Reply to $25 min wage in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I[b]magine having to pay some teenager the equivalent of roughly $55k per year just to wash dishes or scrub toilets[/b]:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/workers-labor-advocates-call-for-dc-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-25/4025867/

R.I.P. DC economy. No am I going to pay $100/entree for mediocre food or, $900/night for a garbage hotel simply because businesses have to cover out control labor costs. [/quote]
Teenagers are not during these jobs. They are competing with people who can work all year, without regard to limited hour restrictions. Basically most of these jobs are occupied by adults taking care of a family. With that said, that is a ridiculously high minimum wage salary for so little skills, so the question becomes [b]will salary automatically increase for the skilled labor.[/b] [/quote]

No. Probably not.

But it depends on the availability of skilled labor. For difficult and thankless skilled labor jobs that people aren't crazy about doing and only do for the money, there will be an exodus to easier jobs given the newly higher min wage, and the rates for such jobs will have to go up. Outside of that? No -- rate will not "automatically increase" for skilled labor.

I've been through this with what my peers and I considered to be a pretty decently paying job for a job that required skills but not a degree or extensive experience. In 2015 when I began this work we were making $19 per hour, and min wage was $10.50 at the time in DC. We now make $25 per hour and min wage is $17.95 per hour. I doubt we would get much of a raise with a min wage going to $25. We'd get one, probably, but it would be nominal. It's a desirable job for many reasons, so there wouldn't be a lot of quitting, even though we'd all talk about it.

Wages, any rise in min wage, and the employment rate all work together in fascinating ways. But changes will never be completely predictable (or even decipherable), even by top economists. [/quote]

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