Carey On... Minimum Wage Discrimination
They’re back. The politicians who claim they’re helping by demanding a hike in the minimum wage. I’m not sure what they’re really after, but it isn’t helping people get jobs.
Minimum wage is one of those government nooses whose proponents claim to be helping the poor by strangling them How can that be the case, when minimum wage costs jobs? When it prices so many of the people out of the market?
There are many people without enough skills to merit some arbitrary number of dollars per hour. Plenty of employers would be happy to hire them, but can’t afford to. The government-mandated minimum wage won’t let them. Employers have just learned to do without that extra janitor, that maid, that floor sweeper, gas pumper or burger flipper. Minimum wage has put people out of work. Raising it means even more people out of work who would love to be working.
For instance, my Down’s Syndrome cousin can’t possibly deliver $6 per hour’s worth of service, or even $5, and he never will. He’d love to work for anything an hour, just to have the dignity a job gives, and to participate in his family’s income. But the minimum wage do-gooders are “protecting” him out of a chance to get a paycheck.
Many of my immigrant relatives, and plenty of other citizens, were and are unable to come up to an imaginary, arbitrary standard invented by somebody else. There are many jobs out there which employers would happily pay a few dollars an hour for, but not as high as minimum wage. From sewing to leaf raking to janitorial services, housekeeping, shoe shine and repair, the list has no end nor any common description.
Though these jobs are low-skilled, they still require the most important qualifications, which are integrity, dependability, and willingness to work. Even the lowest-level job is important, and the person who sweeps the floor better than anyone else stands the best chance at promotion to a better job.
Minimum wage is an artificial number invented by politicians instead of the free market. Because of it, employers can’t afford to hire as many low-skilled workers as they would if they and the workers could make their own contracts without government interference. Workers could get together and collectively bargain, and the market would hammer out their true economic worth. If they ask too much, the employer would go out of business. There’s a number that works, and employers and employees should be left alone to find it.
Of course, there’s that old whine about providing people the dignity of “a living wage.” That’s just another good-sounding lie. Never in history have entry-level jobs been expected to be careers. They are starting places for most people who can later earn promotion and higher wage. I started work life by bussing tables and squeegying shower stalls, but I didn’t stay there. The low pay was part of the motivation to do better.
For my relatives who did stay in low-paying jobs, the bonds of family remained the strongest. They pooled their incomes and depended upon each other instead of on government hand-outs. Even low-paying jobs reduce stress and give hope and respect in households where it’s needed most. The formula works.
Low-paying jobs are also a chance for the handicapped to work, like my cousin who will never rise above a low skill level. Many senior citizens would also rather work than not, but minimum wage prevents their using abilities limited because of age.
Politicians know all these things perfectly well, so why would they claim to be helping anyone by raising the minimum wage? Since minimum wage creates more poor people by blocking them from working at their own skill levels, what can its proponents really want?
They must want to create more poor people, whom they then claim to be helping, so the poor will vote for them. Then they insist on more taxpayer-paid government programs to “help the poor,” which keep poor people dependent on government. On them. It’s an ugly circle, and a sculking lie.
Keep this in mind as election year looms: minimum wage only sounds good. In truth, it’s a fraud. We can’t help low-skilled workers by ignoring market reality.
Minimum wage is discrimination against those who need jobs most.