I have survived my second annual thinning of the herd

[C0ckney]

Is there evidence to support this hypothesis? Have recent increases in the federal minimum wage been linked to a rise in the Gini coefficient?

i don't know if that's true but it sounds right. if you give more money to poor people, they will have more money to spend, and because of this will attain a higher standard of living.

[Kuciwalker]

If the minimum wage is $10/hr, anyone who would offer to do an existing $10/hr job for $9/hr is being denied that money in favor of someone who earns $10/hr (and is therefore a higher earner).

[Kuciwalker]

Why shouldn't the person in the job's interest be prioritised?

Because the unemployed are people too?

The basic premise behind most (progressive) redistributive policies seems to be that we should help those who are worse off in preference to those who are better off. The minimum wage has the opposite effect.

[DanS]

It's a sorry state of affairs that a person would put up with colleagues who aren't pulling their own weight because he's scared of being fired himself.

[Dinner]

The real question is why shouldn't Robert Plomp be part of a thinning of the herd?

[Dauphin]

MikeH still hasn't to #163, the most important point. If an unemployed person offers to do my job for less (pay or other benefits such as severance) why should my interest in the job be prioritized over theirs?

From a UK job market perspective...
If you are willing to work below the market rate, and are equally competent, you are probably going to find a job in the market without needing to take someone else's directly. Maybe I am being naive.

If you find yourself in a job for a long period of time at above market rate, due to attrition of the process in the previous sentence, I would say renegotiating salary down would be more appropriate (and desirable) than allowing jobs to be poached. However, I consider this happens to an extent already, albeit slowly - people who have above market rate salaries (e.g. given originally as an enticement to join) will find a drag on their annual pay increases until such point as they are paid market rate again. The current economic environment of near nil% increases in salaries has changed the rate of this mechanic though.

[Kuciwalker]

From a UK job market perspective...
If you are willing to work below the market rate, and are equally competent, you are probably going to find a job in the market without needing to take someone else's directly. Maybe I am being naive.

I am talking about people for whom the market rate is at or below the minimum wage.

[DaShi]

If the minimum wage is $10/hr, anyone who would offer to do an existing $10/hr job for $9/hr is being denied that money in favor of someone who earns $10/hr (and is therefore a higher earner).

Ugh, it sounds like you prefer workers competing on wages rather than skills.

[C0ckney]

also, the guy who is willing to work for $9/hr is going to be paid $10/hr when he too gets a minimum wage job. so in the end both people benefit.

[Kuciwalker]

Ugh, it sounds like you prefer workers competing on wages rather than skills.

No, I prefer even people who don't have many skills being able to find employment.

[DaShi]

That's what charities are for. But seriously, your argument is that a less skilled worker willing to take $9/hour should have a job over a more skilled worker at $10. At some point you go down to a monkey willing to do it for peanuts.

[DaShi]

Hell, I'll do KH's job for $500 less a month.

[KrazyHorse]

That's what charities are for. But seriously, your argument is that a less skilled worker willing to take $9/hour should have a job over a more skilled worker at $10. At some point you go down to a monkey willing to do it for peanuts.

Don't you think the guy running the business employing this 10$ per hour dude is better at determining whether his skills are worth a dollar an hour than the government is?

[KrazyHorse]

also, the guy who is willing to work for $9/hr is going to be paid $10/hr when he too gets a minimum wage job. so in the end both people benefit.

[DaShi]

Don't you think the guy running the business employing this 10$ per hour dude is better at determining whether his skills are worth a dollar an hour than the government is?

No more than the next guy.