Surprise, surprise: I’m going to say “No”.
I could, perhaps, be persuaded otherwise. It’s not a topic that I have given a lot of thought to. I certainly invite reader comments on this. I did do a brief GOOGLE search on “minimum wage increase pro con” and read some of the arguments for and against.
And I did read and was moved by the wonderful book NICKEL AND DIMED, by Barbara Ehrenreich.
And I am a liberal Democrat who voted for John Kerry who supports raising the minimum wage to $7 per hour.
Notwithstanding all that, it seems like a mistake to me. My reasoning, briefly, is that the minimum wage isn’t–or at least shouldn’t be–for the “working public” in any event. No one should realistically believe that they can survive for any length of time on that level of wage. Just like Trix© cereal, I believe that the minimum wage “is for kids”. If you raise it too much, the industries that pay minimum wage–fast food, retail–will, in some cases, be unable to hire the high school and college kids that need these entry-level jobs to start developing good work habits and to pay for their “kid things”. Adults with families to support are not the ones who are working for minimum wage. If they are, they need to get a clue.
In my opinion–and again, I’m open to discussion on this–we should let capitalism sort the issue out. Let the market decide. Yes, we all wish people made more money–I just don’t believe that this is a way to get that done. I think more harm than good could be done by artificially limiting the effects of the marketplace.
Sorry, fellow Democrats. Am I wrong?