| Razeak said: I can agree with a lot of this, but it's still not slave. If there was no one to work for, you would still have to produce some sort of labor to survive. Get rid of it all and this won't change. I agree there are some scumbag employers (and employees). A minimum wage is fine I think, but as you say, there has to be a medium. $3.00 more than the national minimum wage may not be a medium and doubling it certainly isn't. |
I do think that discussion of the minimum wage should focus pretty much exclusively on where the number should be set. First of all, wherever it is set I think it should be locked to inflation and vary based on cost of living. After that, I personally think around $9/10 makes sense.
I've read through the CBO report on the effects of raising the minimum wage (from 2014 when this was proposed) and while some would lose their jobs (500,000 for a $10.10 federal minimum), many more would see an increase in wages (16.5 million directly and more indirectly). We would see an increase in wages of $5billion (or 3%) for people below the poverty line, raising 900,000 people above that line.
I also think that when it comes to employment, the biggest problem right now is not unemployment but poor employment. Unemployment numbers are pretty darn low and are pretty much in free fall so I think we should largely shift from reducing unemployment to increasing the quality of employment so I think now is as good a time as ever to increase the minimum wage.
