That sounds like a good idea until one considers that the job market is different in every area and in some places just getting another job is not very easy at all.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It was referenced in the article on massachussets you linked me.

Raise it to a level deemed presently appropriate then tie it to the GDP deflator, CPI, or other measure of inflation.

To prevent a race to the bottom between the states.

One goes where the work is.

I did so a few times, yes that means moving to another town or city to get work. I would rather work at 5.00 per hour than get gov help. but many of americans today would put their hands out to the gov for help.

Some times to work one needs to move.

I guess. That sort of diminishes the value of family and friends. Many people consider more than money when they think of home. I guess you could say that it's about choices but you are not really demonstrating how minimum wage is bad other than maybe you do not want to pay an extra 50 cents for a big mac.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

You really have no perception of the effect minimum wage has do you?

That's what I don't understand. Where does one begin to determine what is presently appropriate? How does one determine if $7/hr is appropriate or $10/hr is appropriate? If it is determined a raise to around $7 would be sufficient, how do they know to stop at $7 instead of $7.25? These may seem like nit picky questions, but the whole process of determining an 'appropriate' increase for a nation this large seems wildly imprecise. Is there any economic theory that determines an appropriate minimum wage, or will it be decided more on a rough guess and gut feeling?

Wouldn't the people of the states be able to better determine what the 'bottom' is? If a race to the bottom were a serious concern, I think the people of a state would be more capable of addressing the issue than the people in Washington.

__________________
"Some years ago I had a sobering realization about women, which was that there are just too many nice ones. One simply can't fall in love with, sleep with, or marry all the nice women...One of the saddening facts of life is that there is always going to be a delightful woman somewhere who, for whatever accident of timing or attraction, simply slips by and recedes to return only in a dream."
-Larry McMurtry in Roads

I'd say take a look at the last increase, adjust for inflation (whichever indicator you want to use)

For example 5.15 in 1997 would become $6.51 today according to the CPI

or 5.94 according to the GDP deflator. As for which one to use thats up in the air, certainly it will be hotly debated by economists. But i think some measure of tying it to inflation would be reasonable. I'd personally tend towards the GDP deflator.

No the problem is that if State A and State B are competing against each other with labor law the ultimate result will be no labor law, and no minimum wage, an outcome which isn't favorable. Implemented at a national level (since we can then impose tarriffs on countries which seek to out compete us through poor labor laws, and negotiate FTA in a manner to avoid them) the race to the bottom can be avoided. And the state's minimum wages in excess of the natl. will not be quite so drastic.

It should be left up to the individual and his potential employer.

The only time this does not work is when an employer takes advantage of an uneducated employee, say someone who does not know what others are making, or what others are paying. Fixing this is a matter of giving people proper education, so they know how to look out for themselves. A good, basic education provides many other benefits as well. But sadly, if a political figure acts to end dependence, they act to end their employment, because there will be no more ‘needy’ soles for them to ‘save’.

And, we are talking about entry-level employment, not ‘family’ income. The way to a living wage is again, through education. Education that teaches not only job skills, but life skills such as money management. It is not complicated, you live within your means, save some of what you earn, invest in a home, or education, avoid frivolous expenses like fancy cars until you can honestly afford them.

Which brings up the horrible question of welfare. We are now going on four generations of dependency. If it is a good, workable system, why are the children following in their parent’s footsteps? Are they inherently incapable of functioning in society. Or is the system in need of overhaul?

Before you cry racism, stop. First, there are generations of Caucasians in the system. Second, with near thirteen million Blacks living here, largely concentrated in cities, a child could choose any career and do quite well never having to even see a member of any other race, much less do business with them. Racism is a crutch.

Chester

Oh mighty White Father that lives in D.C. Please tell us how much to pay the people that work for us. Where we can live, what kind of car we can drive, what food we can eat.
Oh mighty White Father we have no idea how to do anything any more and need to make the choices for us today and the future.

Why should I work hard to get a pay increase the Great White Father that lives in D.C. will pass a law increasing my wage to get my vote...


Sounds good to me.......... I no longer have to make choices,,, the Great White Father will do that for me...

If there is a "race to the bottom" with respect to minimum wages you got 17 states moving the wrong way.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm


I don't buy the "race to the bottom" argument that we need a federal minimum wage. A 6 or 7 dollar min wage in some areas is probably okay, even less than the market min. But there are plenty of rural areas where 6-7 dollars is too much. I think states should decide what the minimum should be. There is no compelling reason to raise the wage. It has no effect on poverty.

__________________
"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end - Liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition - The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. - Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Action

Take that minimum wage, multiply it times 40, and take out payroll taxes.
Now what would a person who made that much live like?
Where would they live?
What would they eat?
How would they dress?

We aren't hunter-gatherers that abandon the elderly and infirm and move on to eke out a subsistence level living. We are a society, and we have the responsiblity to see that all members of that society are cared for when they are unable to provide for themselves.
We don't have a free market, and we never have, we have a partially free market that is, was and always will be distorted, by the events of the past, and it's the rightful place of government to correct these distortions and provide social justice, because if they don't, the system will fail miserably.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

The race to the bottom doesn't occur in all markets. In many parts of NE they simply can't offer wages below the minimum wage otherwise they wouldn't have labor.

Agriculture becomes a different story. If you don't have the labor currently in your area, you simply import it, and then you can have the race to the bottom. And quite frankly importing all of our labor from mexico is not very beneficial to our nation.

They raised it in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Some manufacturing companies have closed down and are moving their facilities elsewhere, due to it. Others have made employees part time, to get around it.

It is killing the staffing agencies too.

__________________
Anyone ask Hillary what kind of underwear she wears, yet?

Lt. Gov Diane Denish on Bill Richardson "The governor, she said, "pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg."

They also have substantially higher unemployment...the VERY thing that is predicted by opponents of minimum wages....do you think there might be a connection there?

Also, the only reason their poverty figures are lower is because of massive transfer payments, requiring levels of taxation that have resulted in those countries consistently lagging behind the U.S. in growth and increasing prosperity.

In this country, if you make three choices in life correctly you are virtually gauranteed not to live in "poverty":

1. Don't have children until your married
2. Don't get married until you graduate highschool
3. Graduate highschool

Not difficult things to do, and none of which have a thing to do with minimum wage.

Europe's system basically sacrifices opportunities for prosperity among those who are productive in order to provide a more comfortable living for those who are not (which is why the median wage in this country is higher than in almost every other nation in the world). Well I am sorry, given how easy it is NOT to be poor in an industrialized nation, living in poverty is the equivalent of a burn from putting your hand on a hot stove...it is lifes way of informing you that you've made the wrong decisions, and thus a discouragement from making those decisions in the first place.

If you minimize the cost to individuals of their poor behavoir, you diminish the incentives for them to change that behavoir.

And yet our economy overall blows there's away year after year, decade after decade. I don't care about individual industries, I care about the overall health of our economy.

BTW, care to give some specific examples?

__________________
"It's a good feeling to shoot a bad guy. Something you democrats would never understand. Americans are homesteaders, we want a safe home, keep the money we make, and shoot bad guys!"

----Denny Crane