out of a hat.

2. Don't raise it because the net result will be in actual wages per worker lost due to layoffs and reduced shifts.
 
1. Abolish it if currency is a fixed currency operating indepently from the fiscal authority (like the Euro). Leave it be and do nothing if currency is floating.
2. In times of deflation, increasing the minimum wage forces employers to compensate for the increased labour costs with higher prices, thus decreasing deflation.
 
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