Maxing Out Minimum Wage

Kelley, you need to run for office (soon)! You construct a facts-and-figures argument about the minimum wage that's far superior to most of the stuff we hear from conservative politicians. In Ambridge (my favorite town of course), the Foodland -- the only grocery store in this town of many thousands of people -- closed. It closed, in part, because it no longer made economic sense for the place to stay open. Quite a few people lost their jobs. True, they didn't pay all that much, but they sure beat having no job. The inconvenience to people who live here, especially those without cars, is massive. In our older mill towns, like Ambridge, many of the businesses hang on by their fingernails, and they don't have much "extra" money to pay higher wages. So, what if they raise their prices? Then, people go in droves to Wal-Mart and the other discount stores. The national Dems are advertising on TV how they got through the increase in the minimum wage. I don't think the people at Foodland and other struggling stores are thanking them. Good piece.

Facts and data! Imagine that!

During the last minimum wage hike, I was like you. I was making a bit better than minimum wage. When it was hiked, the pay scale where I worked was flattened. We were all at minimum wage.

I don't recall any vast unemployment at the time. The damage done by a mandatory minimum wage is more subtle. At my workplace, we worked fewer hours. Fewer workers were expected to do more work.

When people left they were not always replaced.

People say that a mandatory minimum wage gives people the ability to feed their families. The truth is, most minimum wage jobs are "entry-level". High school and college kids work them. Spouses work them as additional income. It's rare that someone tries to support a family on them.

I'm quite confident saying this because I live in a low-income state. Even here, not too many rely on minimum wage to get by.