There should be a minimum to establish a standard, but it shouldn't be increased very often as every time they do it nukes low skilled labor jobs.

Minimum wages are indeed harmful, which is why a nation needs to foster collective bargaining between trade unions and employer's federations over politically motived minimum wages.

personally i think minimum wage is a bad idea but well now abolishing in in the usa would just make things worse, it has not been increased since the 70s so pretty much every american who had a job made more money than todays collage graduates.

@cyndakaiser minimum wage hurts the economy, read milton friedman

I love how the minumum wage increases unemployment

Sources Cyndakaiser? Because Paying employees more would certainly tank any small business due to obvious reasons.

@TurtleShroom It may seem strange to you, but thats actually not true. Raising the minimum wage does not cause inflation, which has been shown to raise at a fairly steady rate regardless of minimum wage changes.

What it does do is incentivize productivity. Where $15 MW's have been placed in the U.S., unemployment has dropped noticeably and productivity has gone up. And as far as businesses having to raise their prices, consider this: in Australia, the MW is $17.29, a Big Mac is the same price, and it doesn't seem to be impeding Australia's economic growth at all.

It should also increase middle wages as those who make more then minimum wage would have leverage for which to negotiate higher wages.

What does this have to do with liberals? It's not a social policy

Surely capitalists would hate the NMW as they'd then have to pay their staff more?

Props on making the Minimum Wage increase poverty and unemployment, by the way. That's often forgotten because people assume that wages go up and nothing happens to the companies and prices magically stay the same. The MW should also decrease the GDP significantly. Personally, though, I think you should balance all that loss by making it greatly increase the Poor demographic's Respect. I dobn't think that bar is high enough.


@Proysen
The Minimum Wage forces employers to pay more for their employees, so they have to account for the loss elsewhere, either by raising prices or firing workers. Say goodbye to less than five dollar burgers if you jack the MW to fifteen bucks.

Minimum wage makes sure that everyone becomes a potential customer. Poor people = Less customers = Less money.

@TurtleShroom - While this is true for Capitalist's, any anyone looking for the path of capitalism may want the real affects of minimum wage in a capitalist veiw.

Minimum wage is considered an enemy of capitalism and any true market economist would oppose it.