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Minimum Wage – Who in Florida Needs a Raise?
September 10, 2013
Fast-food workers around the country have been agitating for raises, and some members of Congress are pressing to increase the national minimum wage. But what would the actual economic impact be of a boost for the lowest-paid workers? Critics have charged that raising the minimum wage would mostly help teenagers, but economists say that’s largely a myth.
David Cooper, an economic policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, looked at who would get a bump in pay if the hourly minimum went up to just over $10, as one bill in Congress proposes. He found it would be mostly the working poor, including a large portion of single mothers, who would benefit.
“The reality is that the average age of these workers is 35 years old,” he said. “The majority of them are women, a little over a quarter have children, and 55 percent work full-time; this is their full-time job.”
Another common concern is that raising the minimum wage would increase unemployment. According to Cooper, that was the conventional wisdom, until a series of studies in the 1990s compared states that raised their minimum wages with others that had not. Cooper said the first looked at border counties between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
“What they found was that in New Jersey, where the minimum wage was raised, employment actually went up relative to Pennsylvania, the direct opposite of what the textbook model would suggest.”
He said other studies have also confirmed that raising low-end wages doesn’t increase unemployment.
Cooper said the economists found that a higher minimum wage improved productivity, reduced turnover and absenteeism, and boosted morale among low-wage employees. In addition, he said, the new wages have a ripple effect on the local economy, because most minimum-wage workers have to spend every dime they make.
“Maybe they needed to buy a new car,” he cited as an example. “Now that they’re making a little more money, they can afford to make a payment plan, so they go and they buy that new car. That not only benefits the car manufacturer, but it also benefits the local dealership.”
About 1.8 million Floridians would be affected if the federal minimum wage went up to $10.10 an hour, as that bill now before Congress proposes, and 92 percent of them are over age 20.
Courtesy images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
21 Responses to “Minimum Wage – Who in Florida Needs a Raise?”
REGARDING:
“I have a Bachelor’s degree & can NOT get a job in this area that is starting over $11.00/hour? I was forced to take an ‘entry’ level job & tolerant the ignorance of it all….”
“tolerant the ignorance“?
Just getting a college degree doesn’t mean everyone is going to want to hire you. It doesn’t even assure them you will know anything related to their field of work. It doesn’t assure you any related jobs you would be able to do are going to be found in any particular place.
Even if a job existed in a field needing people with your education and where you wanted to work, if your grades weren’t good enough or your presentation when they considered you didn’t impress them or your work history didn’t impress them or if your references didn’t support you or impress them, they might pass you over for a better candidate who didn’t have to “tolerant the ignorance.“
But at least you could console yourself with how ignorant they all are.
David for wise choices
[quote] verseau02 on September 10th, 2013 11:30am
I have a Bachelor’s degree & can NOT get a job in this area that is starting over $11.00/hour? I was forced to take an ‘entry’ level job & tolerant the ignorance of it all….good luck economy. [/quote]
Same here. Wasted 4 years of college just to be unable to find anything in my field in this area, and now making $11.50/hr. Seems those with skilled trades (read: no college degree) or a Master’s + are the only ones making any money in this area.
And I couldn’t agree more with the LEOs commenting here. Save yourself tons of stress and quit your field. In my opinion, LEOs are WAY underpaid for the crap they have to deal with and chances are, if you do end up having to use your weapon one day to save your or a citizen’s life, you’ll just get sued anyway. So why even bother.
…i say get rid of minimum wage and let the market set the wages…those jobs with low wages are because there are plenty of workers willing to work for those rates…the wages will go up once there are shortage of workers…
It might sound like a good idea, but it will have a trickle down effect that will not be pretty. It will cause a rise in prices to cover the cost of that increase. And if they don’t raise them, then they will cut the number of employees and hours to make up the difference. It will mean a decrease in quality of some places and between that and the “needs to go away Obama Care”, many will just close. sigh!
How about you try getting My drive thru order right, then we can talk about more money…
i work for individuals whom dont want to pay regardless of education or position. i have a teaching degree but cant find a job so i am currently working as a housekeeper. i make the same amount as the front desk clerk that has been here for several years. recently i was asked if i wanted a promotion to laundry/ executive housekeeper and was not offered more money. therefore i am seeing that it does not matter if you have an education or not.
So, minimum wage in this area right now is $7.79. How about the hourly workers that have busted their hump to get up to $9.00 or $10.00 an hour? All their achievement will mean nothing when the minimum wage is increased past where they are.
I have a Bachelor’s degree & can NOT get a job in this area that is starting over $11.00/hour? I was forced to take an ‘entry’ level job & tolerant the ignorance of it all….good luck economy.
I do not eat fast food very often. As it is now, a meal costs about $8 or so. And are you sure what kind of processed junk you are actually getting?
When the price goes up, maybe even doubles, are people still going to eat there?
Our school system has been dumbing down our kids for many years.
Tptb want everyone to be equal. We are not and never will be. Until everyone works as hard and takes responsibility equally. Which will never happen.
About time, even if they do get a raise, they will just increase the cost of living to make it unsustainable once more, hears to destitution!
If all jobs paid equally well, people would flock to the easiest jobs and we would have plenty of school bus drivers available
REGARDING:
“I should stop being a low paid LEO and be a burger flipper. Make almost as much money and wouldn’t have to worry about be shot at everyday.”
Well, maybe not EVERY day, but some customers get fairly irate.
David for burgers, not bullets
@LEO you beat me to it brother. I was thinking the same thing. This area is some of the lowest pay in the profession. Soon we will get a raise…..when minimum wage surpasses us (which won’t be long.)
Why not raise the minimum wage to $100.00 dollars an hour, or maybe $200.00?
It’s an entry level job, get some skills, better yourself and then go find a better paying job. Dont demand that your employer pay you more, for the same amount of work. If minimum wage goes up, I start laying off employees, simple economics.
Stupid socialism. Are China and India going to have the same minimum wage?
SW…I could not agree more, but would also like to add one item too.
1) What about employees part-time or full-time that are already making around $10.00 per hour, do their wages automatically increase by they $3.00 per hour to keep them ahead of the minimum wage gap? If I were an employer running a small business and had 5 people working for me and suddenly were mandated to increase out of my profits (not state funded) and increase of $15.00 for each worker that might work 25 hours a week (an extra $375 per week/$750 per pay period); I would be letting at least one person go. That person might be an adult vice a teenager; especially in the fast food area. Less likely to have to deal with health insurance and OBAMACARE.
2) The cost of good would also go up. Does everyone really think that “happy meal” will be $1.99 any longer, or that combo meal will be less than $6.00? If everyone is making at least $10.00 per hour then lunch just shot up to around $15.00 (are you “lovin” it now”); to turn a marketing phrase from McDonalds…?
Economic Policy Institute is a liberal/ left-wing think tank backed by unions/ big labor. I wouldn’t trust anything from them.
Sounds to me like I should stop being a low paid LEO and be a burger flipper. Make almost as much money and wouldn’t have to worry about be shot at everyday. What a shame…..
If they look a bit more they will find many older workers in these jobs, simply because SSI doesn’t pay enough for some to live on. We just do the best we can these days, and some have college educations, just can’t find jobs.
When minimum wage goes up for some, prices go up for everyone.
That is my observation.
Price freezes?
I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Cooper on his analysis.
Minimum wage is generally considered as entry level pay. Few people enter the job market with marketable skills or education. If a business is forced to pay more for labor, they have to absorb that cost by either a) increasing cost of product or service-resulting in the devaluation of money’s buying power, b) reducing profits-resulting in the business being unable to expand, buy new equipment, or otherwise invest or cover the risks of the owner/investor, or c) hiring fewer people to work/cutting hours. I dare say that most businesses will do ‘a’ or ‘c’ to cover that cost.
1) The minimum wage surely won’t help teenagers; it will actually hurt them. However if a person is 35 years old (male or female-with or without children) and is working for minimum wage, they are most probably bringing a low skill or a minimal education to the job market in the first place and cannot command a higher pay rate; not unlike the teen ager. The raising of a minimum wage might probably result in a cut in hours resulting in lower gross pay.
2) The higher pay in adjacent communities, as cited by Mr. Cooper, resulted in a flow of people to the higher pay; that would have happened without mandating a minimum wage if businesses simply offered more money to prospective employees. I would be willing to bet the businesses in the state which offered the more money to prospective employees probably created a deficit in prospects in the losing state and drove up wages there in an effort to compete for employees.
3) Helping the community by allowing more devalued money to flow? If the cost of doing business rises, so do the prices. Look at the supply and demand law of economics; the minimum wage goes up, creates more money flow in the community and prices rise accordingly (remember the mining towns of old where miners struck it rich with gold only to have it taken away by high prices of goods and services in the towns?).
4) The raising of the minimum wage might raise the spirits in some; however, it will likely lower them in others. What about those laborers who have achieved a higher level of pay because of education or skill level; would not their labor be cheapened? If everyone makes the same amount of money, no one has a reason to excel; morale goes down; performance goes down; job turnover increases.
The minimum wage is, in itself, a fallacy; if the politicians were truly interested in doing more than buying votes, why wouldn’t they raise the wage to $20, $30, or even $100 an hour? That would certainly help the working poor, right? The raise they are contemplating doesn’t even keep up with the poverty levels. Why not let the market determine labor’s cost?
I would close by challenging by what authority the federal government has in telling a business owner what he must pay an employee for a job. Where in the US Constitution does Congress, the President, or a court have that enumerated power? A state could, if it is in the state’s constitution.
Final thought-what if those businesses just decided to close their doors because they just can’t afford to do business any longer?