It has been mentioned that increasing the federal minimum wage would increase low income workers purchasing power. I can see this, and it would probably help the economy as a result. I've read that Congress is working on raising minimum wage by $1.50 over the next few years.
However, Opponents of this say an increase in minimum wage will force some employers to let people go, because they will not be able to afford the wage increase.
Do you believe the overall economical benefit of increase minimum wage will outweigh temporary cutbacks in jobs for smaller businesses?
Raising minimum wage makes a temporary difference, but not a long-term one. When unskilled labor costs more, businesses just pass that along. Eventually everything costs more, and then we need to raise the minimum wage. (That's ignoring the other effects, that more unskilled labor gets transferred overseas.)
ReplyDeleteThe real minimum wage is $0, and I've worked for that. (For the experience.)