I just looked up the inflation rate and the current minimum wage adjusted for inflation is 90% of what it was when I started working at 16 years old. That’s not too bad at keeping it current with the inflation rate. I plugged in my current wages and compared it to when I started as an officer in 1993 and it is at 97% of the inflation rate.

I’m not an economist but I don’t understand how more than doubling the minimum wage won’t effect costs overall.

Yes there will be more “money in people’s hands”, but if your a business owner and your payroll costs double, how will you make up that expense? You aren’t like the government who can run on a deficit, so I’d guess you have two options. Cut employees to save on payroll costs and/or raise prices. If prices go up, those of us who are making more than minimum wage, who won’t be getting comparable raises, will have to pay more for goods and services, which, I would guess, leaves people with less money for discretionary spending.

Inflation for 2020 was at its lowest since 2015 at 1.4%. Energy costs were down 7% while food costs were up 3.9%.

It seems to me that raising the minimum wage will effect food costs since a lot of minimum wage employees work in the food service industry and places like grocery stores. Add to that an increase in energy costs due to the closing of pipelines resulting in higher transportation costs and potentially more reliance on imports where OPEC controls the cost, I’d guess that inflation will also go up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk