On Thursday, fast food workers in over 100 US cities will walk off the job to demand an increase in the minimum wage to $15. The current rate is $7.25 and President Obama has already committed to backing a Senate measure to raise it to $10.10. The walkout is supposed to create sympathy for minimum wage earners, but it’s time for some straight talk about the minimum wage and the fast food industry.<\/p>\n
Fast food jobs are often referred to as “entry level” because they represent a starting point for those lacking skills, good work habits and experience. They only become long term for those who fail to develop the skills, job habits, or ambition necessary to move up or move on. The idea that unskilled workers should be able to raise a family on minimum wage is mere socialist rhetoric. In our economy, most fast food workers are not worth $15 an hour, which is they aren’t already paid that now.<\/p>\n
Proponents of a higher minimum wage fail to understand that someone must pay for it, and that someone always <\/em>ends up to be\u00a0the customer. In fact, an increase in wages at fast food restaurants will have little if any impact on profits. When the mandated cost of labor rises, companies respond by using less of it whenever possible and raising prices to make up the difference. This means there would be fewer entry-level jobs available for unemployed Americans who desperately need work, quite possibly fewer hours–perhaps less than 30 per week–for those who are able to retain their jobs at the higher hourly rate, and higher prices for the food we purchase. As economists say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, not even at a fast food restaurant.<\/p>\n There’s also a misconception about who earns minimum wage. According to the BLS, only 1.6 million of the 75.3 hourly workers in the US in 2012 were paid the minimum wage. But labor leaders know than an increase in the minimum wage would have a ripple effect to other workers as well. Some union contracts even mandate wage increases that are tied to changes in the minimum wage, so an increase in the bottom rate will push other rates up as well.<\/p>\n In the end, raising the minimum wage is bad economic policy and ultimately hurts those its proponents claim to be helping. It not only gives employers an incentive to hire fewer workers and cut hours, but also promotes an entitlement mentality among those entering or about to enter the work force. Our economy needs lots of burger-flipping jobs at market wages<\/em> for those who need a place to start. Mandating that companies overpay these workers eliminates the opportunities these workers so desperately need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Thursday, fast food workers in over 100 US cities will walk off the job to demand an increase in the minimum wage to $15. The current rate is $7.25 and President Obama has already committed to backing a Senate measure to raise it to $10.10. The walkout is supposed to create sympathy for minimum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}