Median incomes are not growing as fast as they should be. This is true. And it is a serious problem.

[cthulu2016]

23. It will affect more than 50% of wages, surely. Arguably 100%.

Truth be told, everyone is paid in multiples of the minimum wage.

For instance, most retail managers are on salary, not hourly. They are paid a flat X for what is supposed to be, say, 44 hours of work. Since they typically work more than that 44 hours the actual hourly wage of a night manager or assistant manager is often not much better than that of a cashier.

Raise the minimum wage and that night manager job suddenly becomes a distinctly below minimum wage job. Though the night manager's pay is not at minimum wage, it must rise (in practice) if minimum wage goes up.



Anyone who is currently making above minimum wage is doing so because of a scarcity... something about them makes them worth more than the employee one can get for minimum wage. Not just for the dollar value of the minimum wage, but for the concept of the minimum wage. They are competing with some base-level employee and what that base-level commands is part of the math.

"Few people are qualified to do this job and it isn't fun so it has to pay more than minimum wage or nobody would do it."


Because if the money is the same either way, they can have their pick of minimum wage jobs. Some minimum wage job out there will be more desirable... closer to home, easier, better smellning.

Whatever it was warranted a premium is still in place, but the level has shifted. A premium is still demanded by the circumstance, however.

A lot of people would rather pot plants or walk dogs than make calls for a collection agency. If the money was the same, who would chose to make collection calls?

(Raising the minimum wage is inflationary, which is a bonus in this economy which really needs some inflation to help shift the equities back toward 50-50 lenders/borrowers rather than 100% in the lender's favor.)