

"We can never make enough money..." - conover
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/sunday-review/fighting-back-against-wretched-wages.html?hp

======
jonahss
Why is it that the article subscribes to the idea that working at a McDonald's
for ten years means you should be paid more? Is the worker better or more
efficient or more resourceful than somebody who has worked at McDonald's for 2
years?

~~~
ahoy
Perhaps now, but having stable employees certainly saves a company the money
required to hire and train new employees.

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keithpeter
_"...often too little to support themselves and their families."_

[http://www.livingwage.org.uk/](http://www.livingwage.org.uk/)

Just why do the rest of us have to subsidise employers who pay less than a
living wage through taxes? Never understood that.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Employers are not subsidized, people are.

If anything employers are obligated to pay a higher cost for labor since they
need to compete with government programs that pay people not to work. Even
programs which pay people regardless of employment status create disincentives
for employment (thereby requiring employers to pay more), due to diminishing
marginal utility.

The most recent empirical study on this that I've seen:
[http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/matthew.notowidigdo/research...](http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/matthew.notowidigdo/research/ggn_tenncare_july2013.pdf)

~~~
UK-AL
Government subsidies allow a persons surviving wage to be lower. And with low
skilled workers, their wage tends to be pushed down to a wage they can just
about survive on, or your workers die. Thus government subsidies are
indirectly founding companies, by allowing them to lower wages beyond what
would normally be possible.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Employees will not die if their wages are reduced to $4-8/hour.

As proof that this is not the case, consider that most nations of the world
have lots of people not dying on an unsubsidized $8/hour. Mexico is a fairly
wealthy nation, and the GDP/capita is equivalent to a full time job at
$8.33/hour (adjusted for PPP).

Literally billions of people avoid death on far less than $8/hour.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_\(PPP\)_per_capita)

~~~
UK-AL
1 dollar means different things in different countries. In some countries 1
dollar could buy you decent food, for a few days.

There's differences in rent. Living in a slum is illegal in developed
countries.

~~~
yummyfajitas
The numbers I give are adjusted for purchasing power. Workers will not engage
in a massive die off on $8/hour or even $1/hour.

~~~
UK-AL
Well I'm just repeating Adam Smith on how low skilled jobs are priced.

They go as low as they can go, without something bad happening to the
employee.

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omonra
Interesting how one word is not mentioned in the article that has a huge
impact on the issue of wages for the lower classes.

~~~
norswap
Please, don't make us languish, and do tell.

~~~
omonra
immigration

------
systemtrigger
When a company lowers wages on its rank and file its executives should not
enjoy increases.

------
DanielBMarkham
I really want to have nothing to do with this article, but I think a little
context is needed for readers living outside the U.S. Otherwise the subject
matter and tone seems a bit odd.

Our president has decided to start concentrating on wage disparity,
considering inequality to be immoral. (Cynics argue that with the NSA scandal
and many others, anything to change the subject is a good move) The NYT here
is picking up the ball and running with it. You'll note that the entirety of
sources quoted are from one side of the American political spectrum.

So if the comments here seem bitter and contentious, and the commentary itself
not helpful in covering both sides of the discussion, it's because it fits
into a larger national political discussion (of which you may be unaware).

As for the subject itself, we've kicked this around a hundred times on HN. I
selected this as flaggable, simply because I don't expect it to generate any
new insights and simply cause a lot of useless and pointless nerd bickering.

