Increase minimum wage or establish a living wage?

Minimum wage is not enough to live on. But is an across the board minimum wage increase standard across the country the best solution?

Or should there be a mandated schedule that ties local minimum wages to calculated living wages for the region?

The advantage of a mandated living wage over a one size fits all minimum wage is that rural districts with lower costs of living can maintain a lower wage structure that both is enough to live of off in the area and is low enough that any concerns regarding pressures against hiring more workers or driving industries away are mollified. It would also index on a regular basis.

Thoughts?

Thoughts?

The government shouldn’t be involved in wage (or price) controls.

Of course it should. My cite is the 19th century.

Unless you want company towns and people being paid in scrip, you need wage controls of some kind.

No, you don’t. What is the value of anything, including labor? Whatever someone else is willing to pay for it.

No, actually the people of the country have said there is a minimum value for labor, so you’re wrong.

Thanks for playing though.

Are you seriously suggesting that the “people” are never wrong?

Your argument is fallacious.

Sure, use a cost of living adjustment to a standard living wage. It doesn’t need to have that much variation, some places will be more economical than others for minimum wage employees. Let state and local governments take their own steps to offset the local cost of living or to set their own minimum above the federal minimum as they do now.

Of course the people are wrong. All the time. However, in this case, since what you are advocating would cause company stores, and people paid in scrip, I’d say you’re wrong.

The 19th century sucked. Trying to recreate the work environment from there is the definition of goofy.

Why would he do that? You’re a “people,” and he just pointed out that you’re wrong…

:stuck_out_tongue:

Entry level jobs won’t pay enough to raise a family or anything like that. It’s disturbing to think that somehow people don’t get that.

It’s disturbing to think that it’s unacceptable to not aspire to anything greater than “entry level.”

Word. The minimum wage that helps poor people the most is no minimum wage at all.

Certain liberals are constantly telling us Americans to imitate Scandinavia in our domestic policy, since the Scandinavian countries have supposedly reached the ideal state of shared prosperity and equality. Those liberals would probably be surprised if they looked up the minimum wage in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. There isn’t one.

Switzerland and Austria also have no minimum wage. All seven of those countries have very low poverty rates. A high minimum wage tends to strand people in poverty, because it prevents them from getting jobs. Abolishing minimum wage helps the poor by making it easy for them to get jobs.

Neither. Eradicate the minimum wage entirely and make sure that welfare benefits are sufficient to have a modest existence on while strongly encouraging one to work.

Employers are not responsible for peoples inability to manage their own lives or increase their economic value.

Absolutely incorrect. The fact that even Wal-Mart has to raise wages offered to attract workers proves that supply and demand, econ 101, does in fact work with labor.

So supply and demand didn’t exist in the 19th century?

By the way, Wal-Mart as recent as 2008 tried to pay Mexican workers in company vouchers. So no, they’ll fucking do it the day they can get away with it.

From: http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/09/05/mexico-walmex-idUSN0546591320080905

That is a statement of ideology, not something writ into the bedrock of spacetime.

From: List of countries by minimum wage - Wikipedia

I think you might have included that context.
As an aside, none of those countries have endemic generational poverty and our currently very low social mobility.

If you must have any sort of a minimum wage at all, do away with the federal mandate and let the individual states do what they want.

Then it’s good that most minimum wage workers are NOT supporting a family.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/characteristics-of-minimum-wage-workers-2014.pdf

Unless you are a slave, you are free to walk away and negotiate a better rate at a competitor.

You are free to do anything you want. However, there are circumstances that limit your options, at least if you want to deal with the real world.

The people in those mining towns didn’t have other options, and once in debt to the boss, they’re locked in for good.