Logic, based on the fact that less than 3% of hourly wage earners make the federal minimum wage, would tell you that raising the minimum wage would not have much of an effect.
Skull Pilot, excluding jobs with tasks that require labor qualifications in short supply, the federal minimum wage rate affects ALL USA wage rates.
Excerpted from post #141: The minimum rate affects ALL wage and salary rates but it doesnt affect them all equally. Its proportional effect is inversely to the differences between tasks pay scales and the minimum rate. Lesser paying jobs benefit proportionally more and higher paying jobs benefit proportionally less due to the minimum rate; but they do ALL benefit to some extent.
The minimum rate very much affects wage rates approaching the minimum rate. You incorrectly underestimate the minimum's affect upon the median and all lesser incomes. The minimum rate extremely affects, (I believe no less than) the least earning fifth of USAs full time wage earners.
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Half of all USA wage and salary employees earn no more than the median wage. Thats the definition of the median. I am not a statistician but I would suppose that the FMW significantly affects no less than 1/4 of our nations employees and it extremely affects no less than 1/5th of our nations employees.
Yes that is a conclusion based upon a logical rational, but that 1/4 figure is a very low ball estimate. Ill entertain any logical rational or statistics that you may believe can reasonably refute these conclusions.
The point is not the proportion of USA employees or USA full time employees or the ages of employees that earn no more than the FMW. No one is questioning or concerned with the validity of your 3% statistic because it is inconsequential to the FMW rates aggregate effects upon the purchasing powers of USAs employee earnings.
Its contended that the FMW significantly affects the purchasing powers of more than 1/4 of all USA full time employees. Within those significantly affected employees are 1/5 of USA employees earnings that are EXTREMELY significantly affected. We are discussing FMWs significant affect is upon in excess of a quarter of all USA full time employees.
Respectfully, Supposn