By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - A question concerning economics & minimum wage

 

Should the minimum wage be increased to $15?

Yes, for all jobs. 47 37.60%
 
Yes, but only for certain jobs. 11 8.80%
 
No, only for more professional jobs. 10 8.00%
 
No, not at all. 44 35.20%
 
Other/ N/A 13 10.40%
 
Total:125
Geralt said:
Hi I am an Economics Major going to get my Master's degree.
A high minimum wage can increase the prices of goods but not due to inflation. Inflation only occurs when the money supply increases greater than Real GDP growth.
A higher minimum wage forces firms to higher less workers and sell less product (due to having less workers). Society is at a loss overall with a high minimum wage.
The best way to increase prices is to increase the output of each worker or increase the amount of jobs available to choose from.

 

This! Inflation is caused by the increase in the supply of money by government. Prices increase because the overall willingness to pay for goods increase in addition to the costs of producing goods and services. Minimum wages create unemployement and push unskilled workers to move to states/cities with lower minimum wages. Furthermore a minimum wage would devestate regions with lower average wages but also lower costs of living. Having the same minimum wage for D.C and San Fransisco as rural West Virginia harms West Virginians as it makes jobs less desirable due to lower productivity and less capital accumulation. 



Around the Network
MikeRox said:
Why not watch what happens in the UK now that the evil right wing Tories are forcing a minimum wage increase up to a "Living Wage". Quite a few businesses are already saying it will force them to have to reduce staff.

See what impact it has on UK employment and then decide if it's a good idea to implement jumps in minimum wage.

Personally, I don't see how it can lead to much of anything other than jobs being relocated to cheaper countries, staff reductions and increased inflation. But at the same time, that was argued about when a Minimum Wage itself was brought in and it didn't materialise that I can see.

It did however mean that the disabled population have generally been forced to rely on state handouts.

It's always impossible to read empirical data in the economy, because of the huge number of variables at play. Job will be lost because of the minimum wage hike, but other factors may create even more jobs completely offsetting. It's why economists are so rarely wrong, even when they always are.



sc94597 said:
Geralt said:
Hi I am an Economics Major going to get my Master's degree.
A high minimum wage can increase the prices of goods but not due to inflation. Inflation only occurs when the money supply increases greater than Real GDP growth.
A higher minimum wage forces firms to higher less workers and sell less product (due to having less workers). Society is at a loss overall with a high minimum wage.
The best way to increase prices is to increase the output of each worker or increase the amount of jobs available to choose from.

 

This! Inflation is caused by the increase in the supply of money by government. Prices increase because the overall willingness to pay for goods increase in addition to the costs of producing goods and services. Minimum wages create unemployement and push unskilled workers to move to states/cities with lower minimum wages. Furthermore a minimum wage would devestate regions with lower average wages but also lower costs of living. Having the same minimum wage for D.C and San Fransisco as rural West Virginia harms West Virginians as it makes jobs less desirable due to lower productivity and less capital accumulation. 

Wouldn't a higher minimum wage mean that companies in that country have increased production costs though? That in itself contributing to inflation?

Though yes on the "rural" area aspect. The Minimum wage in the UK will disproportionately affect lower paid parts of the country. As the lower cost of living in the northern parts of the UK, means that employees are happy having lower wages than the south/London. However if the wages are going to be identical in both parts of the country, it just basically makes it a no brainer to relocate everything to London and the South East.



RIP Dad 25/11/51 - 13/12/13. You will be missed but never forgotten.

MikeRox said:
sc94597 said:

 

This! Inflation is caused by the increase in the supply of money by government. Prices increase because the overall willingness to pay for goods increase in addition to the costs of producing goods and services. Minimum wages create unemployement and push unskilled workers to move to states/cities with lower minimum wages. Furthermore a minimum wage would devestate regions with lower average wages but also lower costs of living. Having the same minimum wage for D.C and San Fransisco as rural West Virginia harms West Virginians as it makes jobs less desirable due to lower productivity and less capital accumulation. 

Wouldn't a higher minimum wage mean that companies in that country have increased production costs though? That in itself contributing to inflation?

Though yes on the "rural" area aspect. The Minimum wage in the UK will disproportionately affect lower paid parts of the country. As the lower cost of living in the northern parts of the UK, means that employees are happy having lower wages than the south/London. However if the wages are going to be identical in both parts of the country, it just basically makes it a no brainer to relocate everything to London and the South East.

Depending on the elasticity of demand for labor most companies would rather cut workers than increase prices. This is especially true in perfectly competitive markets in which the price approximates the marginal cost. Since the general prices of goods aren't increasing (only specific goods) such price increases aren't categorized as inflation. For certain crucial goods like oil though there is something called cost-push inflation in which higher production costs in said good lead to higher costs in many goods, and since there are few substitutes (unlike labor) the general price of goods increases. If the labor market had no substitutes then inflation would occur via this method, but with automation and outsourcing to other labor markets in other countries it is easier to lay off workers.



SvennoJ said:
Blob said:
Yep your probably right. I saw a lot of people state that Australia has a higher minimum wage when compared to America. Guess what, everything we buy here is far more expensive too, largely cancelling out the differences.
Cant say I'm an expert on economics though.

But is this the case in Australia as well?

A majority of food-stamp families with an able-bodied adult do work, and more than 60% of such families work when they have children. They just don’t get paid enough to feed their families. SNAP is therefore principally a program to subsidize cheapskate employers like Walmart that don’t give employees enough salary to live on.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/whos-dependent-food-stamps

Sure, expenses for employer's increase. Yet it's money that gets spend again. Isn't that better for the economy than high bonusses for the people at the top. I'm no expert either though. Nowadays it seems debt rather than money makes the world go round.

The minimum wage in Australia for a adult is 17.29 per hour ,like most countries certain things are more expensive and some are cheaper ,

a lot of the expense has nothing to do with the minimum wage , take Sydney it is one of the worlds most expensive cities to live  most of that is the high real estate costs with the house medium  being $1,000,000 also the price of the Australian dollar and companies like apple who see Australia as a captive market and set their pricing to maximise profits , what people forget is the economic benifit that comes from the  earnings that return to the economy in the form of spending from people on the minimum wage this is close to 100% a lot more than those on higher wages and it also takes some pressure of the welfare system,

another benifit it it increases the difference between the dole and working  , plus your maccas wont cost more because it's an adult wage 



Research shows Video games  help make you smarter, so why am I an idiot

Around the Network

And since the price of the worker goes up, businesses, if they don't close or reduce staff, will just pass on that cost to the consumer. So no more dollar menu low prices, since money is flowing more of that money you make will go towards your fellow co-workers larger salary. So people with no jobs will suffer since they will have no income yet have to deal with higher costs.

Why not offer tax credits to businesses that hire workers and continue to employ those workers. More jobs keeps people out of debt, and out of trouble. More jobs also means more tax revenue, more business revenue, and more options for people to expand their resumes and get out of low paying jobs into high paying careers.



Public servants (educators, cops, post office workers, etc) are the people that should get wage increases, not fast food workers. If minimum wage goes up, and the salary of those of us (I'm a teacher) doesn't increase as well, this entire country will collapse. $15 an hour is more than I made as a paraprofessional (which requires 60 credit hours in a school). How motivated will employees be when someone is flipping handburgers for more money than they make?

Minimum wage jobs are intended for high schoolers and young people trying to pay for college. They weren't meant for 45 year old high school drop outs. Now, if those people get those jobs that is fine (I have no issue with them). If they wish they had better jobs then they should try to better themselves and get one or they should have in the first place.

I have no issue with, privately, helping and loving those in need. I have issues with the government forcing businesses to pay someone more money to do a task that requires the brain of a middle schooler than places pay people that have jobs that actually require college credits or a degree.

Our priorities in this country are insane. I mean, a baby sitter could make $20 an hour per kid. I deal with hundreds of high school kids that I'm supposed to observe, keep safe, and teach while they curse, listen to music despite being told not to, get into fights, bring weapons to school, do drugs, do sexual activity on campus, are constantly on their cell phones, and on and on and I make less an hour than someone who sits and watches Netflix with a 4 year old while they take a nap.

By the way, I love my job and I love that I'm in an area where I can try to make an impact on people's lives. I truly do feel like I'm building a rapport with these kids and I hope so much that I can help them in their lives, even if just a little. I'm just saying that we pay tons of people a good amount of money for jobs that require very little skill and those of us that are extremely skilled at our jobs and went to college and worked our buts off (while we make more) it isn't proportional at all if you take $15 an hour into consideration for minimum wage.



Dulfite said:
Public servants (educators, cops, post office workers, etc) are the people that should get wage increases, not fast food workers. If minimum wage goes up, and the salary of those of us (I'm a teacher) doesn't increase as well, this entire country will collapse. $15 an hour is more than I made as a paraprofessional (which requires 60 credit hours in a school). How motivated will employees be when someone is flipping handburgers for more money than they make?

Minimum wage jobs are intended for high schoolers and young people trying to pay for college. They weren't meant for 45 year old high school drop outs. Now, if those people get those jobs that is fine (I have no issue with them). If they wish they had better jobs then they should try to better themselves and get one or they should have in the first place.

I have no issue with, privately, helping and loving those in need. I have issues with the government forcing businesses to pay someone more money to do a task that requires the brain of a middle schooler than places pay people that have jobs that actually require college credits or a degree.

Our priorities in this country are insane. I mean, a baby sitter could make $20 an hour per kid. I deal with hundreds of high school kids that I'm supposed to observe, keep safe, and teach while they curse, listen to music despite being told not to, get into fights, bring weapons to school, do drugs, do sexual activity on campus, are constantly on their cell phones, and on and on and I make less an hour than someone who sits and watches Netflix with a 4 year old while they take a nap.

By the way, I love my job and I love that I'm in an area where I can try to make an impact on people's lives. I truly do feel like I'm building a rapport with these kids and I hope so much that I can help them in their lives, even if just a little. I'm just saying that we pay tons of people a good amount of money for jobs that require very little skill and those of us that are extremely skilled at our jobs and went to college and worked our buts off (while we make more) it isn't proportional at all if you take $15 an hour into consideration for minimum wage.

The average starting salary for a teacher in the U.S  is about $34,000(which is close to the individual median of all incomes.) That comes out to something like 23-30$ /hr depending on the average number of hours said teacher works per day for 9 months. Considering teaching is a full time job with benefits and armageddon proof job security(tenure ) while babysitting has none of these things. It is not very comparable. How much people are worth to their employer depends on how much productivity or of what quality services they can perform. Of course public jobs are not as subjected to market mechanisms and consequently a lot of money is wasted on things other than teaching labor, which also do not constitute productive capital. For that reason teachers should take it up with school administrations and not the taxpayer, if they don't feel they are paid fairly. As it is now the U.S spends. more on education per kid than any other country. But then the standards of becoming a teacher are also much lower in most U.S states than other countries, with PhD's and Masters degrees being quite common among secondary school educators in other countries, whilst many teachers in the U.S were in the bottom half of their respective subjects (especially in stem fields.) I mean the unions representing police, teachers, etc are some of the most powerful and have gotten benefits which private workers envy, on top of an average salary. What kind of salaries do starting teachers want? Something comparable to doctors, engineers or programmers?



It would cause more harm than good - the current minimum wage is already too high. I run a small software development studio and have to hire in the philipines, nepal because I can hire at $5/hr compared to much higher wages here. The minimum wage should be eliminated - people do NOT have to take jobs they don't believe pay enough, but those jobs should be available for those that choose then. It would lower unemployment substantially. You're not eliminating better paying jobs, you're simply making more jobs available to people.



Minimum wage is harmful since it increases unemployment.