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by mogiddy55 774 days ago
The corporations are the only ones that can pay the salaries being requested by labor activists though. IMO, a lot of the agitation for higher wages as a universal right has a negative effect on smaller businesses, while the corporations (which are the actual targets) have an easier time adapting to changes in federal and state law, for example by compensating with foreign revenue.

I can't imagine it makes starting a new small business any easier when you're required to pay employees $20/hr. Think about how many startups are designed from the ground up for corporate acquisition, almost like a fire-and-forget model never intended to scale.

I'd like to think unions and labor reformers consider such things, but to be honest it's probably tertiary at best.
3 comments
Spivak 774 days ago
That's $40k (gross) a year assuming the job is full time, which it won't be. Unless you're living in an extremely low CoL area that's a meager existence that pays for rent, food, bills, health insurance and not much else. You might be able to afford a house someday at that wage.

Where else would you put the minimum if not "scraping by?" If businesses literally can't afford it then maybe government should step in and pay the difference.

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theshackleford 774 days ago
> I can't imagine it makes starting a new small business any easier when you're required to pay employees $20/hr.

Oh no! Anyway…

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trollbridge 774 days ago
A new business with 1 employee isn’t going to be union. Federal and (in many) state minimum wage laws don’t even apply. Labour regulation kicks in as you get more and more employees.

Most activists are demanding higher wages from bigger employers.

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randomdata 773 days ago
Doesn't the bigger employer already pay more? Otherwise, why would you work for them? If compensation is the same, the smaller employer will otherwise be preferable to work for.
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sensanaty 774 days ago
20 bucks an hour in some areas is literally unlivable. That's around 40k yearly (before taxes), and in the areas where the minimum wage should be at least 20 an hour, that's barely enough to afford to live.

> I can't imagine it makes starting a new small business any easier when you're required to pay employees $20/hr.

Why should workers suffer because some techbro wants to get rich from the Nth AI chatbot he shits out using VC money?

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