Min wage: some facts

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

Minimum wages in the USA have been kept as low as possible through the
effort of hundreds, nay, thousands of economists, who have always found
minimum wages to be deleterious to employment of unskilled workers (the
poor, basically).

Finally,

"The recognition that the minimum-wage law has adverse effects has made
legislators reluctant to update the law frequently. Between 1981 (when the
minimum wage was raised to $3.35) and 1990, prices rose 55 percent. Yet it
took nine years and much debate to update the law and the result was only
a 13 percent increase." 

The Minimum Wage Study Commission set up by the US government clearly
showed that minimum wages hurt the poor. 

(This material is from a basic econ. text book: Principles of Economics by
Henderson and Poole.  Please pick up ** any ** principles textbook on
economics to study why min. wages hurt the poor: and here I am not even
talking about its implementation in remote villages of India.) 

This low increase is clearly one of the strong reasons for the continued
low unemployment in the US economy, and its continued growth, leading to
prosperity and most leading to most workers earning far higher than the
minimum wage, automatically. By the way, these poor folk who are now
employed at these "low" wages, are at least producing something, and crime
in the USA has been falling consistently through the decade.

So much for economists who are hell-bent on saving the poor by eliminating
the concept of minumum wages (the concept was never proposed or promoted
by any economist; it only originated after the great depression by many
well-meaning, socialistically thinking people).

No, there is NO formula in economics to arrive at min. wages. There is no
way known to mankind to do that, unfortunately. If we allow everyone a
choice, of course, we can arrive at 280 million possible wages in the USA
itself. I propose a minimum wage of $2000 per minute, for me. Please
propose other alternative wages and we can agree on the highest (!).

My God! This list is springing to life and I have this paper to present on
the 24th. I can't do justice to both! 

Sanjeev