system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Raising the minimum wage by the desired 40% is bad for most people CMV

With the current political topic being the raising of the Federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 (an increase of 40%) I feel that this would be detrimental to most people *not* earning minimum wage.

If the baseline for costs is suddenly increased, I feel that this will result in less purchasing power for everyone who wouldn't get a raise.

If I have worked hard for years to earn what amounts to 5x the current minimum wage, it would instantly become only 3x the minimum wage, effectively reducing my salary by 40%

No where in the world does an increase in minimum wage not, nearly instantly, get followed by an overall cost of living increase.

But since the increase in wages will only apply to those earning minimum wage, it will be de-valuing all the people who have put in the effort to earn more than that.

In what way would raising the minimum wage so drastically improve the lives of the majority of people who earn more than minimum, and thereby would see no raise, but the equivalent of a decrease in wages.

Edit: This should not be construed as a non-support for any increase, just not one for the largest increase in the history of the minimum wage (by %)
gpt
It's not quite as simple as "reducing [your] salary by 40%".

First off, raising the minimum wage won't change the fact that a lot of the labor costs of your goods have been outsourced overseas, or come from under-the-table work that pays far less than the minimum wage. And it won't change the fact that Amazon, Target and Walmart make a lot of their profit by ruthlessly streamlining the supply chain.

It will increase retail labor costs. This won't affect stores like Costco or Trader Joe's, who already pay their employees very well, as much as it will affect stores like Walmart or Amazon.

The open question is how much of a bump you would see in retail prices vs. how much of a hit stores would take to their record-setting profits in order to remain competitive. And another open question is how much upward pressure there would be on wages in general, if simply offering a living wage weren't enough to attract skilled workers to a business.

I think the main thing an increase in minimum wage would signal is that workers still have some political power. And that might have far reaching consequences that are worth a little bump in the cost of living.