Increasing minimum wage benefits no one!

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MoneyMan · in Economic Roundtable
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#1

As someone who has lived most of their life working for just slightly above minimum wage, I don't believe raising minimum wage helps anyone in real world terms. First, you have those who are working at minimum wage. Lets say they go up from $20 to $30 an hour. The benefits of that increase are modest at first but only at first. If you haven't been laid off, prices due to inflation quickly eat away at those gains, not to mention the obvious increase in prices due to paying employees more. After a year, you are back to where you started.

Those above minimum wage are harmed even more if their wages don't go up by the same amount. Typically wages don't go up as fast as minimum wage so in that scenario where it goes from $20-$30, someone who made $35 an hour is now much closer to minimum wage which makes them worse off than they were before even though they are making the same amount. So you have those at minimum wage who are no better off in the end, those above minimum wage that adjust in tandem with the rise who are no better off in the end, and those above minimum wage who do not get a raise to match the minimum wage increase that are actually worse off.


Instead of asking for higher wages, people should be asking for the degradation of their currency to stop and maintain the value it had when they earned it. People who want a raise should be asking for an increase in purchasing power, not an ever increasing numerical amount that will always be outstripped by currency debasement(meaning your purchasing power is lower despite making a higher number) in which the value can never be recovered.

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Unit 1 Monetary Education
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