Mar 3, 2021 2 min read

Minimum wage thoughts

One argument that proponents for raising the minimum like to mention is that many employers such as Walmart and other retailers “already pay $13 to 15 per hour.” This should be taken as the exact reason why we don’t need to adjust it! The market will self-adjust, and wages in a locality are a function of the free market. The government should not and does not need to get involved.

There is tremendous competition for workers who typically earn minimum wage, such as teens ages 16 to 19. Refer to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Teenage Labor force participation rates age 16-19. From 1950 until year 2000, roughly 50 to 60% of teenagers worked. From year 2000 onward, it has fallen off sharply. It is currently about 25%. So we have only 1 in 4 teens working, be it lack of desire, lack of need, laziness, whatever the reason may be. As a result of supply and demand, competition is high for entry-level workers and wages are rising without government intervention.

In our local area it is very rare to find anywhere that starts at less than $9 an hour. Many are $10-plus currently for entry-level with zero work expertise. Western Pennsylvania can and should be different from Hawaii or Alabama. Federal intervention, as with most things in life, should be avoided at all costs. Many small businesses are in competition with national chains for employees, so they follow suit and raise wages to attract their own talent, even if they are less able to absorb these costs through pricing or cost reductions.

Artificially raising the wage will disproportionately hurt small businesses that are already at a significant disadvantage to large chains. It’s a bad idea and completely unnecessary. Governmental intervention is absolutely not necessary and should be avoided at all costs.

Tony White

Washington