News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Becoming a Steelworker Liberated Her, Then Her Job Moved to Mexico. Parent comment

Re:Becoming a Steelworker Liberated Her, Then Her Job Moved ... by Mikeb85 on Saturday October 14, 2017 @02:27PM (#15473458)
It's like minimum wage increases; the benefits of higher employment/higher wages almost always outweigh the benefits of cheaper goods.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Becoming a Steelworker Liberated Her, Then Her Job Moved ... by wernercd on Tuesday October 17, 2017 @12:25AM (#15488656)
The problem is "higher employment/higher wages" with increased minimum wages aren't a given.

Plenty of studies (and real world examples) show that higher minimum wages means fewer jobs - why pay a cashier when you can install a touch screen kiosk?

There could be an argument that it's because of unbalanced minimum wages (one city, state, etc)... but I think that even a national minimum wage increase to $15... or even a smaller one like $10... would do more damage to unskilled labor than would be beneficial.

Personally? I could see an inflation based auto-increase... but just doubling the minimum wage in a short time frame is going to be damaging. IMO.

[ Parent | on HN ]