high unemployment and the minimum wage

[rainstorm]

MINIMUM WAGE AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Caught a bit on the news over the weekend about jobs and unemployment. Washington State, it seems, has the highest minimum wage in the entire country. The Washington minimum wage is two dollars and change above the federal level. Well, guess what? Washington also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country! Imagine that! Fact is, of the seven states with the highest unemployment rates in the nation, five of them have state mandated minimum wages that are higher than the federal level.

Anyone with a basic understanding of economics would not be surprised by these statistics. Individuals have job skills that they take to the employment marketplace looking for a buyer. Employers have jobs to offer to people with the appropriate job skills, but these employers also have budget to meet. Each job has a value to the employer. Employers simply cannot afford to pay someone more for their job skills than those skills are worth to the employers. So, along comes government to tell the employer that he must pay more for job skills than the value of those skills to the employer. The result? The employer doesn't hire. Why hire someone for a basic job that requires few skills when you will be forced by government to pay more for those skills than they are worth to you? The result? High unemployment rates.

This news story I was watching on Fox News Channel featured someone from Washington State named Eric Franklin. He was with some group called "Jobs with Justice." There's another trigger word for you. "Justice." Everybody wants justice, don't they? But nobody spends much time trying to define the concept. I'll save you the trouble. "Justice" is when someone gets what they deserve. If you have failed to develop marketable job skills, then you won't be paid very much. This is what you deserve. This is what you have earned. This is justice.

Franklin says that the purpose of the high minimum wage is to "invest in people." Franklin doesn't have a clue. Businesses don't exist to "invest in people." They exist to make money for their owners. To do that you must avoid paying people more than their labor is worth to your business enterprise. It's not about investing, it's about paying for needed job skills.

By the way; many of the people in Washington who are looking for jobs have said that they would gladly work for less than the state mandated minimum wage. Trouble is, they can't. They're willing to work for less, and the employer is willing to pay them less ... but here comes the government to tell the worker and the employer that they will not be permitted to enter into a private contract unless it meets state requirements. That's why we call this a "free country."
http://www.boortz.com

[coriolis]

Enter the illegals..........

[streetsoldier]

A word from one of my favorite late entrepreneurs, Boulware...

When government artificially raises the minimum wage, they actually INCREASE the unemployment rolls; this, because the new wage dips into the overall costs of doing business (especially the small business manager/owner), who must then cut his staff and services to remain competitive.

As a result, we all suffer...the consumer, the would-be entry-level employee, the small business, the local tax base, and the economy as a whole.

[rainstorm]

of course, this story was only on fox news. it wont be on cnn, lol!!