Minimum Wage Laws Kill Jobs

[longknife]

By Steve H. Hanke

President Obama set the chattering classes abuzz after his unilateral announcement to raise the minimum wage for newly hired Federal contract workers. During his State of the Union address, he sang the praises for his action, saying that “It’s good for the economy; it’s good for America.”[1] Yet this conclusion doesn’t pass the economic smell test; just look at the data from Europe.

Okay, so don't confront the messenger – read the piece and then jump in. Read more @ Minimum Wage Laws Kill Jobs | Cato @ Liberty

 

[KNB]

So ending the minimum wage in the United States will lower unemployment?

By that logic, repealing child labor laws will teach kids valuable life skills like how to tie their shoes with only one hand because the other was ripped off by factory gears. Also, eliminating the EPA will provide jobs because everyone will be paid $2/hr to clean up the toxic sludge that multibillion-dollar corporations dump into our drinking water.

Why don't Republicans ever try to think?

 

[zeke]

I read the piece you linked. Where is the rest of the article and supporting documentation? Or do you just do opinion pieces? Seeing as how the USA is not the EU, there should be lots of info on how our current minimum wages have caused the economic slowdown we are currently experiencing.

Here I thought is was job loss and asset loss that caused the economy to collapse. Now I know it was those folks making $7.50 an hour. If only they had been making 2 dollars an hour, we wouldn't have there problems.

Is that what you're saying?

 

[Bombur]

Considering he did it for contracts the amount of work being done doesn't change so the idea that it kills jobs is unsubstantiated.

The thing about something like a min wage law change is that no one really knows if people will get fired or how many will lose work time. They do know that the vast majority will keep their job and be paid more though. They also know that this extra income will help them in their lives.

 

[billyerock1991]

By Steve H. Hanke

President Obama set the chattering classes abuzz after his unilateral announcement to raise the minimum wage for newly hired Federal contract workers. During his State of the Union address, he sang the praises for his action, saying that “It’s good for the economy; it’s good for America.”[1] Yet this conclusion doesn’t pass the economic smell test; just look at the data from Europe.

Okay, so don't confront the messenger – read the piece and then jump in. Read more @ Minimum Wage Laws Kill Jobs | Cato @ Liberty

here's the problem with your source and your post ... in all the years that we have had the minimum wage, there isn't any information that is credible or any source of information ever in the entire history of the minimum wage that has caused job loss... it has done the opposite it has created more jobs because people have more money to spend ... you go and look it up for your self... not once has there ever been a cut in jobs when the minimum wage went up...

as you republicans say, show us a source where jobs went down ... show me the numbers !!!!!

 

[billyerock1991]

So ending the minimum wage in the United States will lower unemployment?

By that logic, repealing child labor laws will teach kids valuable life skills like how to tie their shoes with only one hand because the other was ripped off by factory gears. Also, eliminating the EPA will provide jobs because everyone will be paid $2/hr to clean up the toxic sludge that multibillion-dollar corporations dump into our drinking water.

Why don't Republicans ever try to think?

well that would take some sort of intellect ... republicans and intellect not so much...

 

[billyerock1991]

I read the piece you linked. Where is the rest of the article and supporting documentation? Or do you just do opinion pieces? Seeing as how the USA is not the EU, there should be lots of info on how our current minimum wages have caused the economic slowdown we are currently experiencing.

Here I thought is was job loss and asset loss that caused the economy to collapse. Now I know it was those folks making $7.50 an hour. If only they had been making 2 dollars an hour, we wouldn't have there problems.

Is that what you're saying?

damn !!! who would have thunk it...

 

[billyerock1991]

Considering he did it for contracts the amount of work being done doesn't change so the idea that it kills jobs is unsubstantiated.

The thing about something like a min wage law change is that no one really knows if people will get fired or how many will lose work time. They do know that the vast majority will keep their job and be paid more though. They also know that this extra income will help them in their lives.

oh like buying stuff.... creating a demand for stuff ... causing them to hire stuff to make the stuff ... so they have stuff to sell ...who would have thunk it ??? not republicans, thinking and under standing stuff, not so much...

 

[zeke]

Longknife, your thread is getting it's ass kicked. Where are you? Researching?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Republicans wouldn't care if they created a real poor class in this country that worked for pennies. This is how they believe in we can compete with China.

I'd rather education and focus on tech, science and compete within areas that we're good at.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Considering he did it for contracts the amount of work being done doesn't change so the idea that it kills jobs is unsubstantiated.

The thing about something like a min wage law change is that no one really knows if people will get fired or how many will lose work time. They do know that the vast majority will keep their job and be paid more though. They also know that this extra income will help them in their lives.

oh like buying stuff.... creating a demand for stuff ... causing them to hire stuff to make the stuff ... so they have stuff to sell ...who would have thunk it ??? not republicans, thinking and under standing stuff, not so much...

Republicans think the rich will buy the stuff HOnestly you're right as middle class people turn into lower class people there will be less demand.

This is the problem with republican theory...

 

[SuMar]

Longknife, your thread is getting it's ass kicked. Where are you? Researching?

Where's your research?

 

[Erand7899]

By Steve H. Hanke

President Obama set the chattering classes abuzz after his unilateral announcement to raise the minimum wage for newly hired Federal contract workers. During his State of the Union address, he sang the praises for his action, saying that “It’s good for the economy; it’s good for America.”[1] Yet this conclusion doesn’t pass the economic smell test; just look at the data from Europe.

Okay, so don't confront the messenger – read the piece and then jump in. Read more @ Minimum Wage Laws Kill Jobs | Cato @ Liberty

here's the problem with your source and your post ... in all the years that we have had the minimum wage, there isn't any information that is credible or any source of information ever in the entire history of the minimum wage that has caused job loss... it has done the opposite it has created more jobs because people have more money to spend ... you go and look it up for your self... not once has there ever been a cut in jobs when the minimum wage went up...

as you republicans say, show us a source where jobs went down ... show me the numbers !!!!!

Service stations had gas jockeys. Movie threaters had ushers. Drug stores had soda bars and soda jerks. Drive ins had car hops. High school kids had after school jobs sweeping out stores and stocking shelves. For the most part, all of those jobs have disappeared.

The crazy idea that you can get something for nothing is a liberal/socialist pipe dream.

If one person loses their job because government wants to help others, then that person has been screwed by his government, and is no longer as equal as those others.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Automation I believe allows us to do things differently then what we could do in the early 20th century. Maybe we should rethink some of the economics for the 21st century? 3-d printers will also help mold us to even more changes.

Who's to say that plastic toy can't be made in your home?
Who's to say that automation of production of food(farming robots) can't take some of the slack to allow us to feed the population for far less.

conservatives are stuck in the past.

 

[hunarcy]

By Steve H. Hanke

President Obama set the chattering classes abuzz after his unilateral announcement to raise the minimum wage for newly hired Federal contract workers. During his State of the Union address, he sang the praises for his action, saying that “It’s good for the economy; it’s good for America.”[1] Yet this conclusion doesn’t pass the economic smell test; just look at the data from Europe.

Okay, so don't confront the messenger – read the piece and then jump in. Read more @ Minimum Wage Laws Kill Jobs | Cato @ Liberty

here's the problem with your source and your post ... in all the years that we have had the minimum wage, there isn't any information that is credible or any source of information ever in the entire history of the minimum wage that has caused job loss... it has done the opposite it has created more jobs because people have more money to spend ... you go and look it up for your self... not once has there ever been a cut in jobs when the minimum wage went up...

as you republicans say, show us a source where jobs went down ... show me the numbers !!!!!

Minimum wage laws set legal minimums for the hourly wages paid to certain groups of workers. In the United States, amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act have increased the federal minimum wage from $.25 per hour in 1938 to $5.15 in 1997.1 Minimum wage laws were invented in Australia and New Zealand with the purpose of guaranteeing a minimum standard of living for unskilled workers. Most noneconomists believe that minimum wage laws protect workers from exploitation by employers and reduce poverty. Most economists believe that minimum wage laws cause unnecessary hardship for the very people they are supposed to help.

The reason is simple: although minimum wage laws can set wages, they cannot guarantee jobs. In practice they often price low-skilled workers out of the labor market. Employers typically are not willing to pay a worker more than the value of the additional product that he produces. This means that an unskilled youth who produces $4.00 worth of goods in an hour will have a very difficult time finding a job if he must, by law, be paid $5.15 an hour. As Princeton economist David F. Bradford wrote, “The minimum wage law can be described as saying to the potential worker: ‘Unless you can find a job paying at least the minimum wage, you may not accept employment.’”2

Several decades of studies using aggregate time-series data from a variety of countries have found that minimum wage laws reduce employment. At current U.S. wage levels, estimates of job losses suggest that a 10 percent in crease in the minimum wage would decrease employment of low-skilled workers by 1 or 2 percent. The job losses for black U.S. teenagers have been found to be even greater, presumably because, on average, they have fewer skills. As liberal economist Paul A. Samuelson wrote in 1973, “What good does it do a black youth to know that an employer must pay him $2.00 per hour if the fact that he must be paid that amount is what keeps him from getting a job?”3 In a 1997 response to a request from the Irish National Minimum Wage Commission, economists for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) summarized economic research results on the minimum wage: “If the wage floor set by statutory minimum wages is too high, this may have detrimental effects on employment, especially among young people.”4 This agreement over the general effect of minimum wages is long-standing. According to a 1978 article in American Economic Review, 90 percent of the economists surveyed agreed that the minimum wage increases unemployment among low-skilled workers.


Minimum Wages: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty

 

[ScienceRocks]

One of the down falls of communism was simply people wouldn't do anything for nothing. A radical thought is robots will. I am not saying communism as I believe in a strong free market BUT food? Should anyone be without food?

I believe in a fairly free market outside of this one little area.

One of the weaknesses of humans is they're stuck in the past. Always arguing what is 50 or 100 years before and not looking ahead.

 

[hunarcy]

Automation I believe allows us to do things differently then what we could do in the early 20th century. Maybe we should rethink some of the economics for the 21st century? 3-d printers will also help mold us to even more changes.

Who's to say that plastic toy can't be made in your home?
Who's to say that automation of production of food(farming robots) can't take some of the slack to allow us to feed the population for far less.

conservatives are stuck in the past.

And apparently you are in an episode of Star Trek.

 

[hunarcy]

One of the down falls of communism was simply people wouldn't do anything for nothing. A radical thought is robots will. I am not saying communism as I believe in a strong free market BUT food? Should anyone be without food?

I believe in a fairly free market outside of this one little area.

One of the weaknesses of humans is they're stuck in the past. Always arguing what is 50 or 100 years before and not looking ahead.

And, when robots handle all our work, there'll be nothing for humans to do and we'll all live in Utopia.

 

[The T]

Automation I believe allows us to do things differently then what we could do in the early 20th century. Maybe we should rethink some of the economics for the 21st century? 3-d printers will also help mold us to even more changes.

Who's to say that plastic toy can't be made in your home?
Who's to say that automation of production of food(farming robots) can't take some of the slack to allow us to feed the population for far less.

conservatives are stuck in the past.

The Truth has no agenda nor observes any time limits. Perhaps if you educated and armed yourself with the truth your vision would be more clear and you'd stop relying on government and be your own sovereign.

To date, YOU lack that strength.

Learn it, Know It, LIVE IT.

 

[realinvestment]

Considering he did it for contracts the amount of work being done doesn't change so the idea that it kills jobs is unsubstantiated.

Mainly a symbolic move. Most employees of contractors get more than minimum wage. So it will have little effect on these employees.

Likewise, there is guaranteed demand in a federal contract. So there will be no job loss.

In the private sector, we should be honest about the subject. Yes there will be some job loss, but at the same time, some of the working poor will see their pay increase.