The Cruelty of the $15 Minimum Wage
Q&A with economist and Cafe Hayek blogger Don Boudreaux.
The $15 minimum wage just went from "laughable" to "viable"—as a New York Times headline put it—to the law of the land for millions of New York and California residents.
In April 2016, the Empire and Golden states almost simultaneously passed laws that will boost the state-mandated wage floor to $15 over the next few years for all workers—a high-stakes bet that the law of supply and demand doesn't apply to human labor.
To discuss the potential impact of the $15 minimum wage, Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Don Boudreaux, an economist at George Mason University, who writes frequently about the minimum wage at his blog, Cafe Hayek.
About 9:30 minutes.
Produced and edited by Jim Epstein. Camera by Joshua Swain and Todd Krainin.
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I imagine most here know about Cafe Hayek, but if not it is a great blog.
That's a blog? I thought it was a specialty drink at Starbucks. I usually order a Grande Bastiato myself.
Made with certified Free Trade coffee beans?
Mention either of those names at a Starbucks and I'll bet 99% of the time you get a blank stare, 1% of the time you get a hateful sneer.
I think you're overestimating how much economics fine arts and grievance studies graduates pick up even by accident.
You just love to shatter people's sense of optimism, don't you?
They might think that Cafe Hayek is a coffee shop owned by Salma Hayek.
Double Venti for me
I'll take a Desperado latte par favor
You should try the Mezzo Galiani.
I'd love to sit in on some of his classes. He has the patience of a saint in his blog, constantly bringing up new and clear examples of the evils of minimum wage and other price controls and trade restrictions. No idea hwo he manages to be both fresh and repetitive so well.
There's an awful lot of material to cover.
How much Boudreaux must read, though, could you imagine? When does he sleep?
Putting out 1-2 relevant quotes every day, and usually one or more 'open letters,' is really impressive.
The repetition is sad, though. He has to keep repeating the same arguments that have been repeated for 300 years.
It is very difficult to reason with the enemies of liberty.
I've seen at least one on youtube. Google his name plus "law vs legislation" and you should find it.
Noticed the tagline for the first time.
"Where orders emerge."
Good stuff.
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Video-still alt-text: "I know this is economically retarded, but I've gotta placate people like these, ya know?"
I'm only supporting this because I'm afraid an even worse law might be passed in the future..
/CBC
"Minimum-Wage Hike Hits Oakland's Jobs"
[...]
"An EPI survey of 223 businesses with pay levels affected by the minimum-wage hike found that 30% had cut employee work hours and 17% reduced staffing to absorb the cost increase."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....00141.html
But wait! There's more!
"Defenders of mandated wage hikes argue that businesses can pass along higher costs because customers will have more income."
So the 'defense' is that you new higher wage will get eaten up by passed through increased prices? Wonder if it'll push you into a higher tax bracket at the same time...
"People deserve a living wage because it's so expensive to live!"
:minimum wage is raised, cost of shit goes up:
"OMG EVERYTHING'S SO EXPENSIVE! WE DESERVE A LIVING WAGE!!!""
"Come on dude, math is hard and stuff! That's why I didn't do that in college, I did a major in Womyn's Studies with a minor in French Lesbian Poetry of the 15th Century!"
you left out:
"and i got turned down to be the CEO of Intel. #downwithwhiteprivilege #womansstudies #frenchlesbiansmatter"
you left out:
"and i got turned down to be the CEO of Intel. #downwithwhiteprivilege #womansstudies #frenchlesbiansmatter"
you left out:
"and i got turned down to be the CEO of Intel. #downwithwhiteprivilege #womansstudies #frenchlesbiansmatter"
The new MW covers wait staff in CA, correct? And, if so, is it becoming common practice to not tip? Just wondering if I can start stiffing the waiters and blaming it on Jerry Brown when I'm next there.
The cooks, prep, dishwashers, bussers and hosts are going to have something to say about everyone making the same wage, and only waitstaff getting the tips.
Yep.
Congratulations to these pandering hacks...they've just just raised the cost of living for everyone, yet again.
Wash.
Rinse.
Repeat.
I had a front-counter gig once. Not only did I make MW (unlike the servers) but I got to keep my own tips. The tips weren't great but for a no-skill job it was pretty decent.
There is no difference between tipped and untipped staff in current CA minimum wage law.
Waiters getting full minimum wage here in California has greatly reduced my tipping.
That's called pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps. Force a business to pay its employees more so they'll have more money in order to pay for the higher priced goods made by the business they work for.
Only $15/hr? Fucking heartless bastards! How are people supposed to live on only $15/hr?
You're going about it all wrong Frankie. The question you're supposed to ask is how people are supposed to support a family of four on $15/hr.
Let us raise it to $15/day
Why do hard-working parents even have to worry about supporting their kids? That kind of responsibility can be debilitating! That's why we need a guaranteed income of $20,000 per year per person to ensure that our most vulnerable citizens don't get left behind.
Inorite? Just legalize child labor and the kids could support themselves.
How is anyone supposed to support a family of four AND buy a 3-bedroom house with a jacuzzi out back on only 15$/hour?! It's inhuman!
How am I supposed to afford my organic fair-trade free-range small batch hand crafted heirloom bean artisanal Cafe Hayak on $15/hour?
Plotting the derp dashboard requires log scale plots.
A modified Richter Scale... for retards.
THERE IS NO INFLATION, YOU DERANGED PEANUTZ!!!!!!
"Defenders of mandated wage hikes argue that businesses can pass along higher costs because customers will have more income."
It's just like a regular ice cream cone, except it LICKS ITSELF.
Did you know that if you stand in a bucket and tug on the handle really hard, you'll lift yourself into the air? It's amazing!
Income inequality.
I think in their minds this is a backdoor way of redistributing wealth and making things more equal. Sure in the end it will make no difference to the minimum wage workers (assuming they stay employed) but the people that make more will be paying more into the system because of increased prices, thus ....oh fuck it, that makes my head hurt.
"If we burn it all down, everyone will have the same amount! Nothing!"
People making minimum wage now (10 $/hr) will get a 5 $/hr raise. People making 11 $/hr will need a raise to keep them above minimum wage, so they'll get also a 5 $/hr raise. People making 12 $/hr will need a raise to keep them above minimum wage, so they'll get also a 5 $/hr raise. So and so forth.
Looks like the CEO will also need a 5 $/hr COLA to pay for the new minimum wage, too.
Trickle up economics!
Silly libertarians don't understand the magical power of good intentions. Nobody who supports the hike in minimum wage intends for it to result in any unemployment, therefore any unemployment that comes after this will be the result of greedy businesses seeking immoral profits. The next step will be to punish businesses that automate, consolidate responsibilities, and otherwise seek to minimize their need for unskilled labor. Because it certainly isn't the fault of the minimum wage supporters. How could it be? They have good intentions.
I know nothing good ever came out of Catholcism, but many would be well served to take the time to understand what is meant by the aphorism "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
In a similar vein, I have to remind myself that no one is the villain in their own story.
Here comes the minimum human hire rate in order to get your business license.
"So Mr. Johnson you and your wife want to open a small restaurant staffed by your children. That's nice. In order to get your business permission slip (aka license) you will need to hire 20 more people, oh don't forget that it must be proportional to the demographic makeup of the US by race and gender."
- The Central Scrutinizer
The intention of these laws is to create a permanently unemployable underclass.
So what stock for the coming robotics boom? Looking for something smaller and more nimble than GE and the big defense contractors.
These guys might be promising. Extra lulz since they're based in the progtard mecca: San Fransisco. Seems kind of meta to me.
"Our device isn't meant to make employees more efficient," cofounder Alexandros Vardakostas has said. "It's meant to completely obviate them."
Cool.
Nothing shows the retardation, cynicism, and outright disregard for the poor of the left like the minimum wage plank.
The Bernie supporter who said "We know Bernie's numbers don't work but the things he wants to do are too important for us to be held back by numbers" shows the unawareness of reality of the retards. Moonbeam's "Economically, minimum wages may not make sense. But morally, socially, and politically they make every sense..." shows the cynicism and disregard for the poor.
How can a party that is so dysfunctional in the real world (see Detroit) continue to exist? Socialism is the zombie that just can't be killed.
The Bernie supporter who said "We know Bernie's numbers don't work but the things he wants to do are too important for us to be held back by numbers"
Someone actually said that shit? Mmmm, that's good derp!
It really is based on ignorance. I know because I was right there with them until I learned a little bit more about the world. The real question is how can understand the world and still believe this crap - therein lies "evil".
Ditto.
A few econ books make all the difference.
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Ah yes, the New York Times. Where far seeing peoples can't look beyond their finger tips.
"Big corporations are bad. We need to support small businesses."
"All workers deserve a living wage. Any business that can't afford to pay a living wage should not exist."
"Greedy fat cats write the rules that drive competition out of business and rig the economy against the little guy."
"We're the party of science and logic."
Exactly. I've had some discussions with several prog colleagues, and when I point out that the higher minimum wage will most likely have it's heaviest impact on mom-and-pop businesses, thus opening the doors for large corporations who can better absorb the increase, their faces go blank, then white, followed by a sort of incoherent babble, as their brains implode.
This is why I left so intent on controlling the narrative. Their heads explode when actually confronted with a reasoned analysis of their ideas.
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McDonald's?
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The hits just keep on comin'!
"So when Oakland raised its minimum wage earlier this year to $12.25 and hour, how did she feel?
"Oh! Me? So happy! But not just me, everyone felt happy, like, wow!" she said, speaking in Spanish.
[...]
"But this single mother was hit with another monthly bill that she never expected: Her new wage now pushed her marginally over the threshold to qualify for free child care for her toddler ? a little bundle of personality, Aidin Jissell, who is two years old."
http://www.marketplace.org/201.....care-costs
Sad trombone.
I don't think we should be laughing about this truly evil aspect of the welfare state.
The Working Poor face the highest effective marginal tax rates often exceeding 100%. That isn't just bad economics it is evil.
Agreed. It's terrible that as you climb out if assistance, you're fucked for a while worse than anything. It causes no incentive to move up.
Also why I'd support replacing welfare with some kind of negative income tax, or simple cash payments instead of all the various cards and such.
Is it evil if the poor voted for it to be done to them? I don't think so. I think they deserve to pay the Piper they called for.
I was paying my monocle polishers $11/hr. out of the goodness of my heart. But that was the most I could pay them, what with the tax increases and Obamacare. At $15/hr, I'm better off polishing my own monocles or getting a seeing-eye dog.
The pince-nez can be polished in nearly the same amount of time and you get twice the sight! Sure, its no monocle, but we all have to make cuts.
Not to be a wet blanket but the upstate NY wage is going up to "only" 12-something.
Why is $15 magical? Surely all these people would be even happier with $100/hr. And others would be so wealthy demand would skyrocket! Happy days are here again!
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Oh dear, the panhandlers will be thick as flies outside Starbucks in California now.
All of my favorite restaurants here in Calif. have boosted prices in small increments over the past few years.
Just yesterday I was surprised to see one restaurant boost the price of a medium refillable soda to $1.99 by about 50 cents--approx 25%! A few of the restaurants have actually broken the $2 mark on a medium refillable soda--I have seen as high as $2.75 in a non-touristy restaurant.
When the $15/hr minimum wage kicks in, how much will sodas cost then?
Oh, I should mention--these refills were self-serve. It's pretty obvious the restaurant is padding drink costs to cover rising costs including labor, food price inflation, rent inflation, etc.
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The liberal doesn't understand logic--largely because the liberal goes to college, majors in soft easy majors that won't get them a job with any substantial salary and then dedicates his life to the eternal whine of how things just aren't fair. You see, Mr. Progressive, while you were practicing your intelligentsia in the coffee shop sophomore year, some of us were in engineering school. Or medical or computer science programs. Or apprenticing in the trades. You see the fact is the reason most liberals are so rage filled is they equate to a child throwing a tantrum because deep down they aren't competent, driven or happy.
Now should we stop shooting ourselves in the foot with NAFTA and CAFTA and the globalization of economy which is destroying our own nation? Should we level the playing field and recreate Milton's capitalism by erasing the concept of eminent domain and tax breaks for corporations? Sure. But even if we did the liberal still wouldn't be happy. Because in equal capitalism the competent will still rise to the top and the whining yap dogs will stay in the kennel. Because the real objective of the liberal isn't liberalism--it is now Marxism. And debate isn't going to solve the Marxist.
Perhaps in the end the Second Amendment will.
Charles Hurst. Author of THE SECOND FALL. The prophetic novel of America's Apocalypse. And creator of THE RUNNINGWOLF EZINE. The Patriots' guide to the lost art of common sense.
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A $15/hr minimum will drive some businesses out. It will raise prices of the products sold by others. In some, it will increase the demand for intelligent automation. Ultimately, AI and robotics will create enough unemployment that it will be the genesis of a minimum annual income for all. So in the larger scheme of things, the $15 (or higher) minimum wage will be of little consequence. How that will all work is an open question. It won't be easy and certainly not painless. Many challenges await. The millennials will get to sort it out.
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Minimum wage workers will arrive in droves. Actual employers will flee. Those who arrived for a higher wage will quickly end up on unemployment benefits - while they last. The good news is, when they finally give up looking for work, the government won't consider them to be unemployed anymore, which should make their lives a whole lot better. As Nancy Pelosi said, they'll have time to take up painting and other artistic hobbies. Everyone wins!
How many people over, say, 55 lose their jobs because they make too much money? Why is this not a concern to politicians. Too much employer money dedicated to older talent, to their pension or matching 401k, to the employer 1/2 of 940 and 941s ? Companies can generate revenue and earnings without these older workers. Just as the company can generate revenues and earnings using low wage, low skilled or unskilled labor. There is a reason I retired at 58. A law suit costing in the low six figures over 3-4 years was not worth the possible compensation lost.
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