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County Board backs referendum on minimum wage hike

The advisory measure would be on the November ballot to urge the state to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. »Read Full Article

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  1. What happened to $11.33 per hour MKE? Or $13 per hour? These were "living wages" in the recent past in you eyes. Now $10.10 is. Why not $35 /hr? How dare you make an entry level low skilled worker live in poverty.
  2. Stupid Board, insisting on showing off its stupidity.
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  3. Least shocking revelation of the day. Milwaukee County Board decides to waste tax payer money on something that achieves NOTHING!
  4. The gold standard for freedom is keeping the government from setting wages.
  5. MIT says the living wage in Milwaukee County for one adult is $9.48.

    WI Restaurant Association says that raising the MW to $10.10 will cost 16,000 jobs, 2,000 of them in Milwaukee.

    Keep in mind that losing 2000 jobs will jump the Milwaukee U3 number to 6.55%, higher than the current national unemployment rate.

    Additionally, it will de-incentivize companies from growing in Milwaukee, AND it will price entry level employees out of the market (mostly minorities and women) because good employees from outside the city, currently making 8, 9 or 10 dollars will apply for those jobs, leaving those in the city with even fewer options.

    The better solution of course, is to get more city folks working - even at lower wages - and raise salaries organically through supply and demand. This keeps the lowest level still available for unskilled workers, and the opportunity to climb the ladder.

    Raising the minimum wage effectively cuts off the bottom 3 rungs of the ladder.
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  6. I know a woman from church who works at a drive in window and was really looking forward to the minimum wage hike. Then, some regular customers who have short lunch breaks asked the owner to just keep their debit cards on file and have their lunches ready when they texted in their orders. (This is a relatively small town). Now my friend is concerned that more people could just do the same and she won't have a job. This social tinkering with the laws of supply and demand for labor is a real economic lesson isn't it? Now, this woman is looking for the same job at a McDonald's in Appleton, 17 miles away and has to buy a car.
  7. Facts are facts. Raising min wage creates unemployment. Its economics 101. The "natural rate of employment" is where the supply and demand for labor intersect. Its also called the equilibrium. Anytime you set a wage above the equilibrium you create a surplus. In terms of labor a surplus results in unemployment. Min wage jobs are not supposed to be careers. They are supposed to be stepping stones to bigger and better things. Also, the new wage creates a new equilibrium for the prices of goods and services, specifically staples like food and rent. They pay cashiers at Walmart in Williston, ND almost $18/hr but the price for a 1 bedroom apartment is $2000/month. To put that into perspective, the average MORTGAGE payment in Wisconsin is $1200.

    If the solution to poverty and living wages was as simple as just raising min wage, then we would have already done it by now. Fortunately for mankind, economics is a science and we know what the cause and effect relationships for scientific relationships are.

    If you still don't know why raising min wage is a bad thing, they offer micro and macro economics courses at MATC and WCTC for cheap.
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  8. Raising the minimum wage would have a negligible impact on the economy, or for that matter, on those whose wages are raised. That being said, outlawing free and voluntary wage contracts seems silly.
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  9. Haven't we had just about enough of the "I know a guy, who knows a lady, whose brother-in-law,..." anecdotes? Sounds like the occasional job scammer we see here.

    The US has a choice of finding some way to transfer dollars to the low/no wage segment of the population, or just letting the welfare state grow and grow.

    Any serious solutions to how we address the societal dilemma of having the population continue to grow while efficiencies and technology continue to reduce the size of the required workforce?
    Hide replies
  10. Second serious question for all those who suggest raising wages will cost jobs:

    Are you suggesting all the work performed by the “lost jobs” will just be left undone?
    Hide replies
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