House Approves $15 An Hour Minimum Wage

[RAMROD 117,827]

I hope they finalize it before 2025. Cos by 2025, $15/hour still gonna means nothing as cost of living keep raising as well.

[Economy 53,027]

Just now, Woolfsmck said:

Will buisness pay $15 min wage see an increase in revenue?

If not what are the consequences?

It not as hard and fast as many above are stating.

Mc Donald's (for example) pays out the same labor costs as before...Higher wages but fewer people employed.... automated ordering and payment kiosks...

Walmart has self check out as does Lowe's and Home Depot.   

Hailing this as a victory before the real effects become evident is short sighted and opens the possibility of an eqrigous error without recourse or worse recognition. 

Might see another round of (it was their fault) do nothing stagnation.

 

Complicated

 

See jobs being slashed due to automation is actually good for economy. Those people won't stay unemployed forever, their labor can be used elsewhere so fewer people needed for more production = more productive and wealthier economy

 

However there's also the issue that there's fewer and fewer level entry jobs available which are important too for the economy so automation is bad here in that sense

 

I think when u factor in future inflation by 2025 $15/h might be what $13/h is now especially since the US dollar has probably hit a top too

 

So that seems reasonable enough to me

[Woolfsmck 2,763]

1 minute ago, RAMROD said:

I hope they finalize it before 2025. Cos by 2025, $15/hour still gonna means nothing as cost of living keep raising as well.

Unless Trade with China resumes, clothing electronics and rent all will go up.

Food might be less since no sales to China means farm products will drop.

[Economy 53,027]

5 hours ago, ChromeAngel said:

So that just means the prices of everything, like food and rent, will just go up. What does this solve? Why not try to fix the huge gap between the lower and middle class 

It still helps poor people

 

Minimum wage is just one of many cost factors for many businesses

 

Minimum wage rate does not equal cost of living rate

 

Raising minimum wage by 20% may only result in 5% more inflation. So it's still a salary equalizer for low incomes

 

So @derpmonster is partially hitting the nail on the head. Companies raising prices is not purely linked to minimum wage alone. Inflation doesn't disappear just because minimum wage is frozen

[Woolfsmck 2,763]

1 minute ago, Economy said:

Complicated

 

See jobs being slashed due to automation is actually good for economy. Those people won't stay unemployed forever, their labor can be used elsewhere so fewer people needed for more production = more productive and wealthier economy

Depends what jobs are replaced...

I works in your model if automation fills low skilled jobs and frees up skilled workers needlessly filling them.  

But it's a mixed bag...many low educated displaced workers won't find better jobs since all they are qualified to do is filled by an electronic device.

[GagaMyBlood95 9,915]

Honestly, I am afraid this could backfire as many people already said in this thread..

Companies could just go away or they could cut labor and use more technology instead of human workforce as a consequence of this but Idk.. It is more complicated than that of course, if done in the right way it would be beneficial for the people AND the country, because if one thing is not working, the other will also suffer..

[Economy 53,027]

Just now, Woolfsmck said:

Depends what jobs are replaced...

I works in your model if automation fills low skilled jobs and frees up skilled workers needlessly filling them.  

But it's a mixed bag...many low educated displaced workers won't find better jobs since all they are qualified to do is filled by an electronic device.

Hence why I said in this case it's a mixed bag. We still need low skill level entry jobs in the economy and that's what the negative side effect with automation can be

 

The job itself becoming outdated and done by a machine is a good thing. It means we no longer need to use up human labor for that task and we can produce more 

 

Modern society only has so many people work in the service industry, entertainment industry, restaurants etc because we can thanks to technology. We don't need everyone to be farmers and do basic tasks anymore cause we can do that with far fewer people

 

Automation contrary to common belief has brought prosperity and a wealthier economy not poverty and unemployment

 

However we've also reached a critical point where so many jobs require skills that skills mismatch is now an issue. There's far fewer level entry jobs and a lot more technical jobs people aren't qualified for

 

It's not the job that's taken by automation that's bad in itself. It's the fact that it changes the economy in a way that we haven't been keeping up with education wise

 

I believe it's contributing to income inequality in the sense that companies can mass produce goods and services cheaper, the educated people that have the technical skills in shortage get payed well because there's competition in those fields... But the level entry jobs that are disappearing are too few so it's easy to fill the minimum wage jobs since there's a large pool of job dealers

 

I would say the peak benefits of automation maybe peaked by the 1970s and ever since our education and skills haven't kept up with the pace of changes and the result is that the bottom 50% to 60% of earners are no longer seeing real inflation adjusted wage growth

 

Automation still makes the economy bigger and wealthier but the benefits are no longer being distributed to the lower income earners

 

[TheSlash 14,539]

As long as it isn't handled the same way Germany did. Here there are more ways to avoid paying minimum wage than companies actually paying them    

[Whispering 18,865]

Y’all arguing over this like McConnell is ever going to let this see the light of day in the Senate.

It is dead on arrival. 

Not going to happen. 

[Economy 53,027]

1 minute ago, GagaMyBlood95 said:

Honestly, I am afraid this could backfire as many people already said in this thread..

Companies could just go away or they could cut labor and use more technology instead of human workforce as a consequence of this but Idk.. It is more complicated than that of course, if done in the right way it would be beneficial for the people AND the country, because if one thing is not working, the other will also suffer..

Most minimum wage jobs are in the service, entertainment and food sector tho so those aren't companies that just leave

 

It will wipe out the most inneficient low profit small businesses. That's good in the sense that the ones that loose their jobs may work for a more productive company that produces better and can afford their higher wage

 

But it may kill some smaller companies that recently started and had long term potential

 

This has positives and negatives

 

Automation as I said above also has benefits it's not only bad. Productivity doesn't grow if we can't produce more with less labor

 

In fact with baby boomers retiring and labor force share of population shrinking... We will need all the technological gains we can get to maintain economic productive capacity and our standard of living

 

In short, more people doing nothing means we need more machines to take over or the economy shrinks

[PartySick 173,854]

1 hour ago, ChromeAngel said:

So that just means the prices of everything, like food and rent, will just go up. What does this solve? Why not try to fix the huge gap between the lower and middle class 

I like using Australia as the example of what happens when min. wage goes up.

The cost of living there is 17% higher but the min. wage is more than 200% higher ($16 and some change in USD, compared to $7.25). It's worth it imo.

The real problem is that until we stop allowing people to hoard billions, amounts of cash they couldn't spend in one life time, we'll always have poverty problems.

[Economy 53,027]

54 minutes ago, Morphine Prince said:

If your business can only survive with slave wages then I hope it shuts down  

It's funny cuz most people who hate Corporations are also the type of ppl to say this...

 

But big companies usually can afford higher wages... It's smaller family companies or new companies that get hit the hardest with this

[Morphine Prince 109,838]

Just now, Economy said:

It's funny cuz most people who hate Corporations are also the type of ppl to say this...

 

But big companies usually can afford higher wages... It's smaller family companies or new companies that get hit the hardest with this

IF something like this would ever pass I’m sure it would be gradual and big corporations would be ok. Small businesses would have time to adjust. It wouldn’t be an overnight thing.

It’s funny because some like to think only big corporations are evil when in fact, small businesses owners are just as bad in many cases. I know from what I’ve seen personally. 

[Hybrid AT 78]

7 minutes ago, Whispering said:

Y’all arguing over this like McConnell is ever going to let this see the light of day in the Senate.

It is dead on arrival. 

Not going to happen. 

[Economy 53,027]

Just now, Morphine Prince said:

IF something like this would ever pass I’m sure it would be gradual and big corporations would be ok. Small businesses would have time to adjust. It wouldn’t be an overnight thing.

It’s funny because some like to think only big corporations are evil when in fact, small businesses owners are just as bad in many cases. I know from what I’ve seen personally. 

Oh I know. And smaller companies get away more easily with breaking laws

 

My first job was a really small business and they didn't pay me vacation pay for example which was illegal

 

But yeah as long as it's gradual should be fine

 

Here in Ontario min wage jumped from $11/h to $14/h suddenly...

 

We did see a pretty fast increase in self checkouts and stuff... But overall on the grand scheme of things the unemployment rate hardly changed and inflation was little affected...

 

So I think it did more good than bad. The people at the bottom saw good gains

 

Mind u this was done when economic recovery was really taking off... I don't know if the negative sides would maybe have been more pronounced had the sudden increase been done during slower economic growth