Minimum Wage Rises, Sky Does Not Fall

[one...two...tree 2,762]

When I flew to Seattle last week, airport security gave me trouble over the four-pound ham I was carrying. Several TSA officials gathered to consider the question of whether ham is a "gel," to which I retorted: If ham is a gel, so am I. I suggested that they biopsy it for hidden box-cutters. I offered to divide it into 21 three-ounce chunks, each appropriately stowed in a Ziploc baggie. But no deal.

So I broke down and told them I was flying into what I had been warned would be a food-free zone: Washington, with the highest minimum wage in the country ($7.63 an hour), could hardly be expected to have affordable restaurants or a functioning economy of any kind. Notable conservative economists have almost unanimously predicted that an increased minimum wage would result in wild price increases and mass unemployment, and I had a suitcase full of clippings to prove it.

I would be entering a culinary wasteland, facing fast food meals of $20 and up, and if I tried to fall back on soup kitchens, thousands of unemployed restaurant workers would be lined up ahead of me.

So imagine my surprise when I arrived, ham-less, in Seattle to find it fully functional, if not positively bustling. Restaurants were packed, and I could still get a grilled salmon sandwich for $7.95 at a cafeteria-style place overlooking the sound. My hotel was amply staffed with congenial people and - perhaps only because of the un-Seattle-like cold, no beggars approached me on the streets. Nor can you say the dire effects of a higher minimum wage just haven't had time to set in: Washington raised its minimum wage above the federal level of $5.15 an hour about a decade ago.

In fact, according to a January 9th article New York Times, Washington's economy is booming, generating 90,000 new jobs in the last year. Even business groups have stopped griping about the state's minimum wage. The article quotes a pizza store owner in the western part of the state: ''We're paying the highest wage we've ever had to pay, and our business is still up more than 11 percent over last year.''

My next stops were in California, with a minimum wage of $7.50 an hour, slated to go up to $8 next year. Again, no imported ham was required. Sidewalk taquerias flourished, as well, or so I'm told, as those celebrity sushi spots where you can pay $100 for a bite of fresh chum.

Overall, 29 states have raised their minimum wages above $5.15 an hour, and -- lo! -- the sky has not fallen. Could we have some apologies, please, from the economists who predicted a retail apocalypse?

Not that a $7 or even $8 minimum wage is utopian. My book Nickel and Dimed is often wrongly described as an account of my attempts to live on the minimum wage. Far from it; I averaged $7 an hour, which, according to the federal government, is well above the poverty level for a family of one. But I couldn't get by on that, thanks to the high rents even in trailer parks and residential motels, and I never went near pricey housing markets like San Francisco or Seattle. In the Seattle area, a "living wage" (calculated to reflect local housing and other basic costs) is $11.89 an hour for a single person and $25.35 for a family of three - more than three times the current minimum wage.

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of 14 books, most recently "Dancing in the streets: A History of Collective Joy."

[GaryC 7]

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

There is no moral justification for ANY minimum wage. It keeps people down and increases unemployment. It will make life harder for the ones who haven't figured out that the way to success is not a government mandate but self improvement.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

There is no moral justification for ANY minimum wage. It keeps people down and increases unemployment. It will make life harder for the ones who haven't figured out that the way to success is not a government mandate but self improvement.

On the other hand, there is no moral justification for a company paying one employee millions of dollars for poor performance and piling on hundreds of millions more when letting that employee go while compensating another at wages that won't allow that employee to sustain him/herself regardless of the latter employee's performance. There's got to be a check and balance system. The market has proven unable to provide it.

Edited January 24, 2007 by ET-US2004

[heishe 2]

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

There is no moral justification for ANY minimum wage. It keeps people down and increases unemployment. It will make life harder for the ones who haven't figured out that the way to success is not a government mandate but self improvement.

On the other hand, there is no moral justification for a company paying one employee millions of dollars for poor performance and piling on hundreds of millions more when letting that employee go while compensating another at wages that won't allow that employee to sustain him/herself regardless of the latter employee's performance. There's got to be a check and balance system. The market has proven unable to provide it.

Where I live, the market has made minimum wage mostly irrelevant, because everyone gets more. Almost everyone. Still, I totally support raising the statutory minimum. It doesn't discourage self-improvement or hard work. People trying to live on minimum wage do not have a cushy lifestyle, and people who can't maintain some basic work ethic lose their jobs.

[dalegg 143]

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

So, if raising the minimum wage to $7.63 an doesn't cause economic problems, obviously raising it to $11.89 won't either. This is perfect logic. Why not raise it to $20.00 an hour? If a small change is insignificant, then obviously a large change will be insignificant too.

Obviously California isn't going to crumble either because hardly anyone here pays minimum wage. Oh, except for some small businesses. But they don't have anything else to worry about, like competition from Home Depot or Walmart or Costco or anything like that, who are already paying over the suggested minimum wage hike. Now who's trying to kill small businesses?

[Fandango 1,439]

There is no moral justification for a minimum wage lower than a living wage. And given the experience of the 29 states that have raised their minimum wages, there isn't even an amoral economic justification either.

So, if raising the minimum wage to $7.63 an doesn't cause economic problems, obviously raising it to $11.89 won't either. This is perfect logic. Why not raise it to $20.00 an hour? If a small change is insignificant, then obviously a large change will be insignificant too.

Obviously California isn't going to crumble either because hardly anyone here pays minimum wage. Oh, except for some small businesses. But they don't have anything else to worry about, like competition from Home Depot or Walmart or Costco or anything like that, who are already paying over the suggested minimum wage hike. Now who's trying to kill small businesses?

excellent point