Studies and statistics are nice but they arent real life. The simple fact is I can afford to hire more workers at 6 dollars an hour than I can at ten. Anthor simple fact is that if I have to give more money to the goverment thats less money I have to invest in my business. :D

So, taking your arguments to their logical conclusion, taxation set at zero would be best for the economy.

MAKO Wrote:The chart is merely the inflation adjusted minimum wage.  Period.  That's it.  It's a reflection of fact.  It's like a chart of population growth.  It means nothing.

What I have challenged you or any conservative to do is to provide me with a link to any study that shows a statistically significant correlation with the inflation adjusted minimum wage and the number of minimum wage jobs in the economy.  In other words, prove to me that raising the minimum wage costs jobs.

Can't quote statistics, but in the 1980's a McDonald's averaged around 15 employees per lunchtime shift and the food was cooked on site. Now the average McDonald's averages 7 employees per lunchtime shift and the food is reheated with microwave ovens. Both quality and service levels were cut. Can't blame this on corporate profits as most McDonald?s are franchised.

Let's put this in simple terms for those who may not understand it. If I own a McDonald's and the minimum wage doubles, won't my operating cost go up? Answer Yes. Can I change consumer demand because the minimum wage doubles? Answer No. Can I increase sales by raising my prices and offset my costs? Answer No, in fact raising prices will lower same store sells in most cases. What is the only operating lever available? Cutting the number of employees required to operate my store by finding quicker ways to prepare food, using prepackaged microwavable foods.

I think the minimum wage should be inflation indexed, but more important if a small business owner has more that 10 employees I think they should be required to participate in a program to provide group rate health insurance for employees who want to purchase it.

MAKO Wrote:So, taking your arguments to their logical conclusion, taxation set at zero would be best for the economy.

Now you are making a fallacious argument and putting words into my mouth. Did I say cut taxes to zero? I AM, however, saying that you get rid of the income tax, install a NRST at about 22 % on every consumer(which will be canceled out by the 22% embedded tax on goods and services), the economy WILL grow.

Talk about being hoisted on your own petard NC. Sheesh. The chart clearly shows a decline in the inflation adjusted minimum wage since 1979. You are trying to argue that as the minimum wage declined, so did minimum wage jobs. Brilliant. :ownd:

One thing that we must remember about this whole minimum wage thing, is that the global economy is much different than it has ever been in the past. In years gone by, the US economy was more or less in a vacuum (not completely, but close to it). With the new "Global Economy" where we are suddenly competing on a global market that did not exist 20 years ago, we compete for jobs on a global scale. I don't think any studies done previously would even be relevant to this time in history. It is common sense that if a company can produce and import products into the US for less than they can actually produce it in the US, jobs will be outsourced. Thus, driving the minimum wage up drastically (such as $10.00) will send many jobs out of the country. That is the drawbacks of a global economy and free trade.

Now, I am not saying that the result will be less minimum wage jobs. I think it will be just the opposite. We will have a lot more minimum wage jobs in the services and retail sectors, including many people that were above the minimum wage before an increase.

I think the jobs that we will lose (and we will) will be from the manufacturing sector.

Now as far as the chart that Mako posted, It shows the affect of the minimum wage on inflation, or the affect of inflation on the minimum wage, and I think I did a fair job of explaining it previously. It has nothing to do with jobs created or lost.

MAKO,

I'm not sure why you keep pigeon-holing the argument. I think we have all said pretty much said the same thing. When you raise the minimum wage $0.50/hour, you won't see the collapse of an economy...what you see is companies finding ways to internalize the costs, an increase in inflation, and in the long run, potentially greater reliance on imported goods (because they are cheaper to produce). It's not that hard to grasp...increase the minimum wage by $5/hr and you will see the decrease in minimum wage jobs, but when we're talking cents per hour, you just are not going to see a huge change (but the impacts point in that direction).