Minimum wage hike passes in House

January 13, 2007
2:54 pm
Posted in: General

The House has voted to raise the minimum wage. Next it’s headed for the Senate, where I think it will pass, and off to George W. Bush for a signature. In the end, I think he’ll sign it. He may wait until the Republicans can tack on some sort of “sorry for fucking you, enjoy the fruit basket” condolence prize for small businesses, but he’ll likely sign it.

They want a 3-step increase to $7.25 an hour. $7.25 an hour to flip burgers. $7.25 an hour to wave at people as they walk into Wal-Mart. $7.25 an hour to bag groceries. $7.25 to do the most unskilled jobs in the country. Are these jobs worth $7.25 an hour? I don’t know. You don’t know. The government doesn’t know. The only people who can know what a job is worth are the employer and the employee, when they agree on a wage. A minimum wage says that jobs worth less than the minimum wage should be subsidized by the general public.

Some jobs are not worth $5.15 an hour, let alone $7.25 The proof for this is simple: there is an unusually high number of people hired at the minimum wage (compared to, say, a penny over the minimum wage). It is no coincidence that these people are all making $5.15 an hour… they’ve been rounded up. They’ve been sponsored by the American public.

The main result of the minimum wage hike will be an increase in the unemployment of unskilled workers (i.e. the people who used to be making $5.15-$7.25). These jumps in unemployment have always followed an increase in the Federal minimum wage. The people the minimum wage is supposed to help are the ones who get disproportionately screwed by it. That’s some fucked up idea of social justice.

Try this on for size: $5.15 is better than $0. With me so far? Now this: $3 is better than zero. Any amount greater than zero is better than zero. Here’s my idea of social justice: pay people what they are worth. No more, no less.

Mark Jaquith

Hi. I’m Mark Jaquith (JAKE-with). I make WordPress, a free and open source publishing platform and I work as a freelance WordPress consultant. This is my personal blog. You can subscribe to my feed or follow me on Twitter and Google+.

14 Responses

Comments temporarily hidden. Will unhide once I get the spam under control.