Minimum Wage Increase

I have concerns about the push to increase the minimum wage. It is interesting to note that I have always earned more then the minimum wage since my first job at the age of 16. I hope everyone has had the chance to be informed as to who actually earns a minimum wage. Here is a quote from Heritage Foundation:

"Contrary to the stereotype, most minimum wage workers do not need government assistance. Less than one in five live below the poverty line, and the average family income of a minimum wage earner is almost $50,000 a year. Very few minimum wage workers support a family with their earnings—fewer, in fact, than in the population as a whole. Minimum wage workers are far more likely to be teenagers or college students than single parents working full time. The majority of minimum wage workers are between the ages of 16 and 24, and over three fifths work part time."

So, if you raise the minimum wage for those who earn it, your increasing the wages of those who really don't need the increase. When you consider an increase in wages for high school and college students will likely place price pressures on their employers, the results will be higher cost of products and services and/or a reduction of the workforce.

The whole minimum wage issue is one that is cosmetic. It looks pretty and gives people warm fuzzies when it is done and gives brownie points to the politicians that push it. It is a half-hearted, surface treatment anti-poverty measure. Here is some additional information from Heritage Foundation:

"This is unsurprising because low wages are not a primary cause of poverty. Most poor Americans do not work for the minimum wage. In fact, most poor Americans do not work at all, for any wage. Over three-fifths of individuals below the poverty line did not work during 2005, while only 11 percent worked full time year-round. The median family with children living below the poverty worked only 20 hours per week. Families are not poor because they earn low wages but because they do not have full-time jobs. If at least one parent in every poor household worked full-time year round, the child poverty rate in the United States would plummet by over 70 percent. Raising the minimum wage does not address this problem."

If politicians truly cared about those in poverty, they wouldn't try to sell an increase in the minimum wage as part of the solution. In fact, with the loss of low-skilled jobs and possible increases in the costs of products and services, a higher minimum wage does more harm than good to those in poverty.