General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Let's pay 16 year olds $31.2k to sweep floors!!!! [View all]eniwetok
(1,629 posts)So should the burger flippers in NYC get the same as the burger flipper in my town? Or are you saying those who live in small towns with cheap standards of living should pay NYC prices for everything to cover that higher wage?
Can't have it both ways.
And same with the living wage. What's a living wage in NYC is way higher than where I live... or in small rural towns in depressed areas.
So whose "living wage" prevails? To apply to low one to the high cost area is unfair to them. To apply the high cost area to a low cost area is gravy for the worker and unfair to the employer... unless the employee is super productive or competition drives wages higher.
There are OTHER forces that can drive up wages besides mandating a one-size formula for the entire nation. We can go back to the highest MW we ever had which today would be $11 and index it to inflation... and we can end free trade, and give more legal protections to unions for a start. Those last two would draw wages up instead of just trying to mandate them to be $4 higher than the MW ever was.