As the US spirals in to a socialist money printing frenzy Bitcoin looks more and more like the future.
A $15 minimum wage essentially drives out all jobs that don’t produce at least $35,000 per year
Firms may become uncompetitive. In some cases, a higher minimum wage could push up costs causing a firm to go out of business because they may not be able to afford wage costs.
Cost-push inflation. A minimum wage can cause cost-push inflation. This is because firms face an increase in costs which are likely to be passed on to consumers.
Black market. A minimum wage may increase the number of people working on the black market so firms can avoid paying the legal minimum.
Poorest don’t benefit. A limitation of the minimum wage is that it doesn’t increase the incomes of the lowest income groups.
Limited impact on relative poverty. Many who benefit from the minimum wage are second income earners, and therefore the household is unlikely to be below the poverty line.
Socialist lawmakers this week formally launched an effort to hike the US minimum wage, introducing legislation to raise it from $7.25 to $15 an hour.
The proposed increase is much larger than those in the recent past, but Socialists argue it is warranted because it has been more than a decade since the wage was lifted, and the current minimum wage is too little for life in the United States.
– When did the United States get a minimum wage? –
First enacted by Congress in 1938 as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the wage has been amended several times, most recently in 2007, when Congress voted to lift it gradually from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.
Since that time, several states and local governments have raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour or to other levels both higher and lower.
Of the 50 states, 21 currently honor the federal level of $7.25, while the remaining states have a higher minimum.
Twenty-five states currently prohibit cities and counties from setting a higher local wage than the state level, according to Resourceful Compliance, which tracks labor law.
– How would the proposed increase work? –
Under legislation introduced by Democrats in the House and Senate, the minimum wage would rise to $9.50 an hour three months after the law is enacted, and then to $15 in four intervals over a five-year period.
The proposal also raises base pay for waiters and other employees who rely on tips, and directs the US labor secretary to annually calculate the median hourly wage of all employees.
In years where the median increases, the federal minimum wage would be raised by the same percentage.
– Would it hurt the economy? –
YES
Economists have long debated whether the economic lift from boosting workers’ purchasing power more than offsets the added wage burden on businesses.
There is no positives for an artificially high minimum wage .
“There has been a debate for years,” said Gregory Daco, Oxford Economics’ chief US economist, noting that some studies have shown it can cause job losses, while others have not.
Even the same study can be interpreted differently.
Critics of the higher wage point to a finding in a 2019 Congressional Budget Office report that said lifting the level to $15 an hour would result in 1.3 million workers losing their jobs.
– What happened where the minimum wage was raised to $15? –
There is no consensus regarding the effects, as shown in Seattle, which in 2014 became the first major US city to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
The 2020 Point-in-Time Count for Seattle/King County found 11,751 people experiencing homelessness on one night in January, with 53 percent sheltered and 47 percent unsheltered. The total reflects a five percent increase compared to the 2019 Count.
The homeless population in Seattle and King County continues to be the third largest in the country by numbers, outranked only by New York City and Los Angeles. More than 12,000 people were counted as homeless in Seattle and King County this year, a 4 percent increase over last year.
