If the government can arbitrarily set the minimum wage at $5.35 an hour, why not set it at $200.00 an hour?

Question

Wouldn't this improve the lot of the poor and lower working class? To what degree should the employer be able to determine the value of labor?

Answer 1

You would just blow it all anyway. Right? Who is paying for this whopping big raise you are getting?

Answer 2

why not set it at $200.00 an hour? --because it simply will not work. All costs - wages, operations, overhead etc gets passed to the consumer. Very simple economics. When the government raises the minimum wage the costs will get passed on to the consumer over a short time.

To what degree should the employer be able to determine the value of labor? None at all -the market should and in most cases determines the value of labor. It is when governments with all good intentions stick their noses in a self regulating system that it gets all screwed up.

There are basically two groups on the bottom of the pay scale. Illegals, which is a problem with the employers paying under the table and not reporting all paperwork. All unskilled labor that competes against the lowest taker for a job with no employment security. The unskilled workers do need protection from inflation, it is their lot in life to get little from a lot of hard work. Still every time the gov. sticks their nose in things it only gets worse. Keep in mind raising the min. wage is going to affect the tax bracket and benefits alot of people are getting. So the Other branches of the gov. IRS, Social Security, and more need to get on the stick and adjust their requirements before the poor get shafted at the end of the year.

Answer 3

That would either put many businesses out of business and leaving you unemployed with a lot people too or cause a steep increase in prices and living expenses which would leave you in the same spot before as working for $5.35 an hour as a minimum wage. So, what the point of raising minimum wage if prices goes up when wages goes up, and ends up in the same position as was before. This pattern of wage increases, and the cost of living through out history has never changed. The economic system is base on supply and demand criteria. If you don't have supply, then there is nothing to sell to make money. Then not very many people would have jobs to survive or live. The Dirty 30's is an good example what happens to any counties if there is no money or supply to make a better economy. The key is not more money or wages, but proper economical system to allow economic system to work. However, $5.35 is pretty low for a standard wage in the United States especially where their economy is at. Not forgetting about USA national debt which should be eliminated which could make the economy better too. They need to bump up wages a little bit, but also high taxes can hurt business too and effect the minimum wage which could be lowered to allow the wage increase. But again, it will also bring prices of things up too which means there is more money to go around for greedy people. It is a very complex and complicated system.

Answer 4

Problem 1) If the minimum wage was set to $200.00, then the cost of living would go through the roof because the businesses would need to raise their prices by 5000% in order to make enough money to be able to pay their workers those huge salaries. Once the prices go up, then everyone else who makes more than minimum wage would also need massive raises to be able to afford the new higher cost of living. So with everyone's salaries boosted, in the end we're ultimately right back where we started, with the poor people still at the bottom of the ladder and, as another person correctly pointed out, $200 basically being the "new" $5.35. Except that we'd have even more poor people than before because of...

Problem 2) Millions and millions of people would have their savings, retirement accounts, and pensions rendered worthless, and seniors in particular (who live on fixed incomes that would be derived from the old wages, not the new, inflated wages) would suffer horribly. With the salaries so much higher than before and everybody now making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, that million-dollar nest egg that your grandfather spent 30 or 40 years carefully building up with the confidence that it would support him in his golden years suddenly wouldn't be worth a plug nickel anymore.

Answer 5

Employers naturally have all the power in the employer/employee relationship. Without the minimum wage we'd return to the 1800's when low wage workers would be systematically taken advantage of. Employers will pay as little as they can regardless of how much they "value" the labor.

That being said, a minimum wage has to be economically sustainable. A $200/hr minimum wage right now would throw the entire economy out of whack. Inflation would skyrocket to the point where $200 would become equivalent to, uh, $5.35 today.

Answer 6

I totally get the pot-shot question you raised- where most of the answers- apparently did not.

The word arbitrary. Very effective use of it. Love the histrionic tone to your sarcasm! You are hilarious and must make your friends giggle all the time.

You are wrong in $5.25 as a minimum wage being arbitrary. It is specifically set to encourage poverty levels to remain.

Also with inerest rates, inflation, and general cost of living going up, up, up. This "arbitrary" figure ensures a lower working class to struggle. Struggle builds character (or didn't you get the memo?).

btw, setting the minimum wage at say $200.00 an hour would cause almost every corporation to move their operations out of the country (and many of them are already doing that because they think $5.25 is too much and some Thai kid will take the job for $5.25 per week!).

I'm sorry- but this is quite laughable. Did you know that Haliburton is moving to Dubai?

Answer 7

It will cause inflation. However, it's not necessarily a bad thing, because chances are even if prices of goods go up, people at the bottom will still be better off and more able to afford goods.

It's the people in the middle and the top that DON'T want the minimum wage to go up, because it means the dollar THEY earn is worth less.

That's why you hear them bitching about inflation.

Answer 8

Minimum wage isn't supposed to be arbitrary.

It is supposed to provide a "living wage" (as defined by Republican President Teddy Roosevelt: a wage that provides enough to afford housing, food, enough to raise children, pay for medical emergencies that come up and enough to save for old age.).

Unfortunately it has been undermined and sabotaged at every turn by it's opponents, so it has not provided a living wage in decades.

The argument is REALLY about whether Business has a right to pay slave wages.

Opponents of a Minimum Wage claim they do have a right to pay slave wages.

Proponents of a Minimum Wage or Living Wage say that society should choose to set a bar below which we will not allow our citizens to fall. For instance. we will not allow, as a society, to have people working full time but living in poverty.

If you look at the question that way, the moral implications are obvious, but the corporate media has a vested interest in keeping people from seeing the issue in that light.

Answer 9

well... there is an equalibrium...

raising it by several thousand percent would clearly damage the economy, as businesses couldn't afford it... and of course, this would impact 95 percent of workers, since 95 percent don't make that much an hour... so it would effect everyone

raising it a small amount, that wouldn't affect many, clearly wouldn't have nearly the same effects...

where some of the base employees often get paid very little, regaurdless of how good of a worker they are... you try and give them a bit of a boost so they can still live... not a boost so they can buy a mercedes... see the difference...

Answer 10

because inflation would rise to the point where a can of coke would cost 150$.

thats not a good thing

Answer 11

No one would hire them. I hope those whiny takers will own a company one day and have to hire 50 people at your price.