help me do my HW (whether min. wage should be raised)

[b33nz]

i need ten reasons each for whether minimum wage should be left alone or whether it should be raised. give me some good reasons why you think it should be raised or left alone. thx.

[Gunny Highway]

Raised. It's the only way people like you will be able to earn a living.

Also, why are those the only two options. Why didn't you include the option that actually makes sense?

[pudley4]

Raised - because then people will have more money to lose to me at poker.

[ahnuld]

a higher minimum wage would result in larger unemployment.

Minimum wage skewes the labour demand and supply curve and creates a gap which results in unemployment.

[waxie]

[ QUOTE ]
a higher minimum wage would result in larger unemployment.

Minimum wage skewes the labour demand and supply curve and creates a gap which results in unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much every academic study of the minimum wage has shown that this is not true. For example, NY and NJ have both raised the minimum wage and PA has not. Unemployment is not higher in NY and NJ-- in fact, it's slightly lower in the Garden State.

[Gunny Highway]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
a higher minimum wage would result in larger unemployment.


Minimum wage skewes the labour demand and supply curve and creates a gap which results in unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much every academic study of the minimum wage that has been conducted by bleeding heart liberal idiots has shown that this is not true. For example, NY and NJ have both raised the minimum wage and PA has not. Unemployment is not higher in NY and NJ-- in fact, it's slightly lower in the Garden State due to other factors completely unrelated to the minimum wage.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Georgia Avenue]

Just go with "abolished..." it's radical, and mostly untenable but at least you'll be thinking "outside the box>."

[waxie]

I get it. Unemployment is caused by the minimum wage, but if unemployment does not increase it has nothing to do with the minimum wage.

I agree that lower unemoplyment levels in NJ are not related to the minimum wage. However, there has not been a credible study done in the past 15 years that shows a connection between unemployment and the minimum wage. If you can point me to a single journal article-- either in economics, politics, or business, then I'll stand corrected. Since I just wrote a lengthy research paper on this topic, I wish you good luck.

[kipin]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
a higher minimum wage would result in larger unemployment.

Minimum wage skewes the labour demand and supply curve and creates a gap which results in unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much every academic study of the minimum wage has shown that this is not true. For example, NY and NJ have both raised the minimum wage and PA has not. Unemployment is not higher in NY and NJ-- in fact, it's slightly lower in the Garden State.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem only comes into play when the minimum wage is set above market wages. If I were to guess, NY and NJ minimum wage is still below "living standards". The price floor has been set below equilibrium, so there is no effect.

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but NY and NJ have a far higher cost of living than PA.

[Sephus]

[ QUOTE ]
a higher minimum wage would result in larger unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

while "theoretically correct" the empirical evidence for this is less than convincing. the effect is probably less than theory predicts if there is a real effect at all. the possible reasons for the discrepancy between what theory predicts and what happens in the real world are too complicated to get into here.

[ QUOTE ]
Minimum wage skewes the labour demand and supply curve and creates a gap which results in unemployment.

[/ QUOTE ]

actually the minimum wage does not directly cause any shift in the labor supply/labor demand curves. the curves are still the same and so their intersection Wequil is still the same. the effect comes from a Wmin that is higher than Wequil. the labor supply curve intersects Wmin at a higher level of E than the labor demand curve does, and the differnce between those levels of E is the unemployment "gap."

this would be because firms choose to cut employment and some people who didn't want to work at Wequil now do want to work at Wmin.