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Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

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Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to public policy I think it's better to focus on how things turn out in reality rather than how they were intended or designed to turn out.

How can you decide what it is going to turn out like without doing it?

Well, without standing on one side or the other, humans typically do have tools to attempt to predict potential outcomes. For example, you normally would not put a fork into a socket while telling me you can't decide what to do without doing it. I am not saying analogy is applicable here, but there are some studies suggesting simply 'raising' minimum wage will not work the way some proponents argue.

Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#14
NZ just raised our min wage to $20 an hour.

I work at least 50 hours a week. A teenager at MacDonalds now earns a good fraction of my income if they work the same hours. Despite my 4 year degree, near decade of experience and the responsibility's that I hold.

Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to public policy I think it's better to focus on how things turn out in reality rather than how they were intended or designed to turn out.

Correct. And how it turned out is that very, very few people earn minimum wage. In 1979 it was 13.4% In 2017 it was 2.3% In 2017, 1% of workers aged 25 or older earned minimum wage. 8% of working teenagers do. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm

Somebody earning pennies more than minimum wage would be excluded from this analysis, despite the fact that they’re earning poverty wages and would benefit from an increase to the minimum wage.

> the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, reporting that increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour would affect 17 million workers who are currently making below that. Another 10 million additional workers earning slightly above $15 per hour would be affected.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/15-minimum-wage-would-benefi...

Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to public policy I think it's better to focus on how things turn out in reality rather than how they were intended or designed to turn out.

Correct. And how it turned out is that very, very few people earn minimum wage. In 1979 it was 13.4% In 2017 it was 2.3% In 2017, 1% of workers aged 25 or older earned minimum wage. 8% of working teenagers do. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm

From the reports fine prints: "Estimates of the number of minimum wage workers in this report pertain only to workers who are paid hourly rates. Salaried workers and other workers who are not paid by the hour are excluded, even though some have earnings that, if converted to hourly rates, would be at or below the federal minimum wage. Consequently, the estimates presented in this report likely underestimate the actual number of workers with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage."

Could it be that the structure of labor changed since 1979 with more salaried worker at minimum wage?

Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#18
Wall Street compensation has become more and more bonus heavy over time (i.e., the salary to bonus ratio has shifted even keeping total comp fixed), so the methodology here really just does not make sense on top of the other flaws folks are pointing out.

Re: Min wage would be $44 / hour if it had grown at same rate as Wall Street bonuses

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you decide what it is going to turn out like without doing it?

Well, without standing on one side or the other, humans typically do have tools to attempt to predict potential outcomes. For example, you normally would not put a fork into a socket while telling me you can't decide what to do without doing it. I am not saying analogy is applicable here, but there are some studies suggesting simply 'raising' minimum wage will not work the way some proponents argue.

Humans have predicted inflation for years (decades) due to increase in money supply. So human can be wrong sometimes...
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