Monday, March 30, 2015

Why a Higher Minimum Wage Will Hurt the Poor

By Diana Furchtgott-Roth

Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to raise the city’s hourly minimum wage from $8.75 to $11.50 would harm the very people it is intended to help - poor and low-skill New Yorkers. If the wage floor is raised, they would have fewer job opportunities and less chance of climbing the career ladder.

To understand why, do a thought experiment. If raising the minimum wage were cost-free, why stop at $11.50 an hour? Why not go straight to $25 an hour, the average hourly wage? That might be considered fair, because no one would have to earn less than the current average.

Everyone realizes that at a hourly minimum wage of $25, some people would be displaced from their jobs. The same is true of a minimum wage of $11.50. Cuomo wants to pass a law saying that if you have skills of less than $11.50 an hour, you are not allowed to work in New York City.

This is positively un-American, and immoral. It discriminates against the poor, who have fewer skills. It discriminates against those who do not fare well in academic settings, and whose only chance at success is to start at the bottom and work up.

Read the rest here.

1 comment:

  1. "...would harm the very people it is intended to help - poor and low-skill New Yorkers." Sorry, sister, but helping the poor and low-skilled is not the intent of minimum wage laws.

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