The Big Jobs Myth: American Workers Aren't Ready for American Jobs

[4th law of robotics]

19. You don't think that would happen?

If you can make 20 bucks per hour standing around in starbucks or 20 bucks per hour in a skilled or semi-skilled trade (say hauling concrete at a construction site) who is going to choose the harder job?

It would necessarily raise all wages.

And I wouldn't push for doing this overnight.

My ideal plan if I had my way (still about 10-15 years from a benevolent dictatorship headed by yours truly though) would be to gradually increase it up to 20 dollars per hour over a period of years and then permanently peg it to the inflation index.

Say a buck fifty per year for the next 8 years or so. And throw in there a slight reduction in the work week every other year (39 hours this year, 38 in 2014, 37 in 2016 and so on) and tie that to further increases to offset the lost hours (working 39 hours instead of 40 is a decrease by 2.5 percent of your weekly earnings, so increase wages an addition 2.5%).

Gradual changes would still bring about benefits for those at the very bottom without causing a massive economic upset at a time when things are fragile enough as is.