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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

#121

Post by matsemann »

mostertoaster wrote: post #107
matsemann wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Becoming a landlord means more buyers for the same houses, thus pushing the housing prices instead, possibly taking them off the market for other's that want to own their own.

There will always be those who have and those who do not, the weak and the strong, the poor and the rich. The question is, will those with power (money, connections, education) use it to gain more for themselves or to lift up the poor. The idea that a homeless person’s problem is just, that they can’t afford rent or a mortgage is absurd, and would just prove that you’ve only ever dealt with homeless people at an abst…

I never talked about homelessness. I had young renters in mind, wanting to buy but seeing the prices skyrocket away.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#122

Post by joshuaheard »

I was a little confused by the title. A "minimum wage" usually refers to the minimum amount set by government that an employer is required to pay by law. This article refers to private employer's voluntary wage floor, more appropriately called, "a starting wage".

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#123

Post by [deleted] »

jjoonathan wrote: post #56
cortesoft wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it more about the inelasticity of housing supply? When demand goes up, prices go up?

Just who do you think relentlessly votes, lobbies, and politicks to ensure that housing supply is inelastic? The tooth fairy?

[deleted]

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#124

Post by vanveenada »

tastyfreeze wrote: post #104
vanveenada wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but because prices (including rents) are sticky -- it takes a while for them to adjust upwards to soak up the additional effective demand produced by increased wages. So long as wages are what's driving inflation , working people tend to reap the benefit. Workers only fall behind when prices grow faster than inflation, as in, for example, the oil shock back in the 1970s. Even the small capitalist class benefits…

The only way the government can increase benefits is to take more from everybody else.

Fortunately, when there's wage-driven inflation there's enough effective demand in the economy to produce enough supply to provide enough taxation headroom to offset the effects of wage-driven inflation on people with fixed incomes.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#125

Post by tyingq »

dahfizz wrote: post #117
tyingq wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a little simplistic, isn't it? Inflation isn't solely driven by wage increases followed by higher product and service prices. There's "Wage Push" inflation, which is just one of many types. I'm not even sure it's really "inflation" if the wage increases aren't exceeding cost of living increases.

Sure, inflation isn't solely driven by wage increases. And wage increases aren't solely driven by minimum wage legislation. But a bump in minimum wage which results in higher wages for everyone and a devaluation of the currency is inflation. I don't think that's any more simplistic than your premise of all the "tiers" of jobs getting a raise. What you described is inflation.

I'd agree if wages (especially minimum wage) had kept pace with cost of goods and services over the years. It hasn't. There was an 11 year period where it didn't change, for example.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#126

Post by bsagdiyev »

randomdata wrote: post #51
bsagdiyev wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a big problem. When we moved to NC my girlfriend started working at my son’s school (preschool). The $17/hr she gets is considered the top end of the pay range for her job… $17/hr! She’s got a college degree!

> She’s got a college degree! Is that significant? The preschool I send my child to's child care provider has a boat. Neither factor into my purchasing decision. Everyone is going to have hobbies of some sort outside of work. How much I will pay isn't going to change depending on what hobbies they have chosen.

Yeah that makes no sense. I would prefer my child is taught by someone who is at least accredited by the state. Of which a college degree is typically required. My point though was that she attended college and earns a shit wage, whereas I didn’t graduate high school but fell in to tech.

Most tech jobs provide absolutely no value to the planet, mine included, compared to the value a teacher provides children.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#127

Post by cs702 »

You can download and read the actual paper here:

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29425/w294...

The researchers collected data from millions of job ads and employee surveys to estimate the spillover effects of Amazon's minimum wage increase to $15/hour, back in October 2018, (a) on other retailers with a physical presence in the same commuting zone, including Walmart, Target, CVS, and Costco, and (b) on the zone's unemployment rate.

The main findings are that (1) retailers with a physical presence in the same commuting zone significantly increased their minimum wages, following Amazon's lead; (2) the zone experienced only a very small but quantifiable increase in unemployment; and (3) the authors cannot explain the direction and magnitude of these changes as a function of standard competitive pressures.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#128

Post by mindslight »

mostertoaster wrote: post #106
ethanbond wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Well have you charged less than market rate for rent? I had a place for 10 years that I was charging about 60% market rate on because the lady was old and lived off social security. I had negative cash flow on it. My other rental has a negative cash flow as well. I make good money so I can afford it. If every single person who complained about the plight of the poor actually physically went and helped the poor, their…

You blew right past "It’s self-reinforcing and resilient to small changes". The two underlying problems here are zoning policy and macroeconomic policy (ZIRP), both only changeable through politics. Directly helping other individuals doesn't stop the overall trickle-up economy from doing its thing of skimming wealth upwards. Yes, you personally can alleviate some other individuals' suffering by not turning the screws as hard, and I agree that you should where you can. But it's foolish to think that the systematic problem could be solved by everyone just choosing to go against the gradient.

Also I presume when you say "negative cash flow" you are leaving out the bit about your equity increasing due to mortgage payments and bubble inflation. So you can get off your performative high horse as well - you aren't describing a charity project, but rather an illiquid savings account.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#129

Post by folkrav »

danaris wrote: post #119
nemo44x wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should consider you've only been a dev in a massive bull market for software engineers. Teachers don't get laid off or face the types of uncertainty other types of careers do. You'll always make more money in private industry but you will probably work more and have less time off. Teachers get a lot of time off and work about 35 hours per week during the school year. And then of course the summers. It's an especi…

Have you ever actually been a teacher? Unless you're one of those that scrapes by doing the bare minimum, teachers frequently work about 60-80 hours per week during the school year, and 20-40 during the summer to prepare. There are lessons to plan, classwork/homework/papers/tests to grade, extracurriculars to coach/lead, students needing extra help to work with...

This. It's really not a 35h/week job. 35h in class doesn't equate to 35h of work.

Re: The Effects of Major Retailers Raising Their Minimum Wages

#130

Post by jcranberry »

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.

I do not agree. It is very few words (maybe one page's worth?) with high information density. There is no rumination or explication whatsoever. It would be very difficult to make this article any shorter without removing information.
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