Could a $9 Minimum Wage Reduce Illegal Immigration?

Could a $9 Minimum Wage Reduce Illegal Immigration?

LOL!

I just PAID nine dollars for a BURRITO

reply to post by Kovenov

Oregon min wage is $8.95 and it has made no difference at all that theirs is higher, but it is very hard on small businesses right now.

reply to post by Kovenov


does any one consider inflation and higher taxes in this kind of reasoning?

I cannot believe the minimum wage in the US is so low, In Australia it is $15.96 although Juniors under 20 years old
are on a sliding scale from this amount to about $6 an hour for a 16 year old.
My daughter worked at Subway during the school holidays for about $9.50 per hour as a casual about 8 hours a week. A little bit of spending money but more about learning the work ethic, she's 17.
For the younger ones still under parental care, I don't mind the low wage as it teaches them a few skills while understanding that by staying at school longer they wont need to again work for $9 an hour.
But for adults it is a disgrace, I am trade qualified and get around $30 per hour which is middling to low as a tradesman here, I think good semi skilled labourer's deserve at least $20 per hour which in Oz they get.
They should get less than me as I have the knowledge and bear the brunt responsibility wise if something goes wrong, but $9 per hour is disgraceful. Anyone paying that amount deserves all they get.
Paying peanuts only gets you monkeys.

Originally posted by kudegras
I cannot believe the minimum wage in the US is so low, In Australia it is $15.96 although Juniors under 20 years old
are on a sliding scale from this amount to about $6 an hour for a 16 year old.
My daughter worked at Subway during the school holidays for about $9.50 per hour as a casual about 8 hours a week. A little bit of spending money but more about learning the work ethic, she's 17.
For the younger ones still under parental care, I don't mind the low wage as it teaches them a few skills while understanding that by staying at school longer they wont need to again work for $9 an hour.
But for adults it is a disgrace, I am trade qualified and get around $30 per hour which is middling to low as a tradesman here, I think good semi skilled labourer's deserve at least $20 per hour which in Oz they get.
They should get less than me as I have the knowledge and bear the brunt responsibility wise if something goes wrong, but $9 per hour is disgraceful. Anyone paying that amount deserves all they get.
Paying peanuts only gets you monkeys.

Well my Aussie friend, you forget that in America Greed is the motivating factor for 90% of all business transactions, and the only thing you can always depend on in any environment is a healthy supply of potential employees who need to actually pay for rent and food and sans Unions are in no position to quip over what the economy can actually sustain as a "Living" wage. It is different in each state, but unrealistic in all of them to expect a single adult to live in anything but a Ghetto while working for the minimum wage.

I've worked very well paid salaried positions and during my younger years non-skilled minimum wage paying labor jobs, guess which ones were harder on the spirit and soul, and then guess which ones actually made a difference in my community....they were both one in the same.

Also note, I am no tree hugging Socialist, far from it, but where I live, and in my experience, one can get paid upwards of $45 an hour to sit at a desk all day and pontificate, accomplishing nothing more than mental masturbation, or work their asses off for 9 hours at $6 an hour making sure food is harvested, customers eat, the city is clean, etc. There is something inherently unjust in that.

reply to post by Superhans


Thanks for the input, Superhans. I've disagreed with you in silence & publicly a couple times, but I appreciate input.

Take it easy.

reply to post by damianrex


I can only guess that a minimum wage increase correlates with inflation. How? I have no idea. The only suggestion I have is that government COLA (cost of liviing allowance) might be something like a template used to come up with the justifications & numbers used for determining minimum wage. But that is sheer speculation. As for increased taxes ... there's no way I can definitively say a minimum wage increase does not correlate with increased taxes. I'm uncertain what this year's tax brackets will be, much less next year's tax bracket. The question, I think, would be whether an increase to $9.00 bumps folks up to a new bracket. If so, why?

At the risk of pushing the red nuclear button here I'll invoke the name Rothbard and post some comments he had with regard to minimum wage:

In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment, period. The law says: it is illegal, and therefore criminal, for anyone to hire anyone else below the level of X dollars an hour. This means, plainly and simply, that a large number of free and voluntary wage contracts are now outlawed and hence that there will be a large amount of unemployment. Remember that the minimum wage law provides no jobs; it only outlaws them; and outlawed jobs are the inevitable result.

mises.org...

This of course is not the final word in the debate (and the debate is really about the mixture of immigration with a new minimum wage standard), but it's the one that has most influenced my thoughts.

The more govt meddles, the worse everything gets. Just ask the former Soviet Union how centralized control worked out for them.

We have $15.96 minimum wage in australia, which is subject to some tax, but not huge amount. First 20k you earn is tax free atm, then i think 20% ish up to 50 or 80k.

However, most people get paid more there is there is not a big labor pool here. However McDonalds etc survive by hiring teenagers (14 >) and paying them peanuts because under 18 or something has smaller minimum wage.

I agree that where there is high unemployment raising the minimum wage will do more harm than good. The reasons have already been explained at length by other posters.

What is the cost of living in the states? I assume it varies greatly among states and cities as it does here..

Here, a loaf of bread can be had for between $2 -$3
Kilo of bannanas - $3
Kilo of decent steak - $22
Take Away coffee - $3
Big Mac -$4.25
Rent for 1 person in acceptable standard of accommodation $250 per week (in sydney - alot cheaper out side of the big cities..)
beer $40
Petrol $1.60 p/Litre +-
Beer at a bar $4 - $9
Bottle of drinkable Whisky - $35 + ish
Decent lunch in the city - $10 - 20
puff the magic dragon - $300 an ounce + -


How does this compare to where you live? I'd be very interested to hear from others on this forum.. How much does it cost to live and how much is the minimum wage? It would be interesting, because its hard to judge the American minimum wage when I don't know costs of living..
What about UK ? Other countries?

Also welfare would pay you around 400 - 500 a fortnight here if you don't have a job.


38 x 15.96 = 606.46 a week minimum wage if you work 38 hours a week - maybe 50 for tax.. so say 550 ish take home wage after tax before bills. Not much to live on once you've paid you rent and bought a carton of beer + some food


Th