Minimum Wage Increase Blocked in Senate

[Ramo]

Yep. The tax rate can be negative. IIRC, the max subsidy is $4,000 if you make $10,000 (40% of your income) and have two kids.

[KrazyHorse]

If that's the case, then EITC

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
The ones most hit will be those making 7.00-10.00 an hour currently. However, that should be a temporary effect.

More likely, it will be the unemployed or barely employed, who will lose their jobs/job prospects because employers won't value their skills as highly as the minimum wage would demand.

[KrazyHorse]

At the current level of the min. wage and given the profile of the jobs at min wage, I doubt that there would be much increase in unemployment due to a raise to 7.15

Min wage is a less efficient means of reducing poverty than the EITC, as far as I can see, but it's doubtful that it does much real harm.

[LordShiva]

One thing it will surely do is make the job market more rigid. Those who may have hoped to escape unemployment by climbing onto the bottom rung of the job ladder will have less of a shot now (unless they find a less-than-fully-legal employer who would have to compensate for the risk of operating outside the law by saving money on things like workers' rights, environmental regulations, etc.).

[KrazyHorse]

Again, I don't doubt that there are some negative effects, but I just think these are being overstated by fearmongers.

[Aeson]

Agriculture would probably be an area that is biggest hit without some sort of compensation. Especially for a lot of smaller scale growers, and those growing crops that are more manual labor intensive. My Dad manages and/or consults for a lot of fruit orchards (Apples, Cherries, Pears, Peaches), and it's always been rather tough (especially for Apples) for growers to make a profit.

It won't impact harvest much, as a good fruit picker on those orchards makes far more than minimum wage. They get paid by the bushel, at least on the orchards I'm aware of. They work damn hard, and are highly skilled at what they do. Some can make over $20 an hour during harvest.

It's too bad more of the manual labor market can't operate that way, minimum wage would be mostly unnecessary if it did. But there are a ton of other jobs that have to be done where there's little to no difference in skill, it's just drone stuff. (That's what I always did from 8-18 after schools and over summers... My Dad would never have me pick, and I don't doubt his judgement. )

[Krill]

IF the minimum wage is increased, why not just create different minimum wages for different age groups? And then use tax credits to help out the youngsters who are living on their own without family help, so that they aren't hurt by the counter measure?