What would be the cost of waging the minimum wage nationally to $15 an hour? Townhall posted an article today about the consequences.
The article notes five negative consequences of a $15 an hour minimum wage:
It will destroy jobs
According to the Congressional Budge Office upwards of 1.4 million jobs will be lost if the minimum wage goes to $15 an hour. The cost of doing business will increase and the number of jobs will decrease.
It will hurt low-skilled workers
Low-skilled jobs will be the ones being lost, denying low-skilled workers entrance to the work force.
It will cause inflation
When the cost of doing business goes up, the price of the item produced goes up.
The rich will get richer
Bid companies can absorb the additional cost; small businesses probably cannot. This helps big corporations get rid of their competition.
It will hurt red states the most
Generally speaking, red states are well run and have a lower cost of living than blue states. A sudden increase in the minimum wage would skew their economic profile, causing a sharp increase in their cost of living.
The article concludes:
Yes, people are struggling. I’m not denying that. But an oft-hidden fact is that employers are struggling too … to find workers willing to work … and they are adjusting their rates accordingly. Indeed, the average hourly wage has risen from just under $14 per hour in 2000 to over $25 today. If employers could get workers for less, they would. Instead, the MARKET has forced them to gradually raise wages in order to compete with other employers for labor. Working against this, ironically, is Democrat-encouraged immigration, which serves to dampen wage prospects for lower-skilled employees forced to compete with counterparts used to making less than 50 cents on the hour.
If we’re suddenly jumping from $7.25 to $15, it’s hard not to ask why they wouldn’t just go all out and say $20? Hell, why not $30, or even $50? Everyone in America should have the ‘right’ to a six-figure income, right? No? The same problems anyone with an IQ above 60 could see with such a proposal apply just as much at $15. Of course, none of this has ever been about logic, just politics.
We need the people in Congress to study economics.