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Klingsor

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keenobserver

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Thikn2velvet1

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Maybe if the workers banded together, formed some kind of collective unit for bargaining purposes.

Now there's an idea!

I agree. If the SEIU wants to organize Target workers, good by me. I do not have an interest in that fight. OTOH, public sector unions cost me money, without adequate representation.
 

Klingsor

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Why not make their wages $50 an hour? If you are just going to set them by fiat, $50 would get them to $100000/ year. Isn’t that even better? What could go wrong?

Clearly there has to be a balance in setting a minimum wage--not too high for employers, not too low for employees.

My question is, do you believe there should be a minimum wage at all?
 
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TexanStar

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Target raised wages. But some workers say their hours were cut, leaving them struggling - CNN

If you raise a companies expenses, they will do all to get them lower again.

Note that it's all very round about. It's not that they're cutting employee hours because they can't afford to pay them $15/hr. They are cutting employee hours because they are shifting towards a higher ratio of part time employees -vs- full time employees which takes employees off their medical plan. They are hiring more employees (35,000 in the last two years alone) at the same time they are cutting hours.

That could be driven by the wage increase, but it could just as easily be driven by free market pressure to increase profit margins. Wages could've been left unchanged and they still might've gone this route because wall street is a bastard.
 

Thikn2velvet1

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Note that it's all very round about. It's not that they're cutting employee hours because they can't afford to pay them $15/hr. They are cutting employee hours because they are shifting towards a higher ratio of part time employees -vs- full time employees which takes employees off their medical plan. They are hiring more employees (35,000 in the last two years alone) at the same time they are cutting hours.

That could be driven by the wage increase, but it could just as easily be driven by free market pressure to increase profit margins. Wages could've been left unchanged and they still might've gone this route because wall street is a bastard.

Shouldn’t companies always pursue higher profit margins? What point is there to reduce profit margins?

Fundamentally as Milton Friedman stated, increasing shareholder equity is the only goal a company should pursue.

Asking companies to solve social issues rarely works. Anyways the market will crush labor inefficiencies without mercy. The Wall Street Journal had an article on cashier-free convenience stores just today. Amazon and a number of competing start ups will eliminate the need for labor intensive retail quite ruthlessly.
 

Thikn2velvet1

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Clearly there has to be a balance in setting a minimum wage--not too high for employers, not too low for employees.

My question is, do you believe there should be a minimum wage at all?

Forcing companies to pay inefficient salaries will have the unintended consequence of eliminating jobs.

However to answer your question, no, there should not be minimum wage laws. They don’t work.
 

TexanStar

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Shouldn’t companies always pursue higher profit margins? What point is there to reduce profit margins?

Yes, but there is the myopic view and the big picture.

China has a larger work force than the USA, but reduced pay and reduced benefits don't translate to bigger profits in the macro scale.

At the end of the day, companies need a robust middle class that can in turn afford to purchase their products. Cutting into the bone with respect to worker salaries and benefits is not a long term profitability strategy.
 

Klingsor

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However to answer your question, no, there should not be minimum wage laws. They don’t work.

People who make minimum wage, as opposed to what they might take home without such laws, would probably disagree with you. And since more than 90% of all countries have some kind of minimum wage legislation, there seems to be a general consensus that it does serve a useful purpose.
 
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deleted15807

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You work really hard at being obtuse .

That’s spot on the reason you cannot hold a debate grounded in fact and reason with them. Whether they are intentionally obtuse or it’s genetic or they’re paid to be that’s way it’s anybody’s guess. But it’s clear you can’t “fix” it.
 

Thikn2velvet1

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People who make minimum wage, as opposed to what they might take home without such laws, would probably disagree with you. And since more than 90% of all countries have some kind of minimum wage legislation, there seems to be a general consensus that it does serve a useful purpose.

If they have any useful skills, they would not need a wage law. I personally never hired anyone at the minimum, I could not find anyone who would take that job.
 

Industrialsize

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If they have any useful skills, they would not need a wage law. I personally never hired anyone at the minimum, I could not find anyone who would take that job.
Picking vegetables is a useful skill.........