Minimum wage increase

[MrPrena]

There will be no good OR bad. it will be good and bad. Only true way to find social benefit/cost analysis is gather data afterward and compare it with economic benchmark.

[bryjcom]

Yes, but that also applies to the dollars in discussion. Hence, the increase to account for not only inflation of the currency itself, but the factors for which those dollars are intended: cost of living. This is skewed because of the non-commodity based funny money we have. Fiat currency with no backing standard is utter bullshit. It's the most glittery of unicorn farts.

When buying power is reduced, one needs more to do the same things. Look at Venezuela or the Weimar Republic and how utterly useless their cash is/was.

All in all, we are a poorer nation and the minimum wage increase as a necessity to account for other factors being inflated is merely a symptom.

It would be absurd to say someone from 1968 to say, "hell, I went through college with no debt, bought a house, and my wife stayed home, all on 30k a year!" to someone today.

Example: 1913 $1 = ~$0.4; should someone from 1913 be alive and balk at the minimum wage in 1968 (~$1.60), because "I made a nickel an hour in my day!". Well good for you. Your nickel is now worth ~$1.60 in buying power in 1968.

But other factors rose too, and not in an equal fashion, so the buying power is reduced further.

With the only standard for currency value to be whatever TPTB come up with, we'll continue to see these symptoms increase until it blows up in a massive, horrible, global economic disaster.

You're absolutely right about inflation. The difference between the two is inflation is a natural market reaction to a increase monetary supply where as the minimum wage increase is an artificial price increase not dictated or demanded by the market.

If labor prices increase naturally to $10 and hour its because of a low supply/high demand for labor. Inflation is just a "constant" of which to measure the monetary market.

[wctriumph]

I knew that some way, somehow, my tax cut would be offset or negated, the increased cost of living will be higher than any benefit from a tax cut. Thanks .gov for screwing me again.

[Zundfolge]

Economics 101:

If you raise the price of something, you get less use of it.


Progressives were sleeping when that was taught

No, they know what they're doing. They're tricking people into thinking they're "looking out for the little guy" by raising minimum wage while at the same time knowing they're increasing unemployment of the unskilled and thus creating more dependency on the state for sustenance ... its a win-win for them. They get more voters and thus more power at the expense of the very people they claim to want to help.

[bryjcom]

No, they know what they're doing. They're tricking people into thinking they're "looking out for the little guy" by raising minimum wage while at the same time knowing they're increasing unemployment of the unskilled and thus creating more dependency on the state for sustenance ... its a win-win for them. They get more voters and thus more power at the expense of the very people they claim to want to help.

Yeah... The "higher ups" probably know that and I have no doubt that they see and understand that cycle.

The everyday, "useful idiots" don't though.. These are your run of the mill democrats that you see everyday. They're the ones that say, " I feel" and " I think" and let their emotions dictate their public policy.

[theGinsue]

There will be no good OR bad. it will be good and bad. Only true way to find social benefit/cost analysis is gather data afterward and compare it with economic benchmark.

Given that this "experiment" has been going on in Seattle and other cities for a few years now, I think enough data exists to extrapolate the cause/effects here in CO. Seattle has seen higher rates of unemployment, many businesses going under and people fleeing the city to move to places nearby yet outside of the immediate imfluence of the higher wage costs (ie. Away from the higher costs passed on to consumers). At least that's the latest data I read around mid-2017.

ETA: I failed to mention that WA also has a minimum wage increase schedule which is not as "profressive" as Seattles. Apparently, Seattle-ites felt the states efforts were too little, too slow for them.

"Seattle's Minimum Wage Ordinance went into effect on April 1, 2015. The Minimum Wage Ordinance sets wages for the City of Seattle and will gradually increase to $15.00/hour and higher with adjustments for inflation. Schedule 1 employers shall pay each employee an hourly minimum wage of at least: $11.00 by April 1, 2015. $13.00 by January 1, 2016. $15.00 by January 1, 2017."

(For WA state). "Minimum wage. Initiative 1433 was designed to increase the minimum wage from $9.47 in 2016 to $11.00 in 2017, $11.50 in 2018, $12.00 in 2019, and $13.50 in 2020. Beginning in 2021, the minimum wage will be adjusted with inflation."

From this WaPo article published June 26, 2017: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5083abb5ea25

When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city's minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they'd hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.
The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They've cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.
The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.

While the study came after CO chose to emulate WA, the evidence of the failure of this sort of effort has been seen since day one. But then again, when did a Liberal ever let facts get in the way of their agenda. The end result is clear; this isn't to help low wage earners, it's to eventually give the .gov more control over more and more people.

[MrPrena]

Given that this "experiment" has been going on in Seattle and other cities for a few years now, I think enough data exists to extrapolate the cause/effects here in CO. Seattle has seen higher rates of unemployment, many businesses going under and people fleeing the city to move to places nearby yet outside of the immediate imfluence of the higher wage costs (ie. Away from the higher costs passed on to consumers). At least that's the latest data I read around mid-2017.

ETA: I failed to mention that WA also has a minimum wage increase schedule which is not as "profressive" as Seattles. Apparently, Seattle-ites felt the states efforts were too little, too slow for them.



From this WaPo article published June 26, 2017: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5083abb5ea25


While the study came after CO chose to emulate WA, the evidence of the failure of this sort of effort has been seen since day one. But then again, when did a Liberal ever let facts get in the way of their agenda. The end result is clear; this isn't to help low wage earners, it's to eventually give the .gov more control over more and more people.

Co minimum wage is increased to 9.30 to 10.20.
% increase relative to % increase relative to price indicies, cpi, and inflation is at par or below.

Now, if minimum wage is going to $15+/hr like king county seattle, it would be approximately ~350% increase of all economic growth.

Eta: as mentioned if CO goes huge change like WA did, it will definitely have huge side effects.

[Gman]

So...we're just cutting off our noses a slice at a time. The end result will be the same. The driver to increased wages should be related to the economics of doing business, not some arbitrary number pulled out of someone's lower abdomen to make themselves feel better without regard to reason or logic.

[y4m4]

I should get back into automation; putting a hamburger together with a robot can't be that hard.

Automation is coming one way or another to the service industry. It will be disruptive. This sort of thing increases the demand for it.

[GilpinGuy]

Stupid question. Do minimum wage earners actually pay income, payroll, SS, etc. taxes? After they get their "tax return" my guess is no. But my cynical mind thinks, "Higher minimum wage means more taxes collected, and lefties like to collect taxes to waste on stupid shit, so....higher minimum wage it is."