DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - The coming Minimum-wage increase

**Peterli** · 11-01-2007, 09:02 PM

What I never understood is why a business that can't even make enough money to pay it's employees that much is really worth existing. At my reastaurant I already pay dishwashers above $7.25 in a part of the country that has a very low cost of living. I couldn't imagine what kind of business simply can't cover that. I have been through the debate about minimum wage so much on this site that I don't really feel like going through the motions again. I just wonder what business has trouble meeting anything above $5.15. Even if you think the $2.10 increase is too much I still think that $5.15 is amazingly low for any business venture to not be able to go beyond.

It isn't really a matter of how profitable the business is, but rather how much the labor is worth. To use a facile example, if you have a guy at your restaurant that cleans the bathrooms once per day, and you pay him $7.00 per hour, you might be happy with that. Now, if another guy walks in and wants to do that job as well and earn $7.00 per hour, you would have no use for him. You probably couldn't use him for minimum wage, either. But, if the guy said he'd work for a nickel per hour (and you put aside any moral reservations about paying that amount), you'd probably say "sure, what the hell, grab a mop."

11-01-2007, 09:02 PM	#20
Peterli Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 458 Senior Member	What I never understood is why a business that can't even make enough money to pay it's employees that much is really worth existing. At my reastaurant I already pay dishwashers above $7.25 in a part of the country that has a very low cost of living. I couldn't imagine what kind of business simply can't cover that. I have been through the debate about minimum wage so much on this site that I don't really feel like going through the motions again. I just wonder what business has trouble meeting anything above $5.15. Even if you think the $2.10 increase is too much I still think that $5.15 is amazingly low for any business venture to not be able to go beyond. It isn't really a matter of how profitable the business is, but rather how much the labor is worth. To use a facile example, if you have a guy at your restaurant that cleans the bathrooms once per day, and you pay him $7.00 per hour, you might be happy with that. Now, if another guy walks in and wants to do that job as well and earn $7.00 per hour, you would have no use for him. You probably couldn't use him for minimum wage, either. But, if the guy said he'd work for a nickel per hour (and you put aside any moral reservations about paying that amount), you'd probably say "sure, what the hell, grab a mop."
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