Almost everyone under the age of thirty is jacked up about the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15/hour. Since this minimum wage idea is so popular, I propose we extend the idea. Instead of just enforcing a minimum price law for labour, why don’t we make one for hamburgers?
What do you think would happen if it was illegal to sell hamburgers for less than $15/burger?
Would there be more or fewer burgers sold in 2017 if, as of Jan. 1, restaurants and fast food chains were not allowed to sell a burger for less than $15?
It’s painfully obvious what would happen. LESS BURGERS would happen.
All those expensive fancy burger places would be okay. There might even be a few more fancy burgers sold since those were the only ones that you could get, but the total amount of burgers would go way down.
Making it illegal to work for less than $15 an hour is no different than making it illegal to sell a burger for less than $15.
So what would happen if the minimum wage went to $15 an hour?
It’s painfully obvious what would happen. LESS LABOUR would happen.
Whether that is fewer hours per person, or fewer people working the same hours, the overall amount of labour would go down. And the people who would be affected would be the low-skilled workers who had been working for less than $15 an hour.
Politicians sell minimum wage laws as a way to help low-skilled workers, but they do exactly the opposite. They hurt low-skilled workers, a lot.
It would be awesome if everyone in the world could charge more than $15 an hour for their labour. It would be great if everyone was that skilled and that valuable to their employers. But, the reality is that many people don’t create $15 per hour worth of value.
The simple equation for a job existing is if you can create more $$$ than you are paid. Raising the minimum wage destroys opportunities to work.
The best way to go from a $10 per hour employee to a $20 per hour employee is to work and gain experience and skills on the job. A law that prohibits people from getting $10 per hour jobs, not only robs people of opportunities in the present but robs people of their futures. It creates a group of low-skill workers who can never gain the experience they need to improve their skills.
It means immigrants learning English can’t build a social network at work. It means high school kids can’t learn on the job in the summer. It means that poor communities stay poor communities because the only opportunities to work are in rich communities.
The only compassionate and progressive stance on the minimum wage is to get rid of the minimum wage.
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