Who earns the minimum wage?

N

nth

Talks on minimum wage?

If you guys want to talk about whether yes or no, go for it. But, I'm after the "What does it do for/against the economy and the long-term picture?"

Let's just keep it civil. :)

This article states it's mostly "suburban teens, not single parents". References are at the bottom of the page.
http://www.heritage.org/research/re...um-wage-suburban-teenagers-not-single-parents

Another reference:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011
http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2011.htm

What do you think?
 
The percent of people working for minimum wage is of course quite small, most corporations pay more than minimum wage because they are in competition with others and want good workers. The Gap of course is raising minimum pay to $10 across America, Wal Mart has said if more people had money they would likely spend it. That seems like a good idea since the elite built a debt driven consumer based economy.
 
Here are my thoughts on Minimum wage. Australia has a $15 minimum wage and 5% unemployment. So it works there...the question is why does it work there? I believe its because they are very tough on immigration there. They make it very hard for foreigners to work if they are illegals. They also make it hard for anyone to come there. Even if you are American, they don't make it easy for you to work in Australia.

We, on the other hand, will employ cheap mexican labor illegally which they then proceed to send those funds out of the country which means less money getting spent here which means more unemployment. I think we could sustain a $15 or higher minimum wage if we took care of the immigration problem first.
 
@ bullmarket79
Good post.
Thanks for bringing that up about Wal-mart.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/us-walmart-results-idUSBREA1J0WX20140220

@ toolazy
talks of minimum wages and wages in general with US macro picture in mind/ econ section here
Any thoughts you want to share on the topic?

@ peilthetraveler
Ah, so you believe the problem is an immigration problem. Let’s break that up and talk about it. I find it interesting.
I guess first of all: What percentage of this “income being sent back” would you guess is in ratio to total income flows and what about to GDP? And, how much would you say unemployment would decrease if implemented as you mentioned?
 
The world bank estimates that $123 Billion per year is sent out of the united states in remittances vs only $4 billion sent in to the US. So thats about .75% of the GDP which doesnt sound like much, but keep in mind, the federal government spent only $107 billion on education in 2012, so it is pretty significant. Over 10 years, thats more than a trillion dollars that could be floating around our economy being spent here instead of somewhere else.

The government estimates we have 11 million illegals in the US, but the border patrol thinks its more like 20 million. Imagine if we were able to get rid of 90% of the illegals. According to government numbers, there are 10 million americans unemployed right now. So if we got rid of 10 million illegals...that means every american can have a job if he wants one. With low unemployment, wages generally rise because there is a greater demand for workers.
 
peilthetraveler said:
The world bank estimates that $123 Billion per year is sent out of the united states in remittances vs only $4 billion sent in to the US. So thats about .75% of the GDP which doesnt sound like much, but keep in mind, the federal government spent only $107 billion on education in 2012, so it is pretty significant. Over 10 years, thats more than a trillion dollars that could be floating around our economy being spent here instead of somewhere else.

The government estimates we have 11 million illegals in the US, but the border patrol thinks its more like 20 million. Imagine if we were able to get rid of 90% of the illegals. According to government numbers, there are 10 million americans unemployed right now. So if we got rid of 10 million illegals...that means every american can have a job if he wants one. With low unemployment, wages generally rise because there is a greater demand for workers.
More...

Peil,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on all that. It was truly thought provoking. I looked around at some peer reviewed stuff. And, the topic doesn't seem to have been looked at very closely.

As for remittances, that includes dollars from naturalized citizens as well as legal permanent residents as well? Were you saying that America needed to stop legalizing citizens? Or, simply only take a stronger stance against illegal immigrants?

Then the question would lead to.. and I'm thinking out loud.. "I'm sure it costs a pretty penny to do all this.. so then at what dollar amount does the return on the tax dollar begin to diminish?" I guess they would have to look at that.

In my opinion, although there may be something on this topic, it seems to be barking up the wrong tree. The problem is not so much unemployment. It is the "discouraged workers" that have fallen off the labor participation rate. These are people that do not want a job for whatever reason. I know a guy that has been on unemployment for about 2 years it seems. Why would he want to go out and get a job.. if he can stay home and still get paid..

Do you have any thoughts on how to encourage the "discouraged worker", besides kicking out foreign people that do want to work?
 
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