Raising the Minimum wage will simply move the value of costs and services up. My father said that most laborers received $0.25 an hour during the depression. The blue plate special at the diner was $0.20, and coffee was $0.05 or a quarter total. The current minimum wage is roughly $7.25, check the cost (with tax) of a good sized McDonald’s lunch…

I’m obviously against messing with the current value of the minimum wage, or for that matter having a minimum wage. There are other forces at work either allowing you to live well, or not to. One thing is that the average franchise fast food worker doesn’t seem to be around long enough to bother with name recognition. If you work at McDonald’s, THEY believe that they can replace you in say 20 minutes. Unfortunately, THEIR perception is what counts.

We could raise the minimum wage to $20.00 an hour, then a Whopper with Medium Fries and a Medium Drink would cost $20.00. I’m sure you’ll all feel better now right?

Mike?

The top reason given for raising the minimum wage, and for that matter having one, is that a minimum wage assists the working poor. But while it is an appealing idea that everyone should earn a “decent” wage, it is misguided to think that increasing wages is as easy as passing a law. If it were, then why not pass a minimum wage law requiring an hourly wage of $100 or $1,000 dollars, and then, everyone would be rich.

In his book, “How Capitalism Saved America” Thomas DiLorenzo suggests, “It doesn’t make economic sense for a fast-food restaurant to pay a sixteen-year-old more than, say, $5 an hour if he or she doesn’t produce at least $5 an hour in profits for the restaurant. If the minimum-wage law is set at $6.00 per hour, then the restaurant would lose $1 for every hour the teenager is employed. Since restaurants are not in business to lose money, they will not employ such teenagers.” The net result of the minimum-wage law in this scenario is unemployment and the missed opportunity for the teen to gain valuable on-the-job work experience and the skills needed for a better paying job.

Nobel laureate economist Friedrich Hayek has written, “Socialism has never and nowhere been…a working-class movement.” and he suggests that anticapitalist ideas begin with the “intellectual” class that deals in what he refers to as “professional secondhand dealers in ideas”. DeLirenzo concludes that, “Despite the remarkable success of capitalism in alleviating poverty, raising living standards, expanding economic opportunity, and generally enabling scores of millions to live longer, healthier, and more peaceful lives, a large segment of the intellectual class has long been critical of it. Many intellectuals still advocate socialism even though it is well known that socialism has been economic poison everywhere it has been implemented.”

Does anyone believe that governments are truly good at setting our wages and the prices we pay for goods and services? I believe people who cherish liberty are right to oppose governments attempt to infringe on their freedom to choose what they are willing to work for and what their employers are willing to pay. I believe freedom works!

For example, in the case of the restaurant industry (although the chains don’t have this problem like the mom-and-pop stores), there is just a minimum number of workers needed and giving someone a raise isn’t going to allow them to place and fill orders any quicker than is already being done.

So, while some places will simply absorb the additional labor costs, others who were perhaps already on the financial edge or considering closing up for other reasons will simply hit the close button and everyone is out of a job.