The hourly rate you need to afford a two-bedroom apartment in every state

[Brownshoe]

(06-08-2016, 03:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Wrong.

Labor is only a small percentage of total costs, and minimum wages positions are only a small percentage of labor costs.  If a business has 40% of costs devoted to labor and 20% of labor costs go to minimum wage earners then raising the minimum wage by 33% would only be an increase of 3.3% of total costs.

As I already said increasing the wages of 3 million workers by $2.50 an hour would only increase total income in the United States by less than 2 tenths of one percent.  That is not enough to cause a major increase in inflation.

You're assuming that they wouldn't be forced to raise the pay for management, and other workers who make a more than minimum wage. That effect will go all the way to the top. Making the company have to raise the price for the good/service a lot more than 3.3%.

It would also increase prices on things like housing since people with minimum wage will bid up the price of housing. Basically putting everyone back in the position they were in except for the middle class who probably didn't get as big of a % increase in their pay as the minimum wage workers. Essentially dragging the middle class down.