Great Article from the Washington Post
On the pointlessness of raising the minimum wage.
To quote:
"Nomey Druskin, manager of the Rainbow Hair Designers at the White Flint Mall, employs six shampooers. Mostly Hispanic immigrants, they are paid at the low end of the wage scale. Druskin should be particularly interested in the Democrats' intention to raise the minimum wage when they take over Congress, right?
Somehow, I doubt the Post intended to make the case against raising the wage so eloquently.
To quote:
"Nomey Druskin, manager of the Rainbow Hair Designers at the White Flint Mall, employs six shampooers. Mostly Hispanic immigrants, they are paid at the low end of the wage scale. Druskin should be particularly interested in the Democrats' intention to raise the minimum wage when they take over Congress, right?
She's not. Druskin pays her shampooers at the North Bethesda salon a base rate of more than $8 an hour. That's higher than the federal minimum wage ($5.15), higher than Maryland's minimum wage ($6.15) and higher than what the Democrats are proposing federally ($7.25). In fact, the median hourly rate for all shampooers in the Bethesda-Gaithersburg area, according to federal statistics, is $7.48 -- above all mandated minimums.
Druskin said the shampooers at her 30-year-old salon earn what they earn -- plus tips -- for a few reasons. First and foremost, it would be inhumane to pay them less, she said, given the cost of living in the Washington region. And if she didn't pay them a decent salary, she couldn't attract good, stable help. The shampooers wouldn't smile as easily at their customers. The hair wouldn't be washed just right, and the business, which serves a high-end clientele, would suffer.'We have to pay them enough to make them happy and for them to live happily,' Druskin said. 'It's a domino effect from the bottom up. We want the clients to be happy.'"
As the article drives home, wages are set by productivity, not by government legislation. Its really as simple as that.Somehow, I doubt the Post intended to make the case against raising the wage so eloquently.
posted by Ben-T | 3:25 PM
1 Comments:
This is the reason that people overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage. The equilibrium wage rate is already above 7 in most places so it isn't a big deal. In rural America it still isn't a big deal. A study of illegal immigrants in California shows them making almost 8 an hour. Why? Because, as the article shows, the companies can't get people to be productive enough unless they pay a decent wage. And the few places that still pay lower wages will simply hire under the table. Raising the min. was a monumental waste of time.
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