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Again, honest question: Is $20/hr the minimum living wage in a small rural town?

• eesmith 6y ago
  In the US, the minimum age to purchase alcohol is 21. It used to be 18. In other places it's younger, and/or it depends on the alcoholic content of the drink. So, is 21 the right age? Is 18? Is 16? Honest question: how would you go about answering your question? Economists disagree with each other, so it's not something that an HN comment is going to resolve. Me, I based it on how the minimum wage from the 1950s, adjusted for productivity, would be about $25/hour - https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inflation-productivity/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/21/politics/minimum-wage-inf... . This means the productivity benefits are going somewhere, but not to the poorest people who are working the most. Raise minimum wage to $20/hour (and/or increase collective barganining power), and raise taxes on the wealthiest, and increase the social safety net - pretty bog-standard social democratic viewpoints.
• schwartzworld 6y ago
  The real answer is that you should pay what the labor is worth. $20/hr may or may not be the right amount.
  • eesmith 6y ago
    It's a complicated answer because of laws nerfing collective labor power in the US, like Taft-Hartley. That is, I believe there's a big thumb already lowering wages to below its worth. So the real question is, how do we determine "worth"? Some countries with strong unions, like Denmark, have an equivalent of $20/hour minimum wage for McDonald's employees, even though Denmark has no minimum wage.