The Minimum Wage From Yet Another View - Granite Grok

The Minimum Wage From Yet Another View

The notion that New Hampshire needs to set a minimum wage higher than the current and equally arbitrary federal rate is as flawed a notion as the faux-benefit of a federal minimum wage in the first place.   But New Hampshire Democrats and some Democrats elected as Republicans, continue to make a case for it.

But allowing the government to define an arbitrary price point for labor is absurd and anyone who has ever had a job already knows why.

Who among us can say, without question, that everyone we have ever worked with is (was) worth exactly the same amount of money per hour as we ourselves?

Are we all equally capable, aware, conscientious, knowledgeable, hardworking?  Do we all learn or display skills at the same rate?  Can you say, with a straight face, that you have never been employed in the company with over achievers or under achievers?  Are there not people who are clearly worth more to the success of a company than others, and by the same token those who are clearly doing less and not worth as much?

Ask yourself why you do not tip bad service at a restaurant, or give a gratuity for bad service equally with good service?  Would you demand that the state induce statutory force to mandate a minimum tip rate?  Probably not.  So why would you support the state intervening between employees and employers when it comes to the value of knowledge and labor to any given employee or employment opportunity.

The state should not be intervening in the labor market by insisting that it can scry the arbitrary value of an hour of labor in every profession, in every workplace, throughout the entire state.  It is simply not possible.

Just stop and looked around your work place and you’ll realize that your employer has enough problems trying to deal with managing their own business and budgets just to keep the wheels on the bus.   They do not need a few hundred part-time temps  in the state capitol, posing as experts, telling them what their employees are really worth.   Employers can work it out with their staffs, and when it doesn’t work out, either one of them is free to seek other arrangements elsewhere or with other people.

(As to all the other ridiculous assertions and assumptions made by minimum wage proponents, not a one of which is true, and to all the negative impacts it has on employment, growth, or even tax revenue–we’ve covered all of those at great length already, just search “minimum wage.”)

 

 

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