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Comment by footoverhand | Hacker News Reader

If 40 hours working at minimum wage is not enough to live on, shouldn't the minimum wage be raised?

Why are people so eager to make it harder for poor people to get jobs by forcing price controls onto employers?

footoverhand: I want as many people to be able to work as possible. If you think it is too hard for people to live on the salaries that are available at their skill level, then by all means we can talk about improving the social safety net... but forcing companies to lay off people to maintain their salary budgets through salary controls is NOT a good way to help poor people.

I don't necessarily agree, but couldn't this same rationale be used to argue against any minimum wage whatsoever?

Yes, I believe minimum wage is in general bad for poor people.

No, I don't have a PhD in Economics and am willing to accept I could be wrong in this assessment.

what do you think of the idea of a maximum wage. the most you could make if you are not an owner or partner in a for profit company?

Depends. Should minimum wage be what it takes a single parent with two kids to live on or should it be what a college student looking for beer money needs to live on?

Clearly there's a difference between minimum wage and living wage. What that difference is exactly eludes me, however.

According to this living wage calculator http://livingwage.mit.edu/, the living wage for a family of 4 where I live (suburbs of DC) is about $50K. That sounds like a lot, but actually living here there is no way we could survive on that. They only calculate $464 a month for medical for a family of 4. I'm lucky in that my wife has ridiculous health insurance through her job. When we didn't have that our share of the premium was more than that, let alone copays, OTC drugs, etc. Also, the living wage calculation does not account for clothes, school, or about 50 other things that would come up in a family with kids.

Minimum of course, is $7.25.

I think we should have a maximum wage for software engineers... say, $50,000 a year... and have startups in the Valley pay the difference into a fund to augment the wages of Walmart employees.

EDIT: Oh, no one here likes this idea? Imagine that!

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