Minimum Wage - who was right

[MorkandMindy]

At work in retailing, a very successful retailer, a lot of pressure was applied by the public to raise the base pay.

It was raised to 10.00 per hour in 2017 and again to 11.00 per hour in 2018 and now half of us are out of work.

 

[Speedwell]

I thought unemployment was at an all-time record low.

 

[MorkandMindy]

We have a Democrat on door security who told zillions of customers that we needed a higher minimum wage.

I debated with him, mentioning that after the first raise a lot of stores had been closed and we'd been downsized by 10% on the staffing level and the job had gotten really hard.

But he insisted that raising the minimum wage would fix the problem

 

[iluvatar5150]

At work in retailing, a very successful retailer, a lot of pressure was applied by the public to raise the base pay.

It was raised to 10.00 per hour in 2017 and again to 11.00 per hour in 2018 and now half of us are out of work.

If you were working at a "very successful retailer" (I'd be interested to know which one exactly), I highly doubt that that hike was what was responsible for you losing your job. Most places are paying that much for retail employees anyways.

 

[MorkandMindy]

Apparently this was in the news or the talk shows or something, he said that raising the minimum wage would put money into the economy and everyone would benefit.

I asked him where the money would be spent, 'here' he replied, so most of it will go off to China I concluded.

There's a massive hole in the bottom of the US economy and we need to stop sending money off to everyone else on the globe. Raising the minimum wage made us less competitive and made things worse.

 

[MorkandMindy]

I thought unemployment was at an all-time record low.

But the US is spending a fortune to maintain over priced middle class administrators, by the million, in government jobs keeping employment up and the economy filled with money. In ten years we will suddenly have nothing.

 

[Speedwell]

Apparently this was in the news or the talk shows or something, he said that raising the minimum wage would put money into the economy and everyone would benefit.

I asked him where the money would be spent, 'here' he replied, so most of it will go off to China I concluded.

There's a massive hole in the bottom of the US economy and we need to stop sending money off to everyone else on the globe. Raising the minimum wage made us less competitive and made things worse.

Things are great for those who acquire the skills to design and build the automated equipment.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Apparently this was in the news or the talk shows or something, he said that raising the minimum wage would put money into the economy and everyone would benefit.

I asked him where the money would be spent, 'here' he replied, so most of it will go off to China I concluded.

There's a massive hole in the bottom of the US economy and we need to stop sending money off to everyone else on the globe. Raising the minimum wage made us less competitive and made things worse.

Raising the minimum wage didn't make you less competitive against China - low-end retail jobs aren't competing against anybody in China. At all.

Some low-end retail jobs can compete against automation and, if they're located in a border area (which Albequerque isn't), they can compete against workers in neighboring jurisdictions. But you can't outsource shelf stocking or grocery bagging to the Chinese.

 

[Chesterton]

Things are great for those who acquire the skills to design and build the automated equipment.

Did you just say "learn to code"? That can get you banned from Twitter, you know.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

I looked for the company whose Democrat door security cost everyone their jobs by forcing the company to raise minimum wage and I couldn’t find it. The Deep State and Soros controlled media are keeping this travesty under wraps!

 

[MorkandMindy]

The guy on the door was saying what a lot of other people were saying, but he was the only one with a few spare minutes I could ask what his reasoning was.

Unfortunately there are lots of other people who want the minimum wage raised and think that taking away our cost-competitive advantage will somehow improve our lives.

 

[MorkandMindy]

They are unaware we do not live in a closed economy and they believe doing the Keynes thing will pump up the economy permanently.

Unfortunately the way our give-everything-to-China-and-other-countries economy works is anything you put in will just leak out right away. He thinks Keynes is still alive. There are millions of Democrats like him who think they know what is going on at the lower end of the economy but really don't get it.

 

[Speedwell]

Did you just say "learn to code"? That can get you banned from Twitter, you know.

I was thinking of machinists, electronics technicians, engineers, people like that.

 

[RocksInMyHead]

If you were working at a "very successful retailer" (I'd be interested to know which one exactly), I highly doubt that that hike was what was responsible for you losing your job. Most places are paying that much for retail employees anyways.

Based on his other posts on the subject, I'm pretty sure it's Walmart.

And in a roundabout way, wage hikes are responsible for loss of jobs. Companies like Walmart operate on a pure profit motive. If it becomes more costly to hire a human to do a job than it is to buy a machine that can do the same job, they'll buy the machine every time. They're not hurting for money, but god forbid their profits drop by a percentage point or two.

 

[Speedwell]

They are unaware we do not live in a closed economy and they believe doing the Keynes thing will pump up the economy permanently.

Unfortunately the way our give-everything-to-China-and-other-countries economy works is anything you put in will just leak out right away. He thinks Keynes is still alive. There are millions of Democrats like him who think they know what is going on at the lower end of the economy but really don't get it.

I'm a Democrat who knows something about what is going on at the low end of the economy--I'm a workforce development trainer. An increased minimum wage only hits those without the skills to contribute an equivalent amount of added value.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

These workers should be happy just to have a job. Our Great Leader works for free; these people could learn a thing or two about making America Great and not taking a paycheck.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Based on his other posts on the subject, I'm pretty sure it's Walmart.

And in a roundabout way, wage hikes are responsible for loss of jobs. Companies like Walmart operate on a pure profit motive. If it becomes more costly to hire a human to do a job than it is to buy a machine that can do the same job, they'll buy the machine every time. They're not hurting for money, but god forbid their profits drop by a percentage point or two.

Ah, interesting.

Back in 2018, WalMart decided to hand out employee bonuses and raise starting pay across the country from $9/hr to $11/hr:

Wal-Mart to raise starting hourly wage to $11, offer paid parental leave

Walmart to raise its starting wage to $11, give some employees bonuses following tax bill passage

It credited its largesse to a windfall from Trump's tax credit.

Maybe Walmart had other problems in Albuquerque, like oversaturating their market:

Seriously, how many supercenters do you need?

 

[David Kent]

Seriously, how many supercenters do you need?

Obviously a few more.

 

[MorkandMindy]

I rarely look at the media because I know it is bull, but here's evidence the guy on the door didn't make all that stuff up:

Congress should prioritize raising the minimum wage

(Cross-posted from The Hill)

As Congress heads back into session, one of the first orders of business should be to raise the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage strengthens workers' purchasing power and, in turn, provides a boost to the overall economy. Raising the minimum wage would also help close the racial wealth gap, which is at historic levels.

The current federal minimum is lower in real value than in 1956. Contrary to many conservative claims, roughly half of all minimum wage workers are adults. At this wage level, people working full-time cannot afford to feed their families. A full-time minimum wage worker makes $15,080, $4,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Why America Needs a $15 Minimum Wage
Fact Sheet • February 5, 2019

The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 and has not increased since 2009. The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. Here is how it would work:
This fact sheet was produced in collaboration with the National Employment Law Project.

• Raise the federal minimum wage to $8.55 this year and increase it over the next five years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024.
• After 2024, adjust the minimum wage each year to keep pace with growth in the typical worker’s wages

ETC ETC ETC

So we did it and now half of us are out of work.

 

[Speedwell]

I rarely look at the media because I know it is bull, but here's evidence the guy on the door didn't make all that stuff up:

Congress should prioritize raising the minimum wage

(Cross-posted from The Hill)

As Congress heads back into session, one of the first orders of business should be to raise the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage strengthens workers' purchasing power and, in turn, provides a boost to the overall economy. Raising the minimum wage would also help close the racial wealth gap, which is at historic levels.

The current federal minimum is lower in real value than in 1956. Contrary to many conservative claims, roughly half of all minimum wage workers are adults. At this wage level, people working full-time cannot afford to feed their families. A full-time minimum wage worker makes $15,080, $4,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.

BLAH BLAH BLAH

Why America Needs a $15 Minimum Wage
Fact Sheet • February 5, 2019

The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 and has not increased since 2009. The Raise the Wage Act of 2019 would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. Here is how it would work:
This fact sheet was produced in collaboration with the National Employment Law Project.

• Raise the federal minimum wage to $8.55 this year and increase it over the next five years until it reaches $15 an hour in 2024.
• After 2024, adjust the minimum wage each year to keep pace with growth in the typical worker’s wages

ETC ETC ETC

So we did it and now half of us are out of work.

It looks like the proposal aims to raise the purchasing power of the minimum wage to something like it was in 1956. What's wrong with that?