02-19-2016, 02:36 PM
(02-19-2016, 02:07 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not when it causes an increase in the cost of production; thereby, causing an increase in the cost of goods and services.
As simple as it sounds you fix nothing by raising minimum wage, you just create more people making minimum wage.
The small increase in cost is spread out among the entire population, but the benefit goes to those that need it the most.
Approximately 3 million workers over age 16 earn at the US minimum wage of $7.50. Giving everyone of those workers a $3.00 hr raise would cost about 18 billion dollars (at 2000 hrs a year). The unites States produced about $17.4 trillion in goods and services in 2015. That $18 billion raise would account for an increase of one tenth of one percent of the costs of goods and services. (I realize that this number is too low because lots of people making more than minimum wage but less than $10.50 would also get raises, but even if you double my 18 billion estimate it is still a negligible amount)
Of course the increase would hit some businesses harder than others, but even in the fast food industry to increase would not be that great. A McDonald's cook prepares hundreds of dollars worth of food in an hour. So an extra $3.00 only amounts to a few pennies per burger.
