Frankly I don’t care if we raise the minimum wage, I can see a valid argument to at least keep up with inflation, but when we debate this let’s do so with open eyes and honest assessments.
Following are some screen shots from Robert Reich’s website Inequality for All. At a minimum these are misleading arguments.
Think about what this is saying. If all employers are required to pay a new minimum wage, the playing field remains equal so it does not matter if McDonald’s raises prices. They will not lose to the competition because they all can (must) do the same and remain competitive. When this happens, those workers who had their wages increased may be no better off because eventually what they buy will cost more.
Productivity among workers who earn minimum wage is quite irrelevant. These are not the type of jobs seeing productivity improvement. They are largely unskilled jobs most done by young workers whose main problem is not their hourly wage, but their inability to move out of a minimum wage job regardless of what the minimum wage may be.
That’s true, but how many minimum wage workers are a family of two relying only on the income of one worker.
Finally we have the debate about who are the minimum wage workers. In fact most are young, white, women working part-time and most are in Texas. See for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
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