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Comment by aplummer | Hacker News Reader

> Without the minimum wage that abysmally educated person would be more likely to get some amount of productive work and learn skills which would make them qualified for other jobs with higher pay.

Wow that is a very controversial opinion. With a higher minimum wage, that person would have disposable time they could use for whatever they want, including study.

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What good is a $15/hr minimum wage for a person only capable of producing $10/hr in value? It's off to the unemployment line with them. Without a minimum wage more employers would be willing to hire completely unskilled workers and provide them with on-the-job training. The higher the minimum wage, the more like they are to demand you already have the skills and experience necessary to be highly productive on day one.

Having to work too many hours due to a low minimum wage is a common reason low earners don't have the energy to try to study and move up the ladder. So I agree, removing the minimum wage doesn't sound like a good answer at all.

It's all well and good to want to study but for some their are many roadblocks. Not all bootstraps are made at the same length and some are just a little too short to reach.

Working is studying to move up the ladder. There's a reason a senior developer makes more than a junior developer. Even if you work a completely no-skill job doing something like sweeping floors... if you show up on time, work hard, etc. you will get references for better jobs with more opportunity to grow. Or perhaps if you do a good job sweeping floors, maybe you'll get the opportunity to get promoted to working the stock room, and then managing the stock room, etc.

Even as a high wage earner it's difficult

I think you're making the assumption that the person you're talking about would get the job without being out-competed by someone else? Higher paying jobs have more competition.

Relatively higher paying jobs have relatively more competition. The lowest paying jobs (minimum wage) will always have the least competition.

This does not seem to be a universal truth. Time and again I see news stories of grocery store type jobs (or McDonalds) getting hundreds of applicants.

That's because the minimum wage is higher than the market value for many of those people's productivity. Without a minimum wage anyone willing to do work would more quickly be able to find paying work. And anyone who is productive will quickly move up the pay scale.

The opposite is true.

That's why they pay so much; it's econ 101.

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