Raising the Minimum Wage

[a500lbgorilla]

This is what the left really wants to talk about, though. Curtailing the stupendous profits that are earned on the backs of the working class. It's an excellent idea if you have never owned nor participated in the running of a business. Businesses lose money constantly. Businesses fail every day. If only they could have "simply accepted a smaller profit margin" maybe they would still be around. When I go out today, there is a risk I will be hit by a car when I'm walking the street. If that unlikely event comes, I'll simply accept a lower profit margin and my crushed bones should heal right up.

Why can't people understand that the potential for profit in business is but one variable in a complex probability equation that only the most proficient risk-takers can safely navigate? Accepting a lower profit margin is not an option in a world where the margins become razor thin as a market matures, and in a world where not all bets result in payoffs.

I think they'd also bank on employee retention and employee productivity also being boons for the companies that raise their wages. Like Costco (quick google-fu shows Costco avg wage is 21/hr vrs Walmarts 9.

[wufwugy]

I think they'd also bank on employee retention and employee productivity also being boons for the companies that raise their wages. Like Costco (quick google-fu shows Costco avg wage is 21/hr vrs Walmarts 9.

Make the minimum wage $20 and Walmart stops existing or adopts a business model far more similar to Costco. In sectors without minimum wages, including in the US, there exist lower tiers than Walmart.

When a mother cooks dinner for her kids, she works for <$1/hr. There is no fundamental difference between her food production and consumption choices and those of a worker at Costco. Except, if we applied minimum wage to everything, it would be illegal for her to cook food for her kids.

If minimum wage is correct, it also would be correct to eliminate all volunteer work, all internships, and even every possible thing somebody does at any point in their day. Helping your grandma move her furniture? Not for anything below $10/hr you're not. Letting your neighbor borrow sugar? Not for anything below $10/hr you're not. Watching your kids play in a pool? Not for anything below $10/hr you're not. Did somebody just ask you for directions? Bitch better hand you a w-2 so you can track that state mandated wage for your services.

Most of our productive efforts receive far less than the minimum wage. I'm not sure what's so special about the subsets of productive efforts that legally require minimum wage.

[Renton]

I think they'd also bank on employee retention and employee productivity also being boons for the companies that raise their wages. Like Costco (quick google-fu shows Costco avg wage is 21/hr vrs Walmarts 9.

I fully support the evolution of business models and if Costco's becomes dominant, I can't imagine Walmart wouldn't follow suit. I'm sick at the moment and a little too tired to check on your numbers but 9 average for Walmart seems too low. Also, afaik Costcos tend to be in more densely-populated areas so i think if you controlled for proximity to Costco, the Walmart salary would be a lot more competitive.

The key of this is that force is hurtful and wrong and generally makes things worse for the people the policies try to help. Costco didn't need to be forced to explore a more egalitarian pay structure, and if they're prospering, all the better. Maybe, just maybe, a few million of the U.S. work force are not cut out to work at costco at their current level of education and skill. Those people need jobs, IMO.