How About a Minimum Wage Increase?

I wrote this letter to an excellent radio host, Bob Dutko, on WMUZ 103.5 FM in Detroit, in response to his question to his audience "Would a minimum wage increase help the economy?"


Bob, in response to the quesiton of a minimum wage increase, I have a few quick words:

If you're going to increase the minimum wage, why not increase it to $100 an hour? I mean, if you can legislate people rich (or even "good enough"), then let's do it. But we all know it doesn't work that way.

Some jobs are only worth a certain amount of money per hour. If I'm working in a factory, and my labor only produces $4.35 worth of materials per hour, than why should a company be forced to pay me $5.15 an hour minimum? The simple fact is, increasing the minimum wage in this situation will cause me to get fired, and the job to go to China [where they don't have minimum wage laws].

This is the exact case that happened in Ohio. Congressman Bob McEwen came in to speak at an event I attended, and he related this story: In a factory in Ohio, they employ all mentally handicapped people. They come in to work each day and greet their friends, listen to music, and have fun while they assemble parts to make a product. The value of the items produced is about $3 per person, per hour. Unions and liberals came into that factory and wanted to shut it down unless they paid the workers minimum wage. They ended up getting some sort of special exemption for handicapped workers, and the factory stayed open.

Now, what would have happened if the liberals got their way? VICTORY for the working guy, right? No, those handicapped people would be sitting at home right now, without a job, and without the enjoyment and sense of satisfaction they got out of being at the factory, doing something productive. And that would have been a MEAN thing to do.