Why the minimum wage should be $15.00 an hour.

First of all, I'm a regular guy, not a scientist or economist, and the first time I heard the bearded tattooed activist tried asked for my vote and proposed a $15.00 an hour minimum wage while handing me a Socialist newspaper, I had to politely but firmly decline. But I've been thinking about the issue a lot recently, and my own experience working at McDonald's. But the reason my mind is starting to change is not for the reasons that Rep. John Lewis gave, that the way things are now are not Just or Fair. This is because even though John Lewis went through much more than I have, and I have led a sheltered life, somehow he believes in and is optimistic about Justice and Fairness.... and somehow I am not and tend to run from issues about Justice and Fairness. But his words made me look at the issue in my mind.

The arguments drilled into me against the higher minimum wage come from a graph shown to me in a Macro Economics class in college, where higher minimum wage = higher unemployment. (Btw I did not do well in that class.) Other arguments are that the smaller business owner will suffer and will not be able to afford to hire more people. Most viscerally, this issue sounds like a Communist ideal, and since my Sifu is extremely anti-communist and my Grandfather may have been some sort of Kuomintang official, I am personally biased against those ideas. Finally, the first time I went to China and saw like a hundred people with brooms and mops and soapy water  (happily) cleaning  the airport sidewalk, when in America you would have one Union worker with a big street sweeper somehow do the job less efficiently, that became a visual representation of how is you can pay people a really low wage, you can hire a bunch of them, and so a bunch of people will have jobs.


As far as small business owners are concerned, this will be tough on them I guess. Even if they pay under the table and therefore pay less than the minimum wage, eventually they will have to pay closer to the minimum wage because it will be harder to get legal workers if McDonald's is paying $15.00 an hour.

Here's why a higher minimum wage is better for the government. The government is basically subsidizing McDonald's and other companies because people getting paid such a low wage who live in Public Housing, are paying a less than market rate on their project apartments because they can't afford to pay more. Same goes for people who have these low paying jobs and are also on Welfare. If they are just paid a higher wage, then the taxpayer doesn't have to pay the extra money to make up the difference. The big corporation that hires them will. And they can afford it. People making more money will spend more money and pay more taxes. Republicans and Conservatives should love this higher minimum wage thing. It will help balance the budget.

It's also good for society. If you have a choice between a decent, stable job, and say robbing, drug dealing and other crime, there are a lot of smart people who will choose the stable decent job. Now some people will always choose crime. Bernie Maddoff didn't need the money. But a lot of smart, driven, leaders are choosing to sell drugs at a young age because working at McDonald's for the low minimum wage and part time just doesn't cut it. Selling drugs and a lot of criminal work is a high stress job, where dying and going to jail are simply an everyday occupational hazard. Then once they go to jail they are again a drain on the taxpayer. They also make society more dangerous and make their children's lives more dangerous.Their children will end up also probably requiring all manners of social services and who foots the bill again? The taxpayer. So why not just solve a big chunk of the problem and make these corporations pay their fucking workers properly.

I actually worked at McDonald's for a very brief time. It was not easy. It was the most stressful job I ever had, paid the least and I also had to use the most amount of skills I ever had to use anywhere. At the McDonald's in Chinatown, I was definitely the only American born person working there, and probably the only citizen. The Hispanic workers (who thought I was one of them) did not speak English very well. Neither did the Chinese workers (who did not believe I was one of them until I started speaking to them in Chinese.) So I often had to translate Taishanese into Spanish. (I was still fluent in Spanish back then.)
The workers were never hired full time, no matter how long they worked there so they never had to be paid benefits or get a promotion. There was a lot of bullshit and cutting corners. I was working there not because I had to, but because I just wanted to help contribute to my family (which was my mother and me.) The reason why I didn't have to work there, was not because we were wealthy. But because I lived in the projects. So, Uncle Sam was footing the bill for me surviving.

Even though I worked there for such a short time, whenever I see my ex-coworkers on the street, we still say hi to each other and we formed a very strong bond in such a short time. That bond is nothing to fuck with. Part of the reason for that bond is the job was so hard, and the customers coming in could be such racist scum of the earth. (not everyone but a good amount) When you are worked hard like that, and are paid so little, you feel you have little to lose, and you can fight easily without thinking of the consequences. It will be cheaper for these Corporations to just pay these workers more than fight them in the long run.

As to McDonald's losing money, not only can they and other corporations afford to pay these workers more money, but I think they will make most if not all and then some more money back. Why? What are these workers going to do with their newly earned higher wages? Don't you think they might spend it at say some of the businesses that these Corporations own? Yeah maybe they might say, I can afford something better and healthier than McDonald's now that I make more money. But they might by something there sometimes, and if McDonald's makes healthier and better menus, yes they will still buy it. If they have babies, they need buy diapers. If Walmart pays its workers more money they will still probably buy stuff at Walmart. These corporations are fighting this. But in truth, they could end up better off for paying their workers more money if they just play their marketing strategy right.

Finally, paying these lowest paid workers a living wage will be good for the economy. It will loosed up a lot of money stuck at the top and move it around more. You want to talk about a real trickle down effect? Making it mandatory to pay these workers more money and they will spend more money. They will buy more stuff, go out more, they will be more willing to spend money on education. And I bet too, that women will be more likely to try and go for it, work a job, go to school and hold off on getting pregnant to try and get a man (boy) to commit to them (which usually doesn't work but a lot of girls have this strategy. Or a lot of girls have the strategy of getting pregnant because the government will foot the bill (they think) anyway.
But if a fighting chance to better themselves by saving up money and going to school is held out to them, even more so than has been the trend they will choose not to get pregnant (or sue contraceptive methods to avoid having children) until they are more established. Society benefits, the economy benefits. And the powers that be, the government and perhaps even the corporations (again if they are smart) will also benefit.


Again, I'm no expert, and maybe there is some unforeseen consequence. But that is always a possibility. In other words, increasing the minimum wage is at least worth a shot. Not because it is just or fair, but because it could be beneficial to everyone.