[unreal37]

I think there is a natural downward pressure on wages, and it takes real effort to fight it. Unfortunately, people have these unfounded fears that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs when in fact there's no evidence that places with higher minimum wages suffer job losses as a result of the increase.

They should just make increases to the minimum automatic and then congress doesn't have to worry about appearing to harm businesses when they are actually not.

It's a good example of lawmakers doing something stupid that harms real people just to "appear" to be pro-business or fiscal conservative.

[briandear]

I am not sure how you can make the statement that higher minimum wages don't equate to job losses. Do you have proof? It's common sense that if you wage the price of something you buy less of it. Unfortunately for the poor, minimum wage jobs are rather elastic. In France, with a relatively high minimum wage, unemployment is double digits and places like McDonald's have gone to digital order machines as opposed to hiring more cashiers. While that might increase demand for computer machine manufacturing and services, the minimum wage students and unskilled persons aren't likely to have the skills needed to gain those jobs.

You also have the chronically unemployed in both the U.S. as well as places like France where it's livable to simply collect the government check.

Minimum wage shouldn't be a career. I have little sympathy for those who haves worked minimum wage for ten years or more. That suggests a lack of ambition, intelligence or both. Even the pimple faced 16 year old at Chick fil'a eventually gets promoted to team leader potentially in a matter of months or a year. Those who have worked minimum wage for 5 years or more, I'd be very interested in their work history, their criminal record, their tardiness, their productivity.

At a place like McDonalds, if you just show up on time consistently, you get raises. If you're a hard worker and express the desire there are plenty of assistant manager trainee tracks available.

Raising minimum wage isn't the answer -- taking away the incentive to be lazy would do more than throwing people an extra $2 per hour. The same bad decisions that got them in that situation are still the same bad decisions that they will keep making; unless there is incentive to stop.

Someone right now could go to North Dakota and get a job doing local truck deliveries paying up to $100k per year, some positions will even train. Working in the oil patch down in Texas and Louisiana offers high paying entry level positions that quickly end up paying over $100k.

My point is that there is always a way out of a minimum wage existence, the problem is that many people are content getting their free Medicaid, EBT cards and subsidized housing; so there is less incentive to move across the country or take a class somewhere or join a union apprentice program.

I am not saying end welfare or anything like that, but a safety net ought not become a way of life as it has for millions of people.

[unreal37]

There's plenty of evidence for what I said if you look.[1]

France is basically a socialist country, so there is a lot more going on there other than minimum wage. It's difficult to compare with other countries, because there are different tax rates and other social programs like free health Universal care that make the costs of being poor less.

But within the U.S., minimum wage varies by state, right? So PA has a $7.25 minimum while CA has $9.00. What is the unemployment rate difference between those two states?

Minimum wage has been increased dozens of times over the past few decades. There is ample history of what happens when it's increased, and I don't think there were massive layoffs every time it was increased in the past.

Raising the minimum wage is an answer, because without a legal lower limit, there will always be an incentive for employers to pay less and less. It's like gravity. You need a floor to stop the fall. And then you can build up from there.

If I can say, I don't think your statements about how easy it is to get a higher salary than minimum wage is correct for a lot of people. Perhaps you can't see yourself living at that level for too long, but there are plenty of people who work 2 and 3 jobs, hardly see their kids, are ruining their health, just to make ends meet. Can't call those people lazy.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Criticism_of_the_n...

[refurb]

There is ample history of what happens when it's increased, and I don't think there were massive layoffs every time it was increased in the past.

You have to remember than increasing the minimum wages won't necessarily have an impact if current wages are already higher than the new minimum wage.

I remember reading that the new $15/hr minimum wage in Seattle (which is being phased in) will have almost no impact at first since very few folks are paid less than the new minimum.

[Crusoe123]

>I am not sure how you can make the statement that higher minimum wages don't equate to job losses. Do you have proof?

Sure there are some studies that say it doesn't. http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/workingpapers/157-07.pdf

But it's a point of contention with economists.

In any case your examples are a gross simplification based on anectodes and reduced to typical republican/libertarian talking points.

[wavefunction]

Actually the oil-patch job bonanza ended with the fall in oil prices and the bust phase is kicking in for the "boom-bust" economy here. Layoffs abound.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/20/us-baker-hughe-res...

[JoeAltmaier]

Change wages, there's always a period of adjustment. Some jobs do disappear. Others get more work to do. Then prices adjust, and things settle down.