Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to One more item on minimum wage

Talking dirty.
SDAI-Tech1 — (archived)

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

My proposal to reduce the minimum wage to rates upwards of $2.00 an hour for people with less than 2 years work experience would put to work the entire teen work force. What's more it would increase demand for teen workers, helping them enter the workforce early. The black unemployment rate - especially the youth rate - would recover almost completely.

As you linked to in the other thread, their are mechanisms to protect teens from dangerous jobs and being exploited. However, whole industries that moved overseas might return. The garment industry would be sorely pressed to pay for shipping goods from China when they could make them locally with teen and fresh legal foreign immigrant labor here. Agriculture would jump at the chance to convert their illegal work force to a legal workforce with

Let's be honest - some of these kids are unemployable under today's minimum wage. In the inner cities they often have not the education, experience or attitude to warrant the current minimum wage. These kids end up selling drugs, stealing or being lookouts for others who do. By creating a 4.00 wage, a 3.00 wage down to a $2.00 wage these kids could work part time and help bring a little extra money. What's more not only would they not be charity cases taken on by local businesses they would be in demand and would be guaranteed a busy two years worth of work. These two years would be a GREAT experience for them and would more likely than not set them off on the right foot and experience the pride of their first paycheck and earning rather than stealing their pocket money. They would learn and by the time their two years were up, their employers would probably keep the best of them and all those who weren't kept would already have job experience on their resume as they find better jobs.

The founders never intended to interfere in free commerce, this would be a small step to repair the damage done to the Constitution by lesser men.

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