LogFAQs > #881908578

Don't have to live in Seattle or do a study to see some negative effects.

Min wage in my area just jumped up to $11/hr, not nearly as bad as the $15 hike, but, it's still had a large negative impact on some. This will hopefully eventually get ironed out, but for now, many jobs that require training, often require licensing on money spent to get the job (for instance home health aids needs to take courses and pay at least $500 to be able to work), are now making minimum wage.

Prior to the hike, those jobs started at $11 and hour, up to $3 more an hour then minimum wage jobs, and required only small time investments and or money investments in order to start working.

Currently such jobs make the same amount of money as any minimum wage job, which often does not require you to travel at all (or drive anyone around), does not require training/testing and does not require a finacial investment (Even if only $500 as in this example).

This holds true for many positions that paid, or started paying within $3-5 of minimum wage (if you had a job paying $12 an hour before, 1.5x min wage, you now are making a whole $1 an hour more.

In addition those who have worked at many jobs for years and gained experience, and increases in their base pay due to that experience, are now making as much as someone brand new on the job, and worse, have many other opportunities where they can go work for the same amount (or more...because their experience actually will help them get a better position or higher starting pay).

Personally while I do agree the minimum wage needed to be increased, I think ALL hourly wages needed to be increased as well, up to a maximum of $20 an hour. This is especially true if you boost the minimum wage by a significant percentage, such as in Seattle.

The real solution of course would be to slowly boost minimum wage at the same time as increasing individual/family tax deductions, helping those who are barely making enough to live the most, but helping everyone an equal amount finacially.

Increasing deductions by $5k a year, but increasing over all taxes by 1% to compensate, would help those making minimum wage or less then $15/hr a ton (making them pay almost no taxes at all), would even out for most making less then $200k a year, and wouldn't be that harsh for those making more then that.

It would not hurt those making within 50% of minimum wage at all (especially if you boost minimum wage slowly, as should happen every freaking year honestly to cover cost of living increases).

The current solution/trend of just jacking up minimum wage is actually not helping anyone much, except the federal goverment (as it means more taxes for them).

Pumping min wage puts more people in a higher tax bracket and gives them more income to be taxed. It directly increases the amount of taxes the government gets every year as a whole.

It boosts base prices of products and services in the area though, which hurts those with the least amount of income the most proportionally. This doesn't just stop at food being more expensive, or other products you buy (or services you pay for), but can spread to rent and other costs as well. Even without factoring in companies cutting back on hours, not offering as many benefits, and not offering raises (or invalidating previous raises by making the new min wage higher then the employee was getting after working somewhere 10 years), large bumps in minimum wage create chaos/havok in the job market. I've seen this personally, and it's not getting better anytime soon.
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