Your math fails to account for the ripple effect of raising all minimum wage jobs. Like the delivery drivers that bring the supplies to each restaurant, the bakers who make the buns, etc.
Then it trickles down to the farmers, because gas prices will go up. Even a 5 cent increase per gallon is a lot when you purchase thousands of gallons of fuel a year.
How to tell if somebody learned World Geography in school or from SNL:
"GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
SNL: Can't be Diomede Islands, say her backyard instead.
This article gives some real-world examples of what happens to restaurant prices. One restaurant had a .5% price increase in response to a 4.6% wage increase, others had a 1.4%-1.7% increase in response to a 25% increase in the minimum wage.
Actual real-world data shows that price increases are WAY below wage increases.
Or, you know, a PhD Professor and Department Head, which you'd know if you'd followed the link in the article.
3DS Friend Code: 0146-9205-4817. Could show as either Chris or Chrysia.
Problem is that the federal law has to apply equally to everyone. So a federal minimum wage will end up being too high in some areas and too low in others. Ideally local government would set the wage, but they're not so the Fed has to step in and treat us all like children.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
-Kujako-
No, that was right after the Great Depression, very few women worked outside the household, no fast food restaurants, and teens who worked were mostly mowing lawns, babysitting, or delivering papers --for which minimum wage still doesn't apply. It was an entirely different world back then.
We don't live in that world anymore. Technology has replaced a great deal many jobs that used to require nothing more than a strong back, and a lot of those jobs carried significant health hazards, and still do.
Gee, until recently my husband worked in construction on govt. contracts that paid from $45-$90hour, depending on the job, location, and hazards involved. Rather dangerous work, often hundreds of feet up in the air....
If he could have made a living wage flipping burgers at McDonald's, why would he have taken those types of risks?
BTW, those hazardous construction jobs that pay fairly well are still available.
Last edited by Cricket22; 2016-04-18 at 05:09 PM.
The math works badly if you have the wrong assumptions, as that study.
At the end of the link there is a link to someone examining it in more detail:
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/a_big_m...e_huffingt.php
So, the Big Mac would likely cost 1$ more. I also assume that if wages increased across the board the price of the food-ingredients would also increase. But I wouldn't care since I don't regularly eat at McDonalds.
How will you have purchasing power if everything you want to purchase goes up in price?
This is more than a McDonald's issue.
Probably everything you consume is brought to you buy someone making less than $15 an hour. Not to mention the ripple effect of skilled and experience people demanding more money as well.
Cable bill will rise
Phone bill will rise
Rent will dramatically increase
Any consumer goods you purchase will increase
Gas prices will rise, which have already been shown to increase the price of everything, so another price hike on things already increased.
Yet another study that didn't account for all the jobs that earn minimum wage between the farmers/ranchers and the Fast Food place that received it's supplies.
Too many people in this thread who don't realize what jobs get paid minimum wage, nor the effects on jobs that make around $15/hr already, especially union jobs.
How to tell if somebody learned World Geography in school or from SNL:
"GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
SNL: Can't be Diomede Islands, say her backyard instead.
Except all those prices have been increasing, regardless of the lack of a minimum wage increase. Also, historically, minimum wage has not substantially driven inflation.
3DS Friend Code: 0146-9205-4817. Could show as either Chris or Chrysia.
Because despite popular opinion, many people don't settle making just the bare minimum. The problem with the current minimum wage is that it's helping create a cycle of poverty and inhibits growth.
People would still take that job because it pays significantly more and thus allow a ton more luxury purchases.