Could a $9 Minimum Wage Reduce Illegal Immigration?

Originally posted by MDDoxs
Wowzer, I did not even realize minimum wage in the US was only $7.25/hr!! Is that nation wide or does it vary from state to state as it does up here in Canada. We are currently sitting at 10.25/hr in Ontario Canada.

How can you expect to survive on that, even though i know many manage it.

Job cuts would be the result of an increased minimum wage I think.

They manage it because the employees also get paid by the government in the form of welfare. Thus every employer who pays these low wages gets a subsidy from the government for the cost of their employees. You can't get rid of welfare until you get those on welfare making more money.

The minimum wage argument is a joke. You do realize that when the minimum wage is raised, it raises the cost of goods to be produced. That cost is then passed to the consumer creating inflation. Inflation then hits the market making all those peoples new increases in wage worthless.

Minimum wage is a gimic for the weak minded to latch onto. they dont understand that there is always the other side of the equation when you increase minimum wage. Because they dont understand this, typically is the reason there working on minimum wage.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

where are the wonderful things from the last raises in Min. Wage

Probably one of the best questions/points I've seen raised about this issue.

Immigration reform will not work out like they think. The real reason they want to make illegal immigrants citizens is to fund big government. The illegals will immediately get an SS number/card and will have to pay into the system. Do you think they will like that? Nope! A huge number will stay under the radar rather than give Uncle Sam a piece of their paycheck.

Originally posted by camaro68ss
Minimum wage argument is a joke. You do realize that when the minimum wage is raised, it raises the cost of goods to be produced. That cost is then passed to the consumer creating inflation. Inflation then hits the market making all those peoples new increases in wage worthless.

Ya, thats the Cause of Inflation.
The Feds Printing Press running "red hot" has nothing to do with it.

So lets keep the Slave Wagers Starving.

Originally posted by Tw0Sides

Originally posted by camaro68ss
Minimum wage argument is a joke. You do realize that when the minimum wage is raised, it raises the cost of goods to be produced. That cost is then passed to the consumer creating inflation. Inflation then hits the market making all those peoples new increases in wage worthless.

Ya, thats the Cause of Inflation.
The Feds Printing Press running "red hot" has nothing to do with it.

So lets keep the Slave Wagers Starving.

There are multiple triggers for inflation. The fed is one of them, raising the minimum wage is another.

Increasing minimum wage without increase productivity only increase the cost of goods produced and sold. Companies will not eat the cost and will pass those costs onto the consumer.

Minimum wage is only ment to be a “ base” for a starting job, your ambitions should not be to stay at minimum wage but to work your way up. There is no "slave wages". I worked my way up from minimum wage to making a very good living now. I worked my way up by becoming extremely valuable to my boss, without me in operations, he loses money. People have more power then you think, you just need to stop playing the victim and learn what makes the world go round

A lot of illegals are paid under the table, so what the minimum wage is makes no difference. As long as there are employers who do this, we will have illegal immigration.

Crack down on the employers who knowingly hire illegals, make sure all employers verify citizenship or visa status, and have occasional checks at places like construction job sites, farms, and factories, and you will have choked the flow off at the source of the problem.

I think raising minimum wage to reduce illegal immigration is like setting out a bowl of honey next to a stream, to reduce the amount of fish swimming by. One has no effect on the other. The employer that hires them illegally certainly isn't going to worry about minimum wage laws in the first place.

I can say for a Fact, that Every Poster knows some close Family Member or friend who works for Min Wage.

Are these people to be Denied a Better Quality of Life?

Originally posted by Tw0Sides
I can say for a Fact, that Every Poster knows some close Family Member or friend who works for Min Wage.

Are these people to be Denied a Better Quality of Life?

Those working on minimum wage have no marketable skills. When you gain skills, people pay you better for those skills.

Yes i think my "family members and friends" should have a better quality of life, but they should stive to do so by there own merit. This is accomplished by making yourself so valuable to you employer, he is forced to pay you more by market principles. If my employer fails to see my value, you leave and join another team. If you leave and there is no notable change from your absence, then you were not a very good employee to begin with.

reply to post by Tw0Sides


I totally agree. It is however unfortunate that raising the minimum wage will cause job loss and create more poor. The unintended consequences are truly unfortunate. There are other ways to go about raising the minimum wage without hurting business. A tarrif on imported goods that are undercutting the goods we produce would be a start. That would have to be given to the businesses instead of spent though. That would be a problem. I'm sure it would be lost in red tape.

Higher minimum wage means that prices will need to go up to be able to pay the higher wages.No one will really benefit from this as the buying power will remain the same.
The government will benefit greatly from this because higher minimum wage will make a lot of the working poor who are currently eligible for government assistance no longer eligible because they will be making too much money to qualify.
The increase will result in about a $5,000 annual increase in a minimum wage workers pay, and that is more than enough to put a lot of working poor over the limit to qualify for government assistance.

The buying power of the working poor will remain the same but they will no longer qualify for government assistance so they will be worse off while the government will be better off because they will be able to remove a lot of people from government assistance and save a lot of money that they can give away in the form of corporate welfare to their corrupt buddies and banksters.

Unless the government raises the poverty level limits for qualifying for government assistance, the working poor are going to be hurt by a raise in minimum wage.

The raise in minimum wage will do nothing to reduce illegal workers.
The reasons why employers hire illegal workers instead of hiring legal workers will remain the same so a higher minimum wage will do nothing to create an incentive to hire legal workers over illegal workers.

employers don`t have to pay any of the government mandated costs like unemployment insurance, workers comp, social security etc when they hire illegal workers.A higher minimum wage will not remove those government mandated costs so the incentive to continue to hire illegal workers will remain the same regardless of how high or how low the minimum wage is.
It`s not so much the wages that hinder hiring of legal workers over illegal workers, it`s all the added government mandated costs.
An employer can probably hire 2 or 3 or 4 illegal workers for the same cost of hiring 1 legal worker even if he pays the illegal workers minimum wage.
An employer gets 3 or 4 times as much productivity and profit from illegal workers because they can hire a lot more of them for the same cost of hiring legal workers, even if he pays them all minimum wage.

Originally posted by jimmiec
reply to post by Tw0Sides

 

I totally agree. It is however unfortunate that raising the minimum wage will cause job loss and create more poor. The unintended consequences are truly unfortunate. There are other ways to go about raising the minimum wage without hurting business. A tarrif on imported goods that are undercutting the goods we produce would be a start. That would have to be given to the businesses instead of spent though. That would be a problem. I'm sure it would be lost in red tape.

There is another way. Dropping the minimum wage all togeather.

Drop Minimum Wage, Save the World

Originally posted by camaro68ss
This is accomplished by making yourself so valuable to you employer, he is forced to pay you more by market principles. If my employer fails to see my value, you leave and join another team.

Your entire reply was well thought out, but I choose to Center in on these quotes Lines.
I think I would be in Line saying the Majority of Min Jobs are in the Services Industries, mostly Foods and Retail.

With todays Unemployment Rates, Employers have no Incentives to Reward with Pay Increases, the Unemployment Pool is too deep, and Fear of rejoining the Unemployed Masses will keep workers quiet.

There are too many unskilled labor jobs that Americans simply will not do, regardless of pay. Migrant farm hands make very little and follow the harvest, working long days picking whatever fruit or vegetable happens to be in harvest at the time. Not that farmers pay these people anything close to minimum wage, but if they did, a couple extra bucks an hour won't motivate many.

Plus, the cost of American grown fruits and vegetables would sky rocket.

Originally posted by Tw0Sides

Originally posted by camaro68ss
This is accomplished by making yourself so valuable to you employer, he is forced to pay you more by market principles. If my employer fails to see my value, you leave and join another team.

Your entire reply was well thought out, but I choose to Center in on these quotes Lines.
I think I would be in Line saying the Majority of Min Jobs are in the Services Industries, mostly Foods and Retail.

With todays Unemployment Rates, Employers have no Incentives to Reward with Pay Increases, the Unemployment Pool is too deep, and Fear of rejoining the Unemployed Masses will keep workers quiet.

Yes, your correct. In todays market its hard to find a job so my example now only works in trying to retain that job. Are woes are alot deeper then a minimum wage increase.

In regards to the service industries, food and retail, typically are held on by the youthful non skilled labor force, those either in college or high school, yes there are Exceptions. For the most part these “service" jobs are just that, jobs, not careers. There the starting points for all new workers to understand what a days worth of work is.

My comment here is a bit off topic, but in reply I've long been thinking now that legalization of drugs is probably the best way to defeat cartels

Very true mate, essentialy the massive influx in illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America are people basicaly fleeing what is internal war brought on by the fact they live in a state that is controlled by the cartels, and the cartels maintain there power by the proffits they generate from illegal narcotics. The people are refugees more than anything else.

But then drugs are bad mmmm'kay, so what you gonna do, to me it is obvious they should be legalised and regulated and im not sure why they are not, clearly someone has a reason for it, but I guess we will never know. Maybe more people should think of it this way

War on Drugs = Illegal Immigration.

Originally posted by Tw0Sides

Originally posted by camaro68ss
This is accomplished by making yourself so valuable to you employer, he is forced to pay you more by market principles. If my employer fails to see my value, you leave and join another team.

Your entire reply was well thought out, but I choose to Center in on these quotes Lines.
I think I would be in Line saying the Majority of Min Jobs are in the Services Industries, mostly Foods and Retail.

With todays Unemployment Rates, Employers have no Incentives to Reward with Pay Increases, the Unemployment Pool is too deep, and Fear of rejoining the Unemployed Masses will keep workers quiet.

Most min wage jobs are in the service industry. You have to remember though, most of those companies have a very small profit margin and simply can't afford a large increase in wages.

Most min wage jobs are in the service industry. You have to remember though, most of those companies have a very small profit margin and simply can't afford a large increase in wages.

Because of the small margins any increase in wages will be passed down to the consumer, reducing what little traffic they already have coming into their stores because of prices and the economic conditions we live in at the moment.

Actually raising minimum wage does accomplish one little detail...it increases the revenue gained by taxes on wages. The rates brackets do not change nor adjust for inflation. Hence everyone was for the tax on those rich people that made more than $5000/yr back in the 1930's never once considering that a minimum wage would bee created to put more workers on the tax rolls.

reply to post by Ahabstar


Except for the fact that minimum wage workers generally get "Unearned Income Credit" That means when they file their taxes they get back more than they paid in.