News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Labor shortage or terrible jobs?. Parent comment

Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by nitwit005 on Friday April 30, 2021 @05:10PM (#26999389)
> With such a small profit margin, arbitrarily raising everyone's wages is likely going to kill the business.

There have been past minimum wage hikes, and that's not what has happened. The costs get passed onto consumers.

Of course, there's presumably some hypothetical minimum wage that would be too high and destroy the industry, but the amounts being discussed in the US are below what other countries have already tried.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by nickff on Friday April 30, 2021 @05:26PM (#26999581)
Your second sentence is debatable, as it appears that many European countries have high enough minimum total compensations (including benefits and other indirect costs) that unemployment is relatively high, and it can be very tough to get on the economic ladder.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by rbg246 on Friday April 30, 2021 @06:40PM (#27000410)
But equally a poverty wage job doesn't get you on the ladder it makes you an indentured servant.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by nickff on Friday April 30, 2021 @06:56PM (#27000606)
The company I work at has hired a number of employees whose only previous work was very low wage, and that (low wage) experience definitely weighed in their favor.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by humanrebar on Friday April 30, 2021 @07:10PM (#27000739)
A verified history of showing up in time and not getting fired for theft or negligence is definitely valuable.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by nitwit005 on Friday April 30, 2021 @07:34PM (#27000999)
My second sentence is suggesting that fast food restaurants will pass higher labor onto consumers. Your point seems entirely unrelated to that idea.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by nickff on Friday April 30, 2021 @08:46PM (#27001680)
You are correct, I missed that period, and was in fact referring to your second paragraph.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by gilbetron on Friday April 30, 2021 @07:19PM (#27000818)
Which countries are suffering from this?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by magila on Friday April 30, 2021 @08:42PM (#27001641)
France and Italy have long had chronically high unemployment, particularly among young adults who struggle to gain entry into the workforce due to the high cost floor on labor.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Labor shortage or terrible jobs? by heavyset_go on Friday April 30, 2021 @07:37PM (#27001038)
> The costs get passed onto consumers.

Regarding this, from this[1] paper:

> Many business leaders fear that any increase in the minimum wage will be passed on to consumers through price increases thereby slowing spending and economic growth, but that may not be the case. New research shows that the pass-through effect on prices is fleeting and much smaller than previously thought.

> By looking at changes in restaurant food pricing during the period of 1978–2015, MacDonald and Nilsson find that prices rose by just 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is only about half the size reported in previous studies. They also observe that small minimum wage increases do not lead to higher prices and may actually reduce prices. Furthermore, it is also possible that small minimum wage increases could lead to increased employment in low-wage labor market.

[1] https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/does-increasing-m...

[ Parent | on HN ]