Minimum wage is maximum folly. Congress enacted the first federal minimum wage in 1938. A provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, it covered about 6 million workers and set a wage floor of 25 cents per hour. It also cost a lot people their jobs. The Labor Department reported that as many as 50,000 employees, mostly poor Southern blacks, were thrown out of ... MOREFriday, July 13, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: Minimum Wage Laws Costly To Unemployed
Minimum wage is maximum folly. Congress enacted the first federal minimum wage in 1938. A provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, it covered about 6 million workers and set a wage floor of 25 cents per hour. It also cost a lot people their jobs. The Labor Department reported that as many as 50,000 employees, mostly poor Southern blacks, were thrown out of ... MORE
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This argument about the minimum wage gets a little silly. How is it that a company or a employer thinks that they can pay whatever they want for labor. Minimum wage or no minimum wage. The price of labor unskilled or less skilled is really set by the market not the government or the employer. So the argument about the minumum wage makes little sense. The fact of the matter is if their was no minimum wage very few employees would be willing to work for five dollars an hour so in order to attract employees businesses would have to pay higher wages or they could not fill positions. Or their turnover would be so very high that they would be employing personal that would have absolutly no idea what their doing because they would only stay their a week or two or three. In other words it would cost them far more to pay the minimum than to pay more than minimum. The fact of the matter is anyone that works for a firm for a week or two or three is less than half as productive as someone with two or three years with a company doing the same thing. The fact of the matter is any business that attempts to pay wages which are far below the prevailing wages for the work being done will have astronomical turnover thats a fact thats a fact' thats a fact. Can't argue with that. I suggest a very simple solution to this problem and argument. Allow all businesses to phase in the current minimum wage over a five month period instead of requiring them to pay the full 7.25 an hour all at once. Example 6.00 dollars an hour to start and increase this amount by 0.25 cents every month until you reach the federal mimimum of 7.25 This would take five months.
ReplyDeleteTell me, if you are willing to pay me $5 an hour and I find it in my own self-interest to take the job at $5 an hour because it will give me more income (options) than I have now and will allow me the opportunity to acquire a skill that makes me more valuable in the work market, why should government tell us no? In a so-called free society, why are we not free to act in our own self-interest without permission from government overlords? All minimum wage laws accomplish is to mandate unemployment for those not recognized to be worth that wage. You can take that to the bank from a former social worker who had a caseload of such types.
DeleteMR Cardoza We obviously are not going to agree on the physiological differences concerning your belief that anyone has the right to choose the pay rate that they are willing to work for if it helps them obtain employment. But here's the real problem that I have with the die hard advocates that oppose minimum wage. Did you know that in states where their minimum wage laws mirror the federal minimum wage laws you can hire anyone under the age of twenty for 4.25 hour for the first ninety days they are employed. Its perfectly legal look it up under federal minimum wage law. So the unemployment rate for teenagers in these states should be much lower than in states where their own minimum wage laws require much higer pay for anyone under twenty. I have not checked this out but it must have some effect. States can have their own rules and regulations regarding minimum wage but they are all required to pay everyone over nineteen 7.25 an hour no excemptions. Did you know that most states and the federal government make minimum wage excemptions for very small companies that have sales below a half a million dollars a year. These companies are not even required to pay the minimum wage. This would most likly be over half of all small businesses in the country in other words over half of all the small businesses in the country are exempt from paying the minimum wage. One other thing Im sure that their are a Miramid Of special programs for companies that hire someone under eighteen special government tax credits subsidies that provide incentives to companies that hire high school students for example. All of these things greatly lessen the so called negative effects of a minimum wage on individuals and business. You never hear any of the anti minimum wage advocates that are opposed to a minimum wage ever bring up any of these things that I just stated here.
DeleteThat is all very good in a relative kinda way, but what is the real objection to people being free to make whatever contract they hold to be in their best interest without having to beg government permission? Is it simply contempt for individual liberty?
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