Video: How minimum-wage increases kill job creation

My daughter is a single mother working for a hotel-software company in ND.
She makes over $11/hr + pays her med ins (as a single) + health club membership w/ NO college education & no experience.
They spent a lot of time training her & she learned fast & works well.
The supervisor kinda monkeys around w/ her schedule sometimes, but she’s satisfied w/ her job overall.
She works hard, shows up on time, & gets the same treatment as the guy who doesn’t.
I see this a lot in places where it’s hard to find ANY help.
You see, here in ND, there are not ENOUGH people for the jobs that are available, & that has a lot to do w/ the oil boom here as well as a housing shortage where she’s at.
She recently went to the housing authority for some help w/ the rent of an apartment she was lucky enough to find available (it’s a bi$%^ finding available housing bcs of the oil field workers) & everything, even dirt hovels, are extremeley expensive, which is why she gritted her teeth & applied for the assistance.
Come to find out, she makes $1000 too much per year, as well as the rent is $25/mo too LESS, & that is why they will not help her.
She feels stupid for wasting all that time jumping through hoops for some help.
She finds that she could get a crappy job at Wal-Mart, work for way less, & actually do BETTER bcs she would then qualify for the housing assistance, food stamps, etc.
Thank God my kid wants to work for a living, has a great work ethic, & has some pride in providing for herself.
She feels humiliated when she uses her WIC coupons, but I told her not too feel bad bcs she’s truly in need & she pays taxes, too.
Someday she won’t need help bcs she’s bettering herself.
But isn’t it amazingly stupid that the govt has created such a parasitic system that encourages people to be deadbeats?

Badger40 on June 15, 2010 at 2:50 PM

Speaking of small business owners-
My husband started commercially trucking.
We just bought a newer truck & went to get the license changed to it.
The commercial license WOULD have been transferable w/out additional $$ IF we had sold the truck BEFORE or ON the same day we were transferring the license (even though we are not driving that truck-hence the reason for the license transfer), but bcs we had not sold the old truck yet, we were forced to buy ANOTHER commercial license (that was still going off the date of the old one & is to be renewed again in 6 months as per the renewal date of the OLD license).
So here we are penalized for trying to better our business bcs we are unaware of all these crippling, hidden costs.
And extra $2000+ dollars for our ignorance.
OMG I am sick of this $hit.
We run a ranch & are trying to run a commercial truck business (1 truck), & every time we turn around, we’re getting hit w/ this tax & that tax, or this ‘fee’ & that ‘fee’.
It is bcs of this we cannot have the cow #s we used to have bcs we cannot afford a hired man w/ all these ‘rules’.
It really makes you almost want to give upo & go on welfare sometimes.

Badger40 on June 15, 2010 at 2:57 PM

unless governments throw up hindering restrictions in the hopes of mitigating the pain of transition for the few.

Count to 10 on June 15, 2010 at 4:04 PM

I don’t have a problem with foreign trade.
I have a problem when I produce a product that is cheaper in another country bcs of their different economy, their different govt ‘rules’ (like being able to take short-cuts, use drugs, etc that I cannot), their tariffs on incoming & outgoing goods, as well as govt programs subsidizing a product (like farm programs etc.).
I just want a level playing field.
And bcs the govt currently vilifies small businesses & producers (through taxes, rules, etc), it makes it impossible to compete with these other nations.
That’s the problem I have.
I am more than willing to compete with other countries with the product that I produce.
I just think it’s sick they’re making me do it with both hands tied behind my back.

Badger40 on June 15, 2010 at 4:15 PM

You can’t justify hiring an American employee to do the work for dollars that a Chinese worker will do for pennies. That’s the problem.

The question is how do you create the circumstances that allow US workers to continue with a good standard of living while at the same time ensuring that those wages are justified ( rational ). You create demand for goods and labor by allowing fewer goods and laborers into your country. There isn’t even much of a demand to outsource when the end product won’t be coming back into the US.

You can argue that those justifiable wages you will have created aren’t “natural” because you limited foreign competition, but they are still justified wages on the playing field that you’ve created and that can be sustained.

Buddahpundit on June 15, 2010 at 4:27 PM

If you see what I said earlier, that disparity between compared economic conditions should be balanced by tariffs or something to that effect.
I am not advocating paying American workers Chinese wages.
What I am saying is that if the artificially mandated minimum wage does not support the specific job, then there is no incentive to hire someone for that position.
Those positions that would have initially been hired at a lower wage will now just be absorbed by the other employees.
This happens all the time-make fewer workers do the work of many. Multitasking.
This burdens everyone else, but saves the employer huge costs, allowing him to keep these people employed in the first place.
There are employers who are terrible to their employees, screwing them at every possible turn.
I have worked for places like this.
I quit working for them once I got treated like crap.
They have high turnover rates.
I was exploited in high school working at an ice cream shop for $2.35/hr in 1986-87. My boss said it was justified bcs we would make up the rest in tips.
But the work atmosphere did not encourage tips & we were not allowed to have a tip jar anywhere in the store.
I stayed there bcs I was a dumb kid & wanted the closest job to home.
I wouldn’t put up w/ that crap as an adult.
I believe much of the problem with jobs going overseas is union demands, onerous govt regulation, & WTO agreements that are hurtful to us.
These trade agreements we have with some countries seem to encourage abuse.
It would do to take a second look at a lot of them.

Badger40 on June 16, 2010 at 11:44 AM