This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

When a Viable Solution Isn't Accepted

So yesterday when I was in the city, I saw a man talking to another man going off about the minimum wage and how it shouldn't be increased but instead not even regulated. The second man, kind of, didn't seem to understand the other entirely, but he stayed in the conversation, until I just so happened to have made my way in. And so I began with a small apology for cutting in and then asking, "Why wouldn't wage increases be good for this country?" 

He went on to say, "I don't think it's a good idea to raise the minimum wage. If the wages are raised then so does the price of products produced. If employers have to pay their employees more than they have to find some way to earn more money and the only way to do that is raise prices." 

My rebuttal: "But wages at $7.25 are far too low to live on especially in the city areas, where these wages are primarily earned. They should be increased because then people would be able to survive on what they make without having heavy reliance on supplemental income provided by the government. This would also increase personal spending which would then boost the economy, especially private sectors and business revenue. When it comes to price increases whenever one of my friends says to radically increase the minimum wage to like $15-$20 (not lying here, people have suggested this) that's when I make the exact point you just made, but logically large scale employers have no need to raise prices if they are making millions upon millions in profit as it is." 

The man: But for small companies they would have to do so. Also for food suppliers or factories.. it really depends on the business but there would be a raise in prices in a sense. 

Me: Small companies (depending on the size) may or may not have to, but even if they do, it would be an acceptable increase by most consumers' standards because it is, in fact, a small business, and people generally as long as we are promoting small businesses, and they are running fair business practices, all will go well. Food suppliers and factories wouldn't really be impacted if you take into account their net revenue and profits. 

The man: So you don't think it would be more difficult for consumers to want to buy product? Take someone who walks into a store and if they look at the price tag and realize how it's gone up, I think that would put them off. 

Me: Prices wouldn't shoot up $5 or $10 overnight nor over a short span of time. A $1 increase would most likely occur, say in the food industry. Now $1 is not a high price to pay. But in either case, even a price increase won't put people off. Prices have been increasing on basically all consumer goods and people buy them, regardless. People even buy big ticket items like smartphones, LED TVs, laptops, tablets, designer clothes, shoes, handbags, jewels, etc... Why don't those prices put them off? You're holding an iPhone 5s in your hand right now, its price didn't put you off? There is an iPhone 5c, which is cheaper, you know? (Let the record show that I didn't say this with an attitude.) And don't forget that the country, or businesses in the country rather, are not limited from selling internationally, and a price increase in a foreign nation wouldn't be a domestic dilemma, it would be a corporate decision. So, take Frito-Lay for example, which generated above $15 billion in profits worldwide in the past year, what need would they have to increase the cost of a bag of chips just to increase the wage to say $10.10 for 48,000 (minimum wage earning) employees? They would only lose about $136,800. A very small price to pay for a billion dollar subsidiary. 

The man: Still...it doesn't seem like a smart thing to do. 

Me: Even though the math shows that it is a viable solution? 

The man: I suppose. 

Me: Sir, times are changing and as a nation we have to change with it to carve a bright future, and $7.25 isn't showing much promise for a bright future. 

[Believe me, I wouldn't say I'm a big supporter of wage increases, but when the math works, why don't we follow it?]

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?