Minimum Rage

Don’t get me wrong. Don’t misinterpret what I’m going to say. I have absolutely no problem with raising the Federal Minimum Wage, but I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I don’t understand why it was such and issue in the recent elections, and I don’t know why people would cast a vote based on that. It’s not like there are really very many voting age people who would be affected by this and there are even fewer registered voters who would be affected.

The rallying cry has been that no one can support a family on minimum wage and you’ll get no argument from me. People probably can’t even support themselves very well on minimum wage. Fortunately, there aren’t very many people trying. Don’t believe me? Well take this test:

First of all, go find a full-time job that actually pays the Federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. You’ll quickly discover that there aren’t really that many full-time jobs that pay minimum wage. The vast majority of minimum wage jobs are part-time positions and if you’re only looking for a part-time position, then you aren’t trying very hard to support yourself. Next, once you’ve found your full-time minimum wage job, look around at the other jobs that are available and ask yourself, “Why would I take this job in the first place?” Looking at the job market, you’ll probably discover another job opening that will pay more than minimum wage. The final thing to do is to investigate the pay-scale progression of the company that pays minimum wage. What you’ll find is that after 3 to 6 months of employment, the employee will receive a raise and will no longer be earning minimum wage.

So what does all of this tell you about the people to earn minimum wage? Well, it tells you that they are either working part-time, or they haven’t been working at their job for very long. So what will happen if the Federal minimum wage is raised? The initial starting pay for employees of companies who pay minimum wage will go up. That’s it. The few people who go to work for minimum wage will earn a little more for a few months. No one else’s pay will go up. There won’t be any benefit to anyone who has been working full-time for more than 6 months. In the end, the price of a burger at McDonalds or Burger King may go up a few pennies, but not much more will happen.

It’s hard for people to get by on a working class wage these days. There is no denying it, but raising the minimum wage isn’t going to change that.