In his State of the Union address, LB called for a $9 an hour minimum wage. Chief Dopes-a-Lot doubled down on that insane idea in his 60+ day late budget.
Why is it insane? Black teenage unemployment is over 33%. Now, suppose a black teen stops by your shop and tells you, “Look, I need a job bad. It’s prom season and really need to earn some money to take my date to the dance. I’ll work for $5 an hour. I’ll do anything. I just really need a job.”
As shop owner, you might think that at $5 an hour it might be worth hiring the kid to get the back room and the alley behind the store cleaned out. Right now, no matter what hourly wage the teen is WILLING to work for, you must pay him $7.50 an hour. So, your calculation will change. At $9 an hour, you’re probably not going to hire an unskilled teen to do work that you can stand not having done for now.
Here at the compound I have a standing offer for young Lex. I’ll pay him $2 an hour to rake leaves, pick up sticks and sweep walks any time he wants to after school. He has yet to do single hour’s work for $2 an hour. According to him, it’s not worth it.
Okay, fine, It’s not worth it to me to pay him more. Here’s why. I can “ask” him to perform those exact same tasks on the weekend for free. Over spring break he probably worked 20 hours at the same tasks for free that I would have paid him $2 an hour to do after school. So he hasn’t quite caught on yet that he can earn $2 an hour doing work after school that he’s going to have to do for free on the weekend when his mom or I ask for help.
The point being, I have a job I’m willing to pay $2 an hour to have done. When Lex jr. wakes up, he’ll gladly do the work for $2 an hour. Why do we need the government to get in the middle of this transaction?
According to LB, no one should work for an hourly wage that he cannot live on. Again, that’s a calculation I’m willing to leave to employers and employees to decide. But really, young Lex needs a living wage? I don’t think so. He needs to get out of bed before noon and get a job to learn the responsibility of showing up on time, clean, in serviceable clothing and ready to work. Or, as my Navy friend used to say, he needs to learn to show up sober, alert and fit for duty.
Besides, think about it. If LB is right, yeah it’d be the very first time, but the minimum wage would need to about $25 and hour. That’s outrageous! How do you figure? Well, I figure by doing Mrs. Ralph 8th grade math.
Follow me here. We know an experienced welfare king or queen can earn up to $40,000 scamming all the different “benefit packages” available. So 40K divided by 52 weeks equals a $769.23 weekly check. $769.23 divided by a 40 hour work week equals a $19.23 hourly wage.
But who is actually going to get up and go to work five days a week for the same money they could “earn” driving around collecting “benefits?” No one, that’s who. Actually, $25 an hour wouldn’t work to get them up off the couch. They’d probably stand pat at 40K for doing nothing until you offered them $30-$35 dollars an hour for doing not much work.
So the $9 an hour minimum wage is an insult to the poor. They should continue to do nothing until some enlightened soul realizes what their talents are really worth. Right now that’s about $30 an hour for unskilled, unmotivated and probably un-trainable workers.
I might try an experiment to see at what wage young Lex is willing to hit the woods after school. The only problem is, I’d be stuck at that wage and he’d end up owning the compound.
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