Upset About Unemployment? Thank A Democrat For The Minimum Wage

• March 7, 2009

Ever since the (then) new Democrat Congress decided to jack up the minimum wage I’ve been pointing out that a higher minimum wage causes unemployment, particularly among low-skill, low-wage workers.
Or, put another way, the demographic that can least afford to go unemployed.
Today, in the midst of all the dark news about layoffs and unemployment all over the economy, it’s worth noting that the people who are hardest hit right now are the people at the bottom of the pay scale.

While every group of workers has been hit by massive layoffs, the recession has been particularly hard on the most vulnerable groups: young workers and minorities. Teenage unemployment soared to 21.6 percent last month, while the rate among Hispanics lept (sic) by 1.2 percentage points to 10.9 percent.

Now, in an economy as complex as ours, no effect has just one cause. When it comes time to make cuts, low-skill and low-wage workers are the easiest ones to make. But it’s not at all difficult to conclude that because Congress artificially inflated the cost of low-skill labor the situation is being needlessly exacerbated.
Proponents of the minimum wage argue over and over again that by mandating higher wages for those at the bottom of the pay scale we make their lives better. I would say that by inflating the price of low-skill labor we diminish demand for low skill labor. Less demand for low skill labor means fewer jobs.
So which situation is better? Some jobs available at a lower wage, or no jobs available at any wage?

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://Array SHADY

Any minimum wage job is for entry level to the work force. High school kids, retired and semi-retired,for extra money.
Any one who was cheering when the minimum wage went up, can also cheer for less jobs. A small restaurant in some cases has high overhead. Penilty business tax, food, etc. The owner has a choice, raise price of food, less business, people go some where cheaper. Or lay people off to compensate for the increase in minimum wage.
People can’t live on minimum wage, they need to go tech school, collage, or get training for a better paying job.
crshedd

you have convinced me, rob.

if the damn democrats ( since the senate vote was 94-3, i guess 1 or 2 republicans voted for it http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/01/news/economy/minimum_wage/index.htm ) hadn’t raised the minimum wage i would NEVER have lost 1/3 of my retirement.

thank you for being such a watchdog!
LJ

Raising the minimum wage is not all bad at least for the government. The government benefits when the minimum wage goes up because payroll taxes are paid on gross wages. Raising the minimum wage is nothing more than a tax increase.
jimmypop

when i ran a restaurant during school i kept extra crew because they didnt cost me anything and didnt hurt my bottom line. now i know exactly what i’d do; id send the extras home as fast as possible and work the rest harder if things picked up.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

As a past small business owner I found it extremely difficult to justify hiring some of my workers at $8.55 an hour. It was more economical for me to elevate that position and distribute the work among the remaining staff

Minimum wage, at least in WA state is NOT a livable wage.

At almost $9.00 an hour, Washington state has the highest min wage in the country
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

All that stuff about minimum wage is essentially an empty argument when you factor in what the Left has been doing to prevent the enforcement in any way of illegal immigration laws. Right down to hosting sanctuary cities where cops and other functionaries are forbidden from inquiring into the legal status of the perps they’ve just arrested or who is sitting in front of their desk, asking for Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college tuition assistance and so on.

The practical reality is that those Americans who would normally be making minimum wage, at least for a little while, can’t get jobs, because now the jobs for hotel and resort staff, lawn and road crews, construction and menial labor, agriculture and other fields, have now been largely taken over by organizations hiring almost exclusively illegal aliens and paying them sub-minimum wage under the table.

The Americans who are trying to get such jobs, are pretty much SOL.

Sorry.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1412028 pberg

Minimum wage, at least in WA state is NOT a livable wage.
groetzinger

This argument can be put on the side of “Drill Baby Drill”
It is false.
Why no mention of the brainstorm idea of a spending freeze from your heros.
rightwing conspiracy

Minimum wage, at least in WA state is NOT a livable wage.

So why bother? I think you make their point?
johnnytv

Any jobs available at the moment is a plus. Yes it would be better for wages to be higher but it’s more important to keep as many people employed as possible, we can’t risk a huge number of further redundancies at the moment.

Just my opinion but I’d rather be paid less than nothing at all.
gustave776

Minimum wages are not designed to be a living wage. This wage is for people to start at and work their way up in the company as their skills increase and they become harder to replace. If minimum wage was a living wage, this would put all out young teenage workers on the street because the employers could not afford to use inexperienced workers for unskilled common labor positions. This in turn, gives an incentive to the younger and unskilled worker to gain more education or acquire a skilled trade to improve their lot in life. If the living wage is automatic, this would lower the creative pride and would kill the incentive to improve.

Remember: Capitalism Works.
gustave776

Rezistik, you are scum. Maybe you should go through trauma as Anna has and not be given a painkiller for your discomfort.
But that would be called torture and we couldn’t have that could we.
jimmypop

No, and just imagine what it would be if there weren’t a minimum wage?

yes, i can see all the people lining up to work for $2 per hour….. riiiiiight.

mcdonalds does not even pay minimum wage and they give you your costume as well. my raunt never paid minimum for more than one month. when i started there i made min for exactly two weeks.

if you have a min wage, servers wage and training wages need to abolished.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

How many conservatives aren’t pill popping scum? -realitybereftrezistik

That’s right! Liberals never use drugs. That’s a well known fact! /sarcasm
Spartacus

^ if you don’t give a shit, why should a perspective employer?
Spartacus

Minimum wage, at least in WA state is NOT a livable wage.

Minimum wage can be set at a higher than federal level by the state, if the state chooses to do so, but federal income taxes apply regardless of the wage. Bottom line is if you want better wages, better yourself by making yourself a more desirable employee.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

oops, I mean eliminate not elevate.
Sheeesh.. maybe I shouldn’t comment while on Percocet
:red:
Rezistik

oops, I mean eliminate not elevate.
Sheeesh.. maybe I shouldn’t comment while on Percocet

How many conservatives aren’t pill popping scum?

Apparently not many, I figured Limbaugh could be an anomaly but it seems more and more like Cons need a way out…yet I am sure you’d say pot was terrible and immoral. Hypocrite.

As for hiring more people, so you’d rather make everyone work like slaves instead of just paying fair wages? This is what I could never understand about cons, or at least the second thing after their need to escape through pills, is their love of their boss. They seem to hate the workers/consumers and glorify the boss…
Rezistik

Minimum wage, at least in WA state is NOT a livable wage.

No, and just imagine what it would be if there weren’t a minimum wage?

Here in Michigan it is much of the same, you’d be lucky to make 800 to a 1000 a month, or just enough to pay rent basically.

Without a minimum wage people would be on even more welfare…so isn’t a minimum wage good? It requires employers to be fair to employees and keeps people off welfare. In my books that’s all good.
http://suitepotato.blogspot.com/ sayanything-4808

So which situation is better? Some jobs available at a lower wage, or no jobs available at any wage?

Conservative: Some jobs available at a lower wage

Liberal: no jobs available at any wage

But you knew that of course.

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