The Real Minimum Wage

For John, BLUF:  Doing bad doing good.  Shrinking entry level jobs is not helpful.  Some entry level jobs aren't worth $15 an hour.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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‘Dirty Jobs’ Star Mike Rowe Just Totally Debunked the Argument for a $15 Minimum Wage

Here is the sub-headline:

Rowe knows the value of hard work, so it’s worth taking his recent warning on minimum wage hikes seriously.

From Fee, by Reporter Brad Polumbo, 12 April 2021.

Here is the lede plus five:

Mike Rowe knows the value of hard work.  The former star of “Dirty Jobs” gained notoriety for the Discovery Channel program, which featured him going undercover at some of the toughest and grossest jobs imaginable.  From cleaning bat poop to testing shark suits by jumping into a shark feeding frenzy, Rowe has more appreciation than most for the dignity of labor.

So, it’s worth taking the actor’s recent warning on the perils of minimum wage hikes seriously.

Advocates for a federal $15 minimum wage argue that it’s the bare minimum that workers deserve and that more than doubling the mandated wage nationwide would uplift workers who are struggling to get by.  Critics often point out that minimum wage hikes cause unemployment.

However, in an interview with Fox Business, Rowe instead emphasized the way that such an arbitrarily high minimum wage would take away the first rung on the ladder that many workers eventually climb.

“I want everybody who works hard and plays fair to prosper," Rowe said.  "I want everybody to be able to support themselves.  But if you just pull the money out of midair you're going to create other problems.”

“There is a ladder of success that people climb,” he continued.  “Some of those jobs that are out there for seven, eight, nine dollars an hour, in my view, they're simply not intended to be careers.  They're not intended to be full-time jobs. They're rungs on a ladder."

I started out bussing tables and scrubbing pots in a cafateria.  Not worth jacking up the food prices for blue collar working men to give a high school student on summer break money he does not need to support a non-existent family.

And, this being the United States, one size does not fit all.  What $15 will buy in New York City is noticibly less than what it will buy in Zanesville, Ohio, or Meridian, Mississippi.

Regards  —  Cliff