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Implications Of Raising The Minimum Wage

There has been a retraction for this blog. Some of the information was incorrect and has been rectified.

Blog – Retraction for Implications Of Raising The Minimum Wage 3/30/2016

February 3rd, 2016

Thank you Xxxx Xxxxxx for the request.

Everyone wants to know if raising the minimum wage would cause inflation. The answer is it’s up to employers. They can try to recoup the wages paid out through consumer price hikes: boom inflation. Still it is a capitalist system we live in and companies have to try to keep prices down to compete. If the past is any predictor of the future minimum wage increases should not cause significant inflation but there has never been an increase as high as the “Fight For $15” is trying to accomplish now. There are opinions that state there will be massive inflation and there are others that say any increases will be negligible.

What possibly could be the politics for opposing a minimum wage increase. Is it that big business can’t afford it? An increase to $10.10 was supported by 90% of Democrats, 71% of Independents, and only 53% of Republicans. I don’t know how some people can rationalize the monetary stratification that is present in this Country. If the wealthy folks were paid by ability some would have to outperform Superman for what they’re getting paid. It isn’t right. If a person works their 40 hours a week they should make enough to live with a few extras to treat the family.

With Occupational Parenting this is all nonsense anyway. We steal from the young when one parent can’t be at home to raise their own child. If the parents work different shifts it steals from the family dynamic and they are ships passing in the night. People like to boast about how tough they had it as a kid. STOP! It’s not a competition. If you had it tough and turned out OK it doesn’t dictate that everyone should be able to do the same. We are not all created equal but we should all have equal rights. The Fight Against 15 is an article that states that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will decrease employment hurting those it was intended to help. By the same argument would lowering the minimum wage help them even more by creating jobs. There are positions that must be filled or productivity will drop. I don’t think employers are just filling unneeded positions because they have a lot of extra money laying around.

The bottom line is greed. It’s blocking the redistribution of wealth and the numbers support this statement. The minimum wage was at a record high when compared to the cost of living in 1968. Since that time the wage has eroded 67% while profits have increased 300%. The purchasing power of a dollar is the real issue here. If the trend in 1968 had kept to the same rate the minimum wage today would be $16 an hour and if the trend had kept with worker productivity it would be $22 an hour according to  Raising the Minimum Wage Boosts Growth and Does Not Cause Unemployment. If the minimum wage was increased to $15 dollars an hour and inflation rises to defeat that same purchasing power we’ve accomplished absolutely nothing.

Walmart (God bless them if they start to use American based resources) made 482.2 billion after taxes and overhead in 2015. (See Retraction for Implications Of Raising The Minimum Wage) That’s enough to buy 3,213,333 houses at $150,000 a piece and if they do this every year in a decade they could purchase over 32,000,000 homes or pay 6 month’s rent (at $700.00 a month) for every family in America. If Walmart paid every American employee $15 an hour they would still clear $438,329,000,000. If they included overseas employees they would still net $416,480,000,000. Imagine, that’s paying 2.1 million employees $15 an hour and still clearing over 416 billion dollars. I don’t want to pick on just Walmart. I like Walmart and do much of my shopping there. Here is a list of largest companies by revenue. Inflation certainly doesn’t have to be a result.

Some have brought to light that $15 is not the same wage in Mississippi as it is in wealthier states. I think this is a good point and one that can easily be resolved by a living wage. The living wage would of course be enough to live on without state or federal assistance. I personally think it should be enough to buy a car and pay for gas, insurance, and registration. It would be equalized by basing it on the cost of living in each state. A living wage should have an automatic increase based on the the cost of living increases. The term working poor would be redefined as we know it. There’d be none. Everyone would be making $31,200 a year relatively speaking. Maybe $31,200 across all the states would make for more mobility. I don’t know. I’m not an economist I’m just trying to stimulate them. Big business raising the price on items would only trigger an increase in the buying power of the individual with an automatic increase. The subsidies the Government now pays out to the working poor should go towards helping the small business person to battle inflation If need be. The informed population should patronized smaller businesses so that they won’t all be replaced by corporate giants. I make sure that I shop at the smallest grocery store in town from time to time because it’s what makes capitalism work at it’s best. There is consumer responsibility that should be widely practiced and discussed. Pass a living wage into law and practice good consumer-ship. That’s not very complicated. Until next time, keep your homes well.

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