[boona]

> Every side of an argument has an element of truth.

Agreed. To have an honest discussion about minimum wage, it's important to recognize that it's two things at the same time. First, it's a minimum wage which most people are familiar with, but second it's also a law that makes it illegal for low skilled workers to get jobs. Yes, we're helping some people earn a better living, but we're also not allowing people to work if an employer or employee aren't creative enough to find a way to make them more productive. It's a trade off, and that's one reason why it's more complicated that most people realize and why a dialog needs to be created around the topic.

[ende]

It's a real shame that you are being downvoted simply for being right.

[Avshalom]

No. You don't get claim to want honest discussion then say minimum wage makes it illegal to hire low skilled workers.

It makes it less likely to hire people who add less value per hour than the minimum (+overhead) but A) that doesn't make it illegal. B) low skill and low value-added are not the same thing. C) there are things in businesses that must be done regardless of generated value (which of course brings up the problem of measuring value). D) training people is and always has been an option.

Which is not say that a minimum wage increase won't cause unemployment of marginal employees but it sure as hell doesn't make employing them illegal. Which is again a hell of a statement to make when asking for honesty

[jimmywanger]

> Which is not say that a minimum wage increase won't cause unemployment of marginal employees but it sure as hell doesn't make employing them illegal.

It sure as hell makes it unprofitable. For honesty you're skipping out over a bunch of interesting points to bolster your own viewpoint..

Either you hire them under the table (illegally) to do tasks you're able to get a computer or robot to do but you don't want to make the capital investment, or you hire them for the minimum wage, put them on the books until you've saved enough money to invest in things that would make your business more profitable.

Minimum wage does make it illegal to hire low skilled workers. They're getting replaced by robots and computers. In agriculture, because of a perceived crackdown on immigrants, they're simultaneously raising the wages they pay for workers and investing in technology that will make the workers obsolete.