This should kill the meme that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs

[muntrv]

Raising the minimum wage is a terrible idea, they say. Stores will just raise their prices or fire staff.

Maybe not.

Meet the Oster Stainless Steel Toaster Oven, Target Stores Part #072-09-0170:


Santa Fe has the highest minimum wage in the country. Boise has the federal minimum wage, and Idaho has the highest proportion of minimum wage workers in the country.

This toaster oven costs the same - $49.99 - in both cities. And yes, I called both stores to confirm that the price they are selling it at is the same as the price that Target lists online.

Santa Fe had a Walmart store. When it raised its minimum wage to the highest in the nation, the company retaliated by...opening a second Walmart store, employing 300 more people.

That's two Walmart's in a town of 70,000, in addition to a Target, a K-Mart, a Kohls, a Sears, a JC Penny, as well as a Sam's Club - because, you know, the two Walmarts aren't enough.

SEE MORE AT LINK BELOW

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/04/1191451/-What-this-toaster-oven-says-about-the-minumum-wage

[Kingofalldems]

1. Kick and rec

[Warpy]

2. It's very true, prices don't go up. Business does.

That's the paradoxical thing about wage increases, they increase business far above the original expense of increasing the wages as long as it's a wage floor that is increased across the board.

The money pump in any economy works from the bottom up, not the top down. All levels do much better if labor is paid adequately, meaning enough for nutritious food, safe housing, medical care, and disposable income that can be saved for both emergencies and retirement.

There has never been any movement to roll back a higher minimum wage once the paradox has been noted and store owners are counting their increased sales. That includes in Santa Fe.

[stevenleser]

6. That is the key thing. "The money pump in any economy works from the bottom up, not the top down."

Republicans think they have proof of the opposite from Reagan's Presidency. Truth is, Reagan only appeared successful because the price of oil and gas dropped by 50% in his first three years due to the end of the Iran hostage crisis.

It's hard to stop an economy from expanding in a situation like that.

[Mnemosyne]

3. K&R nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. It's like in Germany, a McDonalds employee gets all the goodies like paid vacations.

[SmileyRose]

5. if pushing wages down was great for business

lord and taylor would be in west philly.

[TygrBright]

7. Actually, the population of Santa Fe COUNTY is about twice that.

To be realistic, it should be noted that Santa Fe provides a retail center for not only the city itself, but the surrounding county and points north. We probably draw on a population base of about 200,000 residents. Plus close to 2 million tourists a year- and while they don't come here to shop at Target or Wallyworld, they DO support them to some degree.

What makes this more remarkable, in my opinion, is that tourism is in fact our major economic engine. We do have the state government, and a few other businesses, but tourism is the big kahuna. A major source of decibels about The Coming Jobpocalypse if the living wage ordinance passed was the dire threats of the hospitality industry. If they couldn't cheapass their labor, they'd have to raise prices or go out of business and the tourist industry would collapse! Collapse, I tell you!!

Apparently, though, our vibrant arts and cultural environment, our rich history, the natural beauty, the green chile, and our friendly and appreciative attitude as we relieve tourists of their entertainment dollars have more impact than the minimum wage here. Visitors continue to visit.

Frankly, I think our minimum wage is still too low. I'd be ashamed to pay any of my workers minimum wage. But it's a start.

Viva la Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís!

loyally,
Bright

[Zoeisright]

8. Raising the minimum wage has NEVER hurt the economy.

That's a repuke lie.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. This is what the very rich have to say about wages and the economy:

From the 2006 leaked Citigroup "Plutonomy" memo:

-In the US, UK, and Canada, the top 20% drive the economy, not the spending of the lower 80%. "There is no 'the consumer'".
-The rich call the proportion of monies distributed between owners and workers "profit share" and they prefer the enormous disproportion currently experienced in the US.

Not in the memo but certainly symptomatic are the corporate think tank ALEC's "right to work" laws being installed around the country, which bust unions. Unions provide workers with organizing and bargaining rights. Unions drive up wages for the rest of us, I've recently read. The very rich, in order to keep profit share disproportional, are working since Reagan to destroy unions and the middle class so that workers can never make demands and become in effect, disposable and powerless. Whether workers make $1 a day or $10 an hour does not effect the sector of the economy surrounding and servicing the very rich. It -does- effect how much trickles up to them.

Wages do not matter in regard to the debt created by the rich through which to force down the rest of the country. $1 trillion in student loan debt, for example, as well as forcing us to pay for Bush's wars and bank and wall street bailouts. Raise wages and they're still stealing from us in other ways.

Scattered analysis of the "Plutonomy" memo:

http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-leaked-2006-citigroup-plutonomy-memo.html

[Paladin]

10. That Meme Comes Up Every Time Raising The Minimum Wage Is Proposed.

Every single time, like clock work. And every single time, subsequent events prove such predictions to be bullshit.

[reformist2]

11. It could kill jobs, in theory, but min wage would have to be a lot higher for that to start happenin