> I agree that a lost job should carry some kind of premium compared to a total increase in wages paid
I don't think it's nearly that clear. Western nations are at a near record low unemployment rate. We should want to remove low paying jobs.
I don't think it's nearly that clear. Western nations are at a near record low unemployment rate. We should want to remove low paying jobs.
Are you implying that there are people in the world who just can't do anything productive enough to be worth $20/hour? That they are so useless that this was the only thing worth doing with them?
That seems fucking insane. If that's true, we have a huge problem with misallocation of value.
Around 10% of the population does not score highly enough on the ASVAB (an aptitude test for the military) to qualify for military service. The military, like any large employer, has an awful lot of jobs that require minimal skills and aptitude and for 10% to be Category V [unqualified for military service] based on aptitude, I would expect they wouldn't be the employees to create $20+/hr in value for private sector or other government employers either.
Not every job is the military. Most jobs are in fact not the military. Not qualifying for military service does not render you worthless in the general economy. Furthermore, being worthless in the general economy does not render you worthless in society.
I wasn't qualified for military service in my country, not because of intelligence but some physical conditions. I became a banker.
Ignore the mock outrage of my sibling comment, they are uninformed.
You are absolutely right that some people aren't capable of work valuable enough to pay at least the minimum wage, and in fact there are programs in place specifically to serve these people. The Fair Labor Standards Act allows qualifying employers to hire people with disabilities (including mental disabilities) for less than minimum wage. This is specifically to ensure that employment opportunities still exist for such people, who otherwise could not provide labor worth at least the minimum wage. In some cases, other state programs may pay part of the disabled workers income, effectively the state subsidizing the employment of the otherwise unemployable.
The real problem I think comes from people who are able-bodied and mentally capable, with no legitimate disability, who are just unwilling to take the jobs available to them because it doesn't fit their desired lifestyle (e.g. let them be lazy and keep their hands clean.) Entry level jobs in manufacturing settings have better pay than being a cashier at a burger joint. A first time factory job for a 19 year old highschool dropout with no developed skills but a willingness to show up on time and try hard will almost always pay more than the minimum wage, but finding people who are willing to even apply to such jobs can be challenging due to perceptions of social status and entitlement. These are people who have no legitimate disability but are unfit to work due to their poor attitudes towards working. Our system doesn't accommodate them, unlike people with legitimate disabilities, because the general consensus is those people need to get bitch slapped by reality and man the fuck up.
I think it's more likely (because that's what I'm doing, and I expect others to do the same) that we are rejecting your market based framing, because it unnecessarily restricts good political action. I understand that wage can be viewed through the lens of the labor market, even Karl Marx knew that. I just don't think that's a very important or useful lens to view it through.
It's much like viewing political climate action, or product safety action, through the lens of the "market". You can do it, it's just not very useful for setting public policy.
The "labor market" didn't get children out of the factories, restrictions on that market did.
Lowering the minimum wage for people with disabilities creates more jobs for people with disabilities, demonstrating the whole point. Higher minimum wage price less capable labor out of jobs.
I'd like you to point at the "mock outrage". If it's anything it's very real outrage. Real outrage that this disgusting example of a military IQ test as the decider of the worth of a person, is being perpetuated by otherwise intelligent persons. You cannot point at an IQ test and say "that proves this person is worthless" because the next step for that line of reasoning is eugenics. That's where the outrage comes from.
With that out of the way, I can address your point. A point that's much more interesting than what you're responding to. It's true that there are differences in people's abilities. Some people have mental disabilities, some people have physical disabilities. Those disabilities can affect us in different ways in different tasks. You can't neatly stack people in a gradient of ability, because tons of different tasks require different kinds and combinations of abilities. I think we agree so far.
My problem starts when you then extrapolate that into "for such people, who otherwise could not provide labor worth at least the minimum wage". Firstly you pick the symbolic "minimum wage" which abstracts away the actual value. That implies, at least to me, that you think those people would be unable to provide "labor worth the minimum wage" no matter what the minimum wage was. That obviously silly, but I'd encourage you to fix that with a number.
Secondly, and much more importantly though. I think that your argument reveals a skewed sense of value. My argument is not, and was never, that there can be no difference between what peoples abilities. My argument isn't even in this case that disabled people should be paid if they had no disability. My argument is instead that paying somebody able, less than the cost of a parking spot in New York City is ridiculous. The core of my argument is that the normal wage should be so high that the potentially reduced wage for disabled people would still be above $20/hr.
The outrage you're detecting isn't at the revelation that disabled people exist. It's that we are discussing paying real people actually working $20/hr as some sort of unreasonable expense.
That way they aren't "dependent on government aid". They get to work for a fair comparable wage, avoid having to deal with too much additional paperwork, and don't have to be constantly faced with a stigma of being worth less. They are treated equally, and the employer gets to handle their crap on the back end.
It's not some insurmountable gotcha to drag people with a handicap into the conversation.
Condemn?
You mean take care of the least among us, which is, as many have observed, a KPI for a just society.
And so in your ideal world, if they can make a positive contribution, just not enough to live on, we can let them live on the street? Having a "Let them eat cake"[0] moment, are we?
Who is to say that folks being subsidized because they don't have the means or wherewithal to support themselves can't make a positive contribution?
Does that contribution have to be that they mop floors, clean toilets or flip burgers?
Perhaps they might contribute positively to society in other ways, just perhaps not those that have monetary (and ones that don't allow them to pay rent or eat healthy at that) rewards?
You know what's humiliating? Living on the street. Rooting through garbage cans to find food to eat. Having to listen to wealthy, entitled folks tell them they're worth less than everyone else and that they should be happy that they're "contributing" to get scraps from their tables. Forcing those with nothing to jump through hoops just to feed themselves and their children. Those things are much more humiliating than getting a helping hand to make ends meet so one can have a roof and electricity and maybe even food.
Regardless, instead of arguing over which commercial property takes which spot and trying to engineer the perfect fit with the limitations we are dealing with, we should be increasing the amount of places that are zoned for commerce. This will bring increased demand for labor, which will increase wages.
Worth noting that California’s regime extends to fast food industry exclusively.
Presumably some of those job losses were absorbed by industries still paying minimum wage - retail, construction, warehousing, etc.
Presumably if those losses were not absorbed by those low-skill sectors, the job loss figure would've been higher.
So I guess, as you said, data is conclusive.
Why would raising fast food minimum wage create these businesses?
The primary effect of these types of laws is that businesses that employ fast food workers are less profitable, and thus when they compete against other businesses for a given lot, will bid less for the land. If the marginal buyer changes, it would have to do so to a business that relies less on minimum wage fast food workers.
I recently had the mayor of a major west coast city tell me this was a permanent trend, that there was no way to reverse the loss of these small businesses and that the disposition of all that real estate was a major issue, compounded by a loss of basic neighborhood services like groceries that used to operate out of this real estate.
The future isn’t other businesses that somehow magically pay higher wages. The future city planners are seeing is all delivery all the time from warehouse districts, and ghost towns of commercial real estate for which there is no purpose. Even city centers are starting to turn into suburbs in terms of occupancy density.