I think what's being missed here is the function of a minimum wage is preventing workers from selling their labor below cost, just as we might attempt to prevent companies from selling products below cost under certain circumstances.
I understand that we want people not to starve, but surely paying them their labor value is better than them not working at all.
If the main issue is the difference between what their labor is worth and the necessities to survive, why is it the employer who should subsidize them?
The reason we prevent companies from selling below cost is because it is an unfair advantage to those companies-a very different concern than workers below cost.
This is beside the fact that the threshold for 'below cost' is not an economic reality, but an entirely arbitrary and unrelated moral position.
Also you seem to have the idea that working a job is somehow inherently good. Some of them just are not and are a waste that are actively preventing people from working on what is necessary.
Example, a store clerk paid more than a teacher despite shortage of teachers. Garbage disposal specialists being notoriously underpaid because we feel like it. Research being underfunded compared to development compared to management.
Finding a place that's paid actual labor value is almost impossible in fact, as if the system based on maximizing profit is not optimizing for that but for lowest possible salary... You can compute a rough estimate of a labor value by an input-output model. Note that more things being produced is an actual negative value if they're not needed or sold.
Suppose having a line manager makes an employee 5% more efficient than not, but the gain falls the more employees each manager has to manage, even potentially becoming negative in some cases. Yet, "market forces" which is other managers set themselves a high salary.
I dont think the work is underpaid. If the price is low due to supply and demand, it is not underpaid, it is just low value labor. If we want people to have more money than their labor is worth, then the people who want them to have money should give it to them, or help them increase the value of their labor.
>Also you seem to have the idea that working a job is somehow inherently good.
Not at all. I think that self sufficiency and people taking care of themselves is good. Working and making money is good in that it reduces the need for others to subsidize and pay for their lives.
>Some of them just are not and are a waste that are actively preventing people from working on what is necessary.
I think this is a inaccurate and paternalistic view. low paid jobs are not a barrier. People can and do find better jobs. Destroying a job does not create a better job.
>Examples
Nobody in the examples underpaid. These are just examples of labor that has low value (supply and demand). If garbage specialists are underpaid, it isn't because "we feel like it", it is because it is low skill and anyone can do it. If teachers are underpaid, it is because we don't want to pay more for higher quality teachers.
You seem to be coming at things from a Marxist theory of labor value, which isn't workable.
Because it's a government policy. If the government wants everyone to earn $25 an hour, the government should pay for it by providing a universal basic income, rather than forcing a third party to pay for it. This would also ensure that people that can't do work worth $25/hour can still survive.
The government should also be the one paying for universal healthcare, rather than (again) foisting the responsibility onto employers and forcing people to choose between being exploited in a job and losing health care for their family.