Minimum Wage and Unemployment

[nini2287]

Discuss.

[A18]

Slightly decrease, but that's not what it should be repealed. It should be repealed because it's immoral.

Anyway, I would just leave it alone and index it for inflation to keep the Democrats from constantly exploiting the issue.

[nini2287]

Slightly decrease, but that's not what it should be repealed. It should be repealed because it's immoral.

Anyway, I would just leave it alone and index it for inflation to keep the Democrats from constantly exploiting the issue.

I actually agree with that except for the part that it's immoral.

[TheresNoMoney]

Unemployment would either stay the same or slightly decrease, but median wages would go down and poverty would slightly increase.

The federal minimum wage should be increased to about $7.25 an hour in my opinion.

[TheresNoMoney]

Slightly decrease, but that's not what it should be repealed. It should be repealed because it's immoral.

The lack of a minimum wage is immoral.

[A18]

If unemployment stays the same, median wages should not go down since the people affected will be at the bottom of the scale. There is no ripple effect.

Coercion is an odd form of morality, but I'm well aware of the fact that most Democrats hate freedom.

[TheresNoMoney]

If unemployment stays the same, median wages should not go down since the people affected will be at the bottom of the scale. There is no ripple effect.

You're correct on that.

Most likely unemployment slightly decreases and the average wage also slightly decreases.

[A18]

It's odd how many people will say they oppose price controls, and then turn around and say they support minimum wage (which is a price control, and has the same economic effects).

The money saved from the minimum wage could lead to higher wages for other workers or lower prices (in the latter case, it should be noted that this means wages go up in real terms). There shouldn't be any change in the average wage.

[Richard]

Holy sh**t.  Maybe we can have a poll on:

1 + 1 is:

2,
3,
4,
1

Open any macroeconomic textbook and it will tell you minimum wages inversely affect unemployment rate.  Why are we voting on this?

[Emsworth]

The federal minimum wage is unconstitutional. It applies without regard to whether the work in question involves "commerce ... among the states."

In any event, minimum wages in general, I hate to say, are coercive and opposed to the liberty of contract. If someone wants to work for two dollars an hour, I don't think that the government is entitled to stop him from doing so.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Holy sh**t.  Maybe we can have a poll on:

1 + 1 is:

2,
3,
4,
1

Open any macroeconomic textbook and it will tell you minimum wages inversely affect unemployment rate.  Why are we voting on this?

Not everyone agrees with the economics textbooks.  These textbooks are only right if they actually succeed at modelling empirical reality.   Mathematics textbooks do not have to model empirical reality to be "correct" because mathematics is completely contained within its own axioms. 

[TheresNoMoney]

Economic theory does not always hold true in the real world. For any economic theory, you can find statistics that have disproven it.

[KEmperor]

The federal minimum wage is unconstitutional. It applies without regard to whether the work in question involves "commerce ... among the states."

In any event, minimum wages in general, I hate to say, are coercive and opposed to the liberty of contract. If someone wants to work for two dollars an hour, I don't think that the government is entitled to stop him from doing so.

Well said, this is exactly correct.

[MaC]

Unemployment would decrease.  It's a very simple thing to understand, don't hold employers to a forced minimum, and they'll be able to hire more people with the money they don't have to pay to support this minimum.

[Burn baby, Burn]

people always told me that no minimum wage would mean no real change in wages.

then I learned that on oklahoma the minimum wage is 2.50 an hour.

so I did a job search.

the number of jobs that returned 2.50 an hour made me want to vomit.

[Burn baby, Burn]

Unemployment would decrease.  It's a very simple thing to understand, don't hold employers to a forced minimum, and they'll be able to hire more people with the money they don't have to pay to support this minimum.

without a minimum wage unemployment would not shrink, it'd dissapear. and you'd have 20 people living in each room in each house because they could not afford to do more. unskilled people anyway. they count too.

[© tweed]

Depends on what the definitions of 'greatly' and 'slightly' are, but I'm certain it would have a bad effect on employment--but not as bad of an effect as raising it to 15.00 would.

[TheresNoMoney]

people always told me that no minimum wage would mean no real change in wages.

then I learned that on oklahoma the minimum wage is 2.50 an hour.

That's not possible. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

[opebo]

Who cares?  Suicide-bombing is preferable to working in such jobs.

[Erc]

people always told me that no minimum wage would mean no real change in wages.

then I learned that on oklahoma the minimum wage is 2.50 an hour.

That's not possible. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

There are certain exemptions--state employees (?), and employees who earn their money mostly from tips.

[TeePee4Prez]

In the microeconomic sense, the minimum wage should increase unemployment, but in the macroeconomic sense being long term and the economy as a whole, it should have no effect on UE, but will increase the GDP and personal spending power.  One should also realize people in this wage zone have the least DI (disposable income) and their MPC (marginal propensity to consume) is much greater.  Inflation may go up a little but the real wages will definitely increase so ergo I favor a min wage increase.   

[Peter]

The federal minimum wage is unconstitutional. It applies without regard to whether the work in question involves "commerce ... among the states."

In any event, minimum wages in general, I hate to say, are coercive and opposed to the liberty of contract. If someone wants to work for two dollars an hour, I don't think that the government is entitled to stop him from doing so.

I would agree that the federal minimum wage is probably unconstitutional as an enforcement of the interstaet commerce clause.

However, I do not think that anybody in a position where they accept a job for $2/hour actually wants to be paid that little, it is quite probably because they have to accept the job or do nothing and starve.

[Democratic Hawk]

I don't think it would make much difference. It would seem that the introduction of the minimum wage has not had an adverse effect (in Britain anyway)

Dave

[A18]

In the microeconomic sense, the minimum wage should increase unemployment, but in the macroeconomic sense being long term and the economy as a whole, it should have no effect on UE, but will increase the GDP and personal spending power. One should also realize people in this wage zone have the least DI (disposable income) and their MPC (marginal propensity to consume) is much greater. Inflation may go up a little but the real wages will definitely increase so ergo I favor a min wage increase.

Any increase in purchasing power from a higher minimum wage will be offset by a decrease in purchasing power somewhere else.

It is greater productivity that results in greater purchasing power.

[opebo]

In the microeconomic sense, the minimum wage should increase unemployment, but in the macroeconomic sense being long term and the economy as a whole, it should have no effect on UE, but will increase the GDP and personal spending power. One should also realize people in this wage zone have the least DI (disposable income) and their MPC (marginal propensity to consume) is much greater. Inflation may go up a little but the real wages will definitely increase so ergo I favor a min wage increase.

Any increase in purchasing power from a higher minimum wage will be offset by a decrease in purchasing power somewhere else.

Of course - the goal is to transferr purchasing power from the owning class to the working class.