{"id":144,"date":"2015-09-19T17:24:29","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T21:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/?p=144"},"modified":"2015-09-19T18:39:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T22:39:39","slug":"the-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/2015\/09\/19\/the-minimum-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Minimum Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common misconceptions about the minimum wage is that it only benefits workers who earn it. \u00a0This past week my students got the same “quiz” that I give (in some form) every semester:<\/p>\n

If you are earning $13\/hour, and the minimum wage is raised from $9 to $12, does this hurt you, help you, or have no effect? \u00a0A majority says “no effect,’ and most of the rest say “hurt.”<\/p>\n

Not so! \u00a0Why is anybody paid above minimum wage? \u00a0Because their employer wants them to keep working there. \u00a0If an assistant manager at a store gets 13\/hour ($4 above minimum wage), this is viewed as prestige and as reason for them to stay and put up with the more awkward hours and stress than a $11\/hour job. \u00a0If suddently every clerk is making $12, the assistant manager’s salary is going to have to go up to keep the job appealing. \u00a0(It probably won’t go up a full $3, but will go up substantially, my best guess would be at least $1.50.)<\/p>\n

Eventually the effect wears out, but a good rule of thumb (which I learned is college) is that anyone making up to double the minimum wage is making more money than they would if the minimum wage were lower.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"minwage1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It isn’t discussed until later in the semester but Minimum wages generally benefit the local economy, effectively transferring some money from the richest 1-5% who often don’t live in the local area and and spend a smaller fraction of their money locally to poorer folks who put the money right back into circulation.<\/p>\n

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The argument doesn’t go ad infinitum, of course. \u00a0But as this chart shows<\/a>, minimum wage in the United States\u00a0ties with Mexico for\u00a0the lowest minimum wage as a fracion of either mean of median wage out of any country that has minimum wage laws. \u00a0(Brining it up around 50% – 75%, or to the $11 – 13 range would put us near the middle. \u00a0$15 would put is near, but not at, the top.)<\/p>\n

To conclude, the first word in “enlightened self-interest” is enlightened. \u00a0When folks benefit from a polity it really, really helps politically if they know it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most common misconceptions about the minimum wage is that it only benefits workers who earn it. \u00a0This past week my students got the same “quiz” that I give (in some form) every semester: If you are earning $13\/hour, and the minimum wage is raised from $9 to $12, does this hurt you, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blockschwenkcollective.com\/cool_by_osmosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}