[beerandt]

Which hurts low-value labor (including those without job experience or who are high risk or have negative history), by making them unemployable.

This notion that a "living wage" raises the floor for everyone is BS. The floor stays at zero and the height to the first step becomes unreachable for some.

[Broken_Hippo]

...but it doesn't hurt low value labor. There are plenty of grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, janitors, and the like in Nordic countries. They aren't as many fast food places as there were in the US (but there are so many more grocery stores peppered about) and the prices might be more expensive. But that's OK.

What do you mean, "High risk"? And a negative history - is that the same as being fired or working short term for a bunch of jobs? I'm gonna guess there is a limit to how much of that job history folks can hold against you - and additionally, I get the impression that folks don't change jobs as often as they do in the US. (I'm an immigrant, so I get stuff wrong sometimes).

I'm pretty sure the job stability is due to a combination between there being less wage gap between people, strong worker protection laws, and not having things like health insurance dependent on your employment status.

Few folks are unemployable: There are assistance programs to help folks find work, after all.

[beerandt]

>"High risk"?

Employees require investment beyond their wage, especially on the front end. If they quit or have to be fired before that pays off, it's a loss for the employer.

You seem to have an idealistic view of what employing someone is like.

Why would you hire a person for minimum wage if they weren't worth that value?

Even worse, they might require supervision / handholding by you or someone else, costing that additional amount as well. Maybe they're clumsy and break things. Maybe they are rude and run off customers.

That all costs money, and it's the tip of the iceberg.

Or they just simply might not be productive enough to cover their cost.

Pretending everyone is worth whatever peg you set as minimum wage is delusional.

[Broken_Hippo]

Most of the things you list for "high risk" are just things that you train for. After all, most low wage jobs reasonably expect to have to train folks.

Yes, you have to handhold sometimes. This is expected. If they aren't picking up on things in a reasonable time, places in the US will start disciplinary actions. The vast majority of people can do the stuff, though. Honestly, though, a lot of low wage jobs have some supervision built into the system, if anything to try to monitor theft or to keep folks from messing up.

Few people are so clumsy that they actually have issues. In the same vein, pretty much everyone is clumsy from time to time and very occasionally, someone will break something expensive. This is all rare. (I've worked many low wage jobs, and been in the middle management).

I don't know what sorts of jobs you think are low wage, but the vast majority simply don't have "productive enough". Some folks are slower than others, but realistically, there is only so much production you are going to do behind a cash register. Even things as arbitrary as how fast you help people isn't completely under your control.

I think people, just for being human and without having to prove worth, deserve a living wage and I think that should be more - at all times - than one would get from a safety net. If you work, you get x. If you think people are being overpaid at that rare, I would argue that's only because others that you deem "worth it" are underpaid.