American Wages, the Minimum Wage and Income Brackets

Discussion in 'Economics & Trade' started by Kari Sims, Mar 25, 2019.

  1. Kari Sims

    Kari Sims Member

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    Why is the American minimum wage so low that it only enables low quality living without housing depending on the individuals living expenses? Why can’t the minimum wage be higher with higher corresponding income brackets above? This would enable a better quality of life, more happiness, comfortability and opportunity. Some wages may even be wrong for a particular job. People also have unequal, uncontrollable living situations that place them in certain jobs regardless of his or her intellect or skill set during certain times. Higher wages for all and closer equality among wages seems to be the more generous, kind way although some jobs require a bit more work. Are resource sustainability and international economic compatibility the only two factors that set wages aside from skill sets and supply and demand?
     
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  2. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    It was unclear from your OP, but are you advocating that government settle the score here? To have government insert itself to distribute the wealth of the nation because you think it's more equitable that way? Just askin, but perhaps you can find some coverage of the misery that was the Soviet Union where this was trotted out before...
     
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  3. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    some on the left are for raising tax revenue by raising the minimum wage because higher paid labor pays more in taxes and creates more in demand.
     
  4. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Having a wage beats not having any wage. So far the minimum wage laws in the states that implemented it has caused fewer hours and fewer jobs in the minimum wage jobs.
     
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  5. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    I think you're missing the point. Artificially inducing inflation makes the debt they create less impactful....And more hands from which to steal it from never hurts in their books...
     
  6. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    wages merely need outpace inflation.
     
  7. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A better question is why is an individual in their late 20's and past that is only qualifying for a minimum wage job.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2019
  8. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    increasing the minimum wage can only increase demand.
     
  9. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    I look at liberal economic policy the same way I deal with toddlers... They show up to the ice cream store, smile, and expect to get ice cream. Liberals aren't much different. They all, ignore the idea that folks actually had to work to make their dream of ice cream a reality. And it never hurts that someone else has to pay for it for them. Pleading eyes, and temper tantrums when the ice cream doesn't happen.
     
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  10. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    And Ice cream doesn't have calories... huh?? :roflol:
     
  11. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    Labor being able to afford more housing can only increase demand for newer and more cost efficient housing.
     
  12. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    i thought you understood economics.
     
  13. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    Exactly. When little Colbert has only ever viewed the world through the TV or smart phone, it's hard to list that as a job skill.....
     
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  14. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The theory is (whether true or not) that the job sector in this area cannot sustain higher wages, not without making a substantial number of these jobs dissappear.

    Personally, if they were going to drastically increase the minimum wage, I think they should have done it before so much low skill immigration was brought in. Today doing it would result in unemployment, with all those additional people.

    But the reason it was not considered seriously back then (15 years ago) is the U.S. was in a bubble. It was believed by those at the top (whether rightly or wrongly) that there would be enough jobs for everyone higher up and so they wanted to bring in immigration to do the minimum wage paying jobs.
    As President Bush (Jr) stated so plainly: "They're doing jobs Americans don't want to do."

    Now the U.S. is sort of stuck in the current situation.
    That's what a bubble will do to you. You'll make assumptions about the future that are not true, and then set yourself up to be in a bad place when you are not prepared for the circumstances to become worse than you thought they were going to turn out.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2019
  15. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    Raising the minimum wage could improve the situation for Labor by increasing market participation.
     
  16. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's a logical fallacy.

    While higher wages being offered certainly would (although this is somewhat debatable) increase market participation, that does not transfer over into higher minimum wage laws doing the same.

    You should be able to figure this out with a little thought, but in case you can't, here's the explanation:
    Obviously increasing the minimum wage does not increase the number of jobs (at least directly, and in fact it typically is thought to have the opposite effect). So while there might be more incentive for people to get those jobs, it is not going to increase the number of people with those jobs.
    The net effect might be to increase the labor force participation rate while increasing the unemployment rate by the same amount.

    If you want to increase market participation, you're going to have to increase the underlying demand, both in price and quantity.

    Does that make sense enough to understand it?
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2019
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  17. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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  18. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    Government should not politically force themselves on the private sector.

    If you greatly increase MW you must also increase all other wages. The median wage is something like $32,000 which is about $15.50/hour. Perhaps 60-70 million American workers earn $32,000 or below. If you double MW will you also double those earning $15.50/hour?

    You must suspect if you greatly force wages to increase you also encourage inflation. So in the end, with higher inflation, will MW earners gain buying power?

    You should suspect greatly increasing wages increases the cost of doing business which affects competition and viability of the business.

    You surely already know in many populated areas of the US, like in San Francisco, they have already set MW at higher levels...like $15.00/hour. In all of these areas it requires $200K+ annual wage to have a chance at buying a house. No one earning MW can afford to live in these areas.

    A better question to ask is what are the supporting facts why we have the wages we have today?
     
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  19. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    Providing for the General welfare is expressly declared a Power delegated to our federal Congress.

    Should we ask the Better Business Bureau to help advocate your capital Cause?
     
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2019
  20. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That is also a bit of a logical fallacy. You're presuming a particular direction of causation from a correlation.
     
  21. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    It is not government's job to determine wages in the private sector...
     
  22. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    This is nonsense...fact is in high cost of living cities across the USA the MW is much greater than $7.25/hour. In all cases even $15.00/hour will not provide enough to live in these areas. Conversely, in Mayberry RFD, with a low cost of living, there's no reason to increase MW. A federal MW does not work for all areas of the US and actually does not solve a single problem...
     
  23. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    Why do you believe that? Congress commands fiscal policy and our welfare clause is General; and, the Fed can command monetary policy when necessary.
     
  24. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    First, few people actually make just the minimum wage (2.3% of the total workforce). Those who do, for the most part, are under 25. I do agree the federal minimum wage is a bit low. It should be closer to $10 an hour than the current $7.25 an hour.



    https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm
     
  25. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    "In 2017, 80.4 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.3 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 542,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour."
    https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2019

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