Over the past decade, California has doubled its minimum wage for most workers to $16 per hour. A big concern over that time was whether the increase would cause some workers to lose their jobs as employers’ expenses increased.
Instead, data showed wages went up and employment did not fall, said Michael Reich, a labor economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
“I was surprised at how little, or how difficult it was to find disemployment effects. If anything, we find positive employment effects,” Reich said.
Quoted from the article and emphasis added for those with reading comprehension difficulties.
Wages got decoupled from profits many years ago. These sorts of increases are about bringing them back in line.
Well that’s very interesting plot twist, I’m almost concerned about as long as minimum wage grows higher and higher company tend to mass layoff it’s worker & replace the worker with robot equipment
But your explanation give glimpse of hope for everyone, maybe increase minimum wage it’s not bad at all
But let’s see how long it will last bc you know… companies only care about profits and profits
Well that’s very interesting plot twist, I’m almost concerned about as long as minimum wage grows higher and higher company tend to mass layoff it’s worker & replace the worker with robot equipment
Not really. This same saw about minimum wage increases leading to inflation and unemployment gets pulled out every time the discussion comes up. And while I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns, the doom and gloom has failed to materialize time and again. I’m old enough that I was working through several US Federal Minimum Wage hikes and have heard the same claims every time. And while there will be some marginal rise in prices, it will be nothing like the rise caused by actual inflation and is really just businesses using the opportunity to adjust prices up while having a convenient excuse.
Worker replacement with automation also isn’t new. The industrial revolution was devastating for many sectors. Weaving used to be an actual cottage industry, with people renting time on looms or making cloth at home. Now, we all buy mass manufactured textiles made in massive, highly automated factories. Sure, it sucked for people dedicated to weaving at the time, but it’s been a long term good for society. People and markets eventually adjusted, and people now benefit from cheaper textiles. It’s a cycle we’ve run through with many products and we’ll run through it again with many more. The real test of a society isn’t in that society trying to hold back progress, it’s in how we protect the dignity and well-being of the affected workers as the shift happens. We’ll need strong social services to support workers whose jobs are automated away. Holding down wages doesn’t do that, it only enriches the already wealthy by allowing them to capture more profit at the expense of the workers.
Quoted from the article and emphasis added for those with reading comprehension difficulties.
Wages got decoupled from profits many years ago. These sorts of increases are about bringing them back in line.
Well that’s very interesting plot twist, I’m almost concerned about as long as minimum wage grows higher and higher company tend to mass layoff it’s worker & replace the worker with robot equipment
But your explanation give glimpse of hope for everyone, maybe increase minimum wage it’s not bad at all
But let’s see how long it will last bc you know… companies only care about profits and profits
Not really. This same saw about minimum wage increases leading to inflation and unemployment gets pulled out every time the discussion comes up. And while I am sure there is a point of diminishing returns, the doom and gloom has failed to materialize time and again. I’m old enough that I was working through several US Federal Minimum Wage hikes and have heard the same claims every time. And while there will be some marginal rise in prices, it will be nothing like the rise caused by actual inflation and is really just businesses using the opportunity to adjust prices up while having a convenient excuse.
Worker replacement with automation also isn’t new. The industrial revolution was devastating for many sectors. Weaving used to be an actual cottage industry, with people renting time on looms or making cloth at home. Now, we all buy mass manufactured textiles made in massive, highly automated factories. Sure, it sucked for people dedicated to weaving at the time, but it’s been a long term good for society. People and markets eventually adjusted, and people now benefit from cheaper textiles. It’s a cycle we’ve run through with many products and we’ll run through it again with many more. The real test of a society isn’t in that society trying to hold back progress, it’s in how we protect the dignity and well-being of the affected workers as the shift happens. We’ll need strong social services to support workers whose jobs are automated away. Holding down wages doesn’t do that, it only enriches the already wealthy by allowing them to capture more profit at the expense of the workers.
Let them do it. If they could they already would have.