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The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

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Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#91

Post by ethanbond »

dimitrios1 wrote: post #58
ethanbond wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the most critical consequence: rent. Rent goes up. Landlords get richer, minimum wage earners go back to poverty. Pretty obvious cycle. High paying employer moves somewhere? Rent goes up. Normal employer pays more? Rent goes up.

America is 3,531,905.403 square miles large, and the majority of us choose to live in under 100,000 of it. Maybe that too also contributes to these issues. You may fashion yourself to be virtuous enough to not charge more when you so easily can, but we shouldn't assume everyone will be.

Have you considered that people are more productive when they are working together? This higher productivity is what allows for rent to be high (the land is more productive), but that does not necessarily imply that the increased productivity should go into the hands of people who merely hold land and are not themselves producing anything on it.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#92

Post by pydry »

pitaj wrote: post #45
ethanbond wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the most critical consequence: rent. Rent goes up. Landlords get richer, minimum wage earners go back to poverty. Pretty obvious cycle. High paying employer moves somewhere? Rent goes up. Normal employer pays more? Rent goes up.

Rent goes up because of supply and demand. If a rich person moves into an area with a housing shortage, they will displace poor renters and rent will go up. But the problem is the housing shortage, a consequence of many years of terrible housing policy.

If you assume that minimum waged employees would spend 100% of their raise on rent then landlords would swallow the surplus but more likely the workers would spread it around. They do have other costs.

I havent seen a study that connects the two. A quick google suggests a fair number of business-centric publications spreading FUD about it though.

This article suggests it was connected to lower business rents: https://anderson-review.ucla.edu/a-15-minimum-wage-may-have-...

(The mechanism being that restaurants pass on the cost of their higher wages to their landlords)

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#93

Post by giantg2 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #52
jimmaswell wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by wage crush? I can't find any definition.

It's a term I use myself. It's pushing down on higher wages while pushing up on lower wages in effort to concentrate people into middle class. This would also mean that many people who are not even remotely close to "the billionaire class" would get pushed down, so it's not really popular with high-earning coastal liberals, and probably many people here.

But what mechanism would that use? Things like taxes would likely make a limited impact due to raising wages to offset the tax until the point that off-shore is more competitive. Legislative restrictions have been struck down in the past (the $1M CEO restriction of the 80s?).

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#94

Post by jimmaswell »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #52
jimmaswell wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by wage crush? I can't find any definition.

It's a term I use myself. It's pushing down on higher wages while pushing up on lower wages in effort to concentrate people into middle class. This would also mean that many people who are not even remotely close to "the billionaire class" would get pushed down, so it's not really popular with high-earning coastal liberals, and probably many people here.

Raising lower end wages coupled with inflation would have the same effect, wouldn't it?

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#95

Post by ethanbond »

mostertoaster wrote: post #47
ethanbond wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the most critical consequence: rent. Rent goes up. Landlords get richer, minimum wage earners go back to poverty. Pretty obvious cycle. High paying employer moves somewhere? Rent goes up. Normal employer pays more? Rent goes up.

I haven’t raised my tenants rent since 2018 when I bought the rental. I just had him pay what he had been paying. Maybe you should be a landlord and help break the cycle?

I am a landlord! Breaking the cycle is a farce: why do you think it’s a cycle? It’s self-reinforcing and resilient to small changes (like a few landlords here and there delaying rent increases for a few years).

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#96

Post by q1w2 »

shockeychap wrote: post #15

I found this to be many words with little information. It largely boils down to "when Amazon increases wages, other employers follow suit, to varying extents." There was almost nothing about the myriad of other effects, including things like inflation, effects on already higher wage earners, effects on automation, and more. They touched on the increase in unemployment from competitors, but that was it.

It's an advocacy piece. It's meant to push a certain point - not to educate the reader on anything.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#97

Post by q1w2 »

pbronez wrote: post #2

“Utilizing data from approximately 7 million online job postings between February 2014 and February 2020, the researchers find that a 10 percent rise in average Amazon wages is associated with an increase of 2.3 percent in the average advertised wage at non-Amazon firms in the same labor market.”

Correlation does not equal causation.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#98

Post by vorpalhex »

leroman wrote: post #77
vorpalhex wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't be rude for the sake of being rude. Most views hold that increasing the minimum wage increases the cost of goods and services, in particular food, also increasing downstream things like rent, but it's still a debated point and not settled. [1] [1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052815/does-raising...

Wording a polarized opinion worded as a fact is an attempt to force this opinion on a discussion is a dishonest move, to say the least. Am I rude here to point out that it's his opinion that somehow came on top?

It is when you are probably wrong and in disagreement with most economists, and don't post any citations or evidence. Like, argue for a minority position, but argue, don't just insult.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#99

Post by ethanbond »

pydry wrote: post #92
pitaj wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent goes up because of supply and demand. If a rich person moves into an area with a housing shortage, they will displace poor renters and rent will go up. But the problem is the housing shortage, a consequence of many years of terrible housing policy.

If you assume that minimum waged employees would spend 100% of their raise on rent then landlords would swallow the surplus but more likely the workers would spread it around. They do have other costs. I havent seen a study that connects the two. A quick google suggests a fair number of business-centric publications spreading FUD about it though. This article suggests it was connected to lower business rents: https:/…

> the researchers present evidence that minimum wage changes led area restaurants to raise prices, change menu items, obtain lower rents in the high wage areas and, in some cases, caused eateries to shut down.

I wonder if the units made empty by closures may have reduced price pressure on the ones that survived.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#100

Post by q1w2 »

stavros wrote: post #14
xyzzy4747 wrote: post #10

When people get paid more, the prices of everything go up, including other people's wages. Inflation is often a self-reinforcing cycle.

This assumes that the company can't absorb the raises.

Companies raise prices to what the customers are willing to pay. It's not related to costs unless the cost exceeds price.
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