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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Minimum Wage Needs A Boost, But It Is Not A Living Wage

In prior posts on my Freestater blog, I’ve argued against proposals in Maryland to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour on the grounds that it will do significant damage to the employment prospects of young and unskilled workers — and not provide much actual help to the working poor.

What I’ve not made clear is that I do not oppose raising the minimum wage. In fact, I think a review of the history of the wage suggests that it should be raised to approximately $8.40 an hour and then indexed to inflation thereafter. But the proposal to make Maryland’s minimum $10.10 by 2016 simply goes too far and would likely have significant negative effects on youth and unskilled employment levels.

Those advocating the $10.10 an hour wage like to claim that had the minimum wage in the late 1960s simply kept pace with inflation the wage today would be well be roughly $10.50 per hour. Unfortunately, those folks are being intentionally misleading.

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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

All this raising the minimum wage crap has nothing to do with helping people. It's all about getting more tax money to spend.

Anonymous said...

It shouldn't be raised period. What the dumb cluck supporters fail to see because they blindly follow their house slave politicians is the small increase is going to do absolutely nothing to raise anyone out of poverty.
This is nothing more than the House Slave democrat politicians doing the biding of their Masters the large corporations who want to control commerce and need to get the small privately owned businesses out of the way.
What the dumb clucks need to learn is that all democrat politicians have their heads shoved up the butts of big business and everything they do is to benefit and please the corp executives.

Anonymous said...

nice picture, nice t shirts, how much money did they spend to get them printed. are these people getting paid by their union to go out and stump for this ridiculous bill which in reality only destroys jobs

Anonymous said...

Make restaurants have to pay their people and not rely on tips to survive. Why do we have to supplement that industry with tips? If you go oversees most other places you do not tip.

Anonymous said...

Prices are much higher overseas. The servers wage is built into the price of the meal. Resturants would have to raise prices by a lot and/or cut many jobs. Less servers would mean a lower quality of service and a much less enjoyable dinning experience

Anonymous said...

The government's inflation numbers are a sham. We all know prices are going up much faster than 2% per year. So anything indexed to inflation is a proposal to screw you over more as time passes.

Anonymous said...

Maryland is trying to pass a law to force small businesses to give 8 days paid sick leave to employees.

Anonymous said...

Of course they are 1:45. Anything to get rid of small business so a few large companies can control commerce. I'm telling you all democrats politicians are nothing more than slaves to big business.

Anonymous said...

1:45 That's an easy fix. Give them 8 sick days, reduce the number of vacation days they get.

Anonymous said...

I didn't expect to own a house, feed my wife and kids, drive an Escalade and watch High Def 50" TVs on the $1.25 per hour I made at a hamburger joint when I was an inexperienced kid. What makes people now days think they should?

Anonymous said...

The better idea than raising minimum wage is to lower taxes and for the city and state to make a budget that actually uses the tax money efficiently and not make pointless places to spend money.

Anonymous said...


Every employee making above the minimum wage is proof positive that employers do and will pay for performance.

Anyone in a minimum wage job who thinks they are performing above expectation almost owes it to themselves to nicely discuss the situation with their boss and ask for a justified increase.

If turned down, it's a clear signal to start checking out other opportunities where another employer will be happy to put your skills and positive attitude to profitable use.