Minimum wage is already “livable”

[CowboyTed]

Let’s run some numbers:

At minimum wage, a 19-year-old with an IQ of 95 and a C-average in high school, takes a job running the ”scan items and place in bag” line at Target. (I could have done that job in junior high.) He earns $20,000 a year, or about $1500 a month.

So he rents an $1800 a month 3-bedroom towmhouse with two other kids. His share is $600. That leaves him $900 for everything else: $60 for bus fare to the job, $40 for his share of utilities, $300 for food, $50 for personal items (TP, shaving cream, etc.), and $50 for Obamacare premiums (maybe less).

So out of his $1500 monthly earnings, he has spent a total of $1100 for the basics: food, shelter, medical care, some necessary personal items. He Is NOT living in poverty, not by a long shot.

He still has $400 left over for things beyond basics.

$40 a month for Utilities?
$60 for a Monthly Bus Pass?

You $400 has to also cover:
Phone
Internet
Clothing

 

[Anomalism]

Adjusted for real inflation it should be around $19 an hour at the base Federal level; in Cali's SF and LA, and NYC, probably more like $30 an hour.

For those of us on the gold standard it should be around $30 an hour, which is about where it would be in Milton Freidman's estimate were he still alive today; he preferred the gold measure.

Do you think any small businesses might be adversely impacted by a $19/hr minimum wage?

 

[rightwinger]

Then states, cities and counties need to address the situation, yes?

Makes sense except for some states (Let’s just call them “Red States”) side with employers in providing them a low wage workforce.
That is why we need a Federal Minimum

 

[Grumblenuts]

And how much is that?

You could figure it out. I know you could. But the absolute number is irrelevant. As rightwinger suggested, what is reasonable compensation for any person's help at a minimum. And if they do nothing, you obviously just fire them, so that's irrelevant.

 

[Anomalism]

low wage workforce

It's a low value workforce.

 

[DudleySmith]

Do you think any small businesses might be adversely impacted by a $19/hr minimum wage?

If they can't pay that then they're not making enough money to hire anybody to do their business. They're either in a glutted market or there is not enough demand to justify their expansion. Without a floor on wages all you get is fake competition.

 

[DudleySmith]

It's a low value workforce.

Why not bring back slavery? It's up to the government to make sure any businessman has the cheapest available labor after all, right?

 

[Anomalism]

If they can't pay that then they're not making enough money to hire anybody to do their business. They're either in a glutted market or there is not demand to justify their expansion. Without a floor on wages all you get is fake competition.

I think your economic policy would be a disaster for our economy, no offense.

 

[Grumblenuts]

It's a low value workforce.

 

[rightwinger]

It's a low value workforce.

Employers make money off of every employee

 

[Anomalism]

Helping to facilitate the sale of valuable goods does not make somebody a valuable employee. True value speaks for itself. The value of your skill is determined by the market.

 

[Anomalism]

Employers make money off of every employee

They're making money off of the goods that they sell. Their low value employees just help facilitate those sales. That doesn't make the work they're doing valuable.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

At least 1/300th of what a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk gets away with paying themselves.

Bezos got paid about $81,000 in 2020.

 

[Anomalism]

It's up to the government to make sure any businessman has the cheapest available labor after all, right?

In the market people are worth what somebody is willing to pay them. Giving people the freedom to choose what they pay or receive for labor is not the government making sure businesses have cheap labor. Your logic is flawed.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Adjusted for real inflation it should be around $19 an hour at the base Federal level

Inflation since what date?

 

[rightwinger]

They're making money off of the goods that they sell. Their low value employees just help facilitate those sales. That doesn't make the work they're doing valuable.

The employee is creating the wealth
If you are losing money on someone, you fire them

If those employees are no value to you…why do you have them?

 

[Anomalism]

Bezos got paid about $81,000 in 2020.

Fuck off.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Take the Govt.'s fake CPI and double it at the least to get a sense of real inflation since 1972

Why double it?

 

[DudleySmith]

If you have no respect for those willing to do the jobs that you consider beneath you, is it any wonder that some of those people have gotten your message & now believe that the job is beneath them. What ever is going on please explain how this most prosperous nation has so many homeless people?

More homeless people are working than not working; they sleep in their vehicles. parking lots in Silly Con Valley had to ban their employees from camping out in their parking lots after embarrassing stories with pics got out about the homeless problem in the Bay area. These were skilled workers, so that myth doesn't' stand either. I was paying over$1,000 a month for a one room efficiency in Santa Clara; the apartment above me had four degreed engineers from India living in one room, here on green cards and making $10 an hour, and barely getting by. I asked them why they didn't quit, and they said they had signed contracts and if they quit before they expired they would have to pay their own way back to India, and no way they could afford it on their pay.

 

[Anomalism]

If those employees are no value to you…why do you have them?

I didn't say they have no value. I said they are low value. If that wasn't true they would get paid more. The work they do is not complicated. It's easy to find replacements. Supply and demand. It's all economics.