A Livable Minimum Wage Will NOT Cost Jobs

I have to admit that the graphic image above (from the Facebook page of Working America) makes a lot of sense to me. The same companies that whine about having to pay a higher minimum wage ($10.10 an hour, or about $21,000 a year) will happily pay their CEOs $10,000 an hour (and other executives nearly that much). They want us to believe exorbitant executive pay is necessary while paying workers a barely livable wage would be unmanageable.

Personally, I think that's a load of horse crap, and it's an immoral position to take. There is simply no way to justify paying a full-time worker a poverty wage. If it's a reliable and hard worker, then they should be paid a livable wage -- and if that worker is not reliable and hard-working, they should be replaced with someone who is.

The Republicans, on behalf of their big business buddies, are still trying to float the argument that raising the minimum wage to a livable level ($10.10 an hour at least) would cost jobs. They say it would force businesses to lay off workers. That's a false argument, and many studies have shown it is simply not true.

The truth is that businesses hire the amount of workers they need to provide adequate service to their customers. If they hire more workers than are needed, then they are just wasting money -- something no business wants to do. And if they hire less workers than necessary, the service will suffer and they will lose customers because of it. Those customers will go to a business that provides the service they need.

That means that any business that lays off workers because the minimum wage is raised is just cutting their own throat. They will lose business to their competitors (who kept enough workers to service their customers adequately). And the argument that they could no longer compete unless they laid off workers is ridiculous, since their competitors will be required to pay the same minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wage will not cause huge layoffs. It will not do it because businesses will keep the workers they need -- even if they have to slightly raise their prices. Customers will pay a slightly higher price as long as they receive the service they want. But they will not stay with a company that gives poor service (even to save a little money). Customers like to get a good price, but not at the expense of poor service.

This is just Business 101 folks -- and anyone who tells you different is lying to you.