How much are you worth per hour?
Debate has heated lately over minimum wage laws. President Barack Obama proposed to raise the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $9, and Congress responded by introducing bills in both the House and the Senate that would raise minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2015.
The House bill has already failed, and its Senate sibling is likely to meet the same fate. California passed legislation last Friday that will raise its state minimum wage from current $8 to $10 by 2016. In the private sector, McDonald’s employees have made news nationally by striking in support of a “fair living wage” of $15 an hour.
The concept of a “fair living wage” gets to the heart of the issue. Working at $7.25 an hour for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year only brings in a yearly income of $15,080.
That’s just under the federal poverty line for a two-person household ($15,510) and certainly not enough to support a family.
Quite frankly, it’s nearly impossible to keep a roof over your head and food on the table with such little income.
But how many people working for minimum wage are actually trying to do that?
When most people think of someone filling a minimum wage job, they think of a high school student flipping burgers at McDonald’s for some extra cash. This student doesn’t need a “fair living wage,” because he’s not actually living off of that money; it’s only supplemental income to pay for things his parents won’t cover.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, more than half of all minimum wage workers are under 25. In fact, that data reports that fewer than three percent of people over the age 25 work for, or under, minimum wage. On top of that, more than two-thirds of all minimum wage workers work only part-time, suggesting that they view these jobs only as supplemental income, not a real career.
If a minimum wage worker doesn’t think they’re being paid enough, then our free market economy allows them to try to find another job where they’re paid more. They may be able to find another job where they make $9 an hour, or they may not. Not being able to find a job making $9 an hour suggests that employers don’t think that particular worker is capable of providing $9 worth of labor an hour, or they’d hire them.
Which brings up an interesting point: Say for a moment that the federal government did raise the minimum wage above $9 an hour.
Changing the minimum wage rate doesn’t change how productive workers are. No company will hire them at $9 an hour, since they won’t make a profit, and no company can hire them at less than $9 an hour, since it’d be illegal.
Before the minimum wage law went into effect, the worker wasn’t making much money, but at least they were making something.
Now, they can’t get a job at all — the law that was designed to help workers be better off has in fact made them much worse off than before.
I oppose minimum wage raises because I don’t believe the government has any business sticking its nose into agreements, including employment agreements, between consenting adults.
I oppose minimum wage raises because I am against policies that hurt those that they are designed to help.
I oppose minimum wage raises because my first job was a minimum wage job at the snack bar in a movie theater, and I want others to have the same opportunity that I had to get work experience and some pocket money, if they so desire.