Minimum Wage

By: Ty Stelting

When I think of minimum wage, I think of jumping off point or starting off easy. When I think of fast food or gas station attendant, I think of "how can I move on?"

Imagine a world where you could go and do dishes in the back of a restaurant and get $12.50/hr in western Kansas. Life is easy and this job takes the skill of working a dishwasher. It was a two day training and you need nothing else but that. Your boss can no longer give you raises but that's okay, you can afford things that you couldn't before. This goes on for a month and start to realize that the food at the restaurant is getting more expensive. In fact, you notice everything is getting more expensive. Soon enough you're back to where you started and all your friends start complaining with you that this pay isn't enough either. You start to think..."I dropped out of college for this job?" "I have a car I can no longer afford?" "Why are they cutting my hours?" "All my favorite little stores aren't hiring me and the restaurant went out of business." Why is employment so hard to find? How come the welfare system isn't giving me more than before?

Well here are the reasons. We now have a surplus of unskilled laborers in the world who expect more than before. The restaurant will not cut into their already slim profits to accommodate the new wages. They have to charge more for their food to spread their wage accrual. Taxes are higher because employers are obligated to pay a percentage not a fixed amount. Employers will work more hours by themselves to cut taxes. They cut your hours and work everyday. Stress to raise prices lowers demand and they lose money below the amount of their variable costs. It would have been cheaper to not sell anything or even open the building. The restaurant shuts down along with three other businesses. The only places to stay open are those people who had senior workers or workers who were already close to that high minimum wage. They aren't hiring on trainees and will not be needing any more help. You are out of the job, along with your other friends. Life is no longer easy for you. The government has to pay their workers more to match inflation and cut into welfare. They manage to keep it at the same level but inflation has caused your expenses to skyrocket.

The market then later stabilizes and now instead of a dollar menu there is $3.50 menu with miniburgers that taste even more like cheap animal product.

We notice the highest rise in inflation and crap is just more expensive. Skilled labor is still more desirable and everything...is...the....same.

What did we gain from raising minimum wage everywhere?...
Nothing.
A lesson in economics maybe.

I want to give you the people who are like..."it works in big cities Ty, why can't it work everywhere?"

First of all, it isn't working in big cities.
Lets just say I move to Seattle where I can work at McDonald's for $11.50/hr and life is affordable barely...
What is my incentive to go to college, my parents cover my insurance, cover me when I'm short because I partied too much that week, and my work is stressful but doesn't need school so I'm good...

What are we fostering? We are allowing our next generation to think that minimum wage is good enough...that they don't need education? How can this be good for our next generation? Life isn't about taking the easy way everyday. It's about the constant strength we get from struggles we face everyday. And the struggle of when to flip a burger isn't it.

I do not want to sound like people who are working for minimum wage are stupid and irresponsible. I enjoyed working for low pay because it was money that I needed.

I want to stop the repercussions from raising minimum wage and increasing the prices of everything. I want kids to aim higher and not have to pay for the inflated college prices. (School tuition will be less attractive if we have higher inflation.) It makes unemployment rates higher because of a business being able to have six workers they can only hire three.

Consumers start looking for the cheapest thing because the skilled pay is lagging for the first 6-8 months. We go through a recession because no one wants to loan out money because money will be worth less later due to inflation over time.

Raising minimum wage does nothing. For anyone.