Living Condition Effects
There are many factors that go into deciding what the magic number is when setting a minimum wage. Most people believe that it is how little they can pay a person while still retaining enough staff to have a functioning workplace, and to some extent it is. Companies have to find the sweet spot in keeping their marginal profits and retaining a decent sized work population, which will vary by state or even location within the same state. For example, those living and working in Los Angles, California will have a higher minimum wage than those living and working in Stillwater, Oklahoma. But in the end, it is all relative to where you live and what the living conditions are like. Someone who lives in Los Angeles needs to be paid more than someone who lives in Stillwater in order to have the same quality of life because of how expensive everything is on the West Coast. The living conditions and quality of life you need will always be the driving factor of how companies determine how much they are willing to pay you. However, this has not been seen recently as many people are pushing for higher wages because of the inflation growth over the last three years.
Why $15 an Hour?
As of late, many individuals, especially from my generation, have been pushing to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour everywhere. Why? Who determined that 15 was the magic number when it comes to quality of life? And do they really expect places like Stillwater, Oklahoma which has a severely lower cost of living than Los Angeles, California to pay newly 16-year-olds $15 an hour? Well for one, this came about because since the pandemic in 2020, the inflation rate has begun to skyrocket, and everyone is feeling it. We are also getting to a generation who is not afraid to speak their minds and demand better for themselves. However, do minors really need to be paid $15 an hour? You would think probably not, but many teenagers are expected to pay for their own expenses as soon as they get a job, and many even before they get a real job. With the rise of inflation, normal inexpensive items are becoming expensive and the wages that kids are earning are not rising with it, making it even harder for them to help pay their way.
Sweatshops
Now, even though many people would like to believe that we are being treated poorly and unfairly, it is still not as bad as some places where kids are being forced to take jobs at six, seven, or eight years old. And unfortunately, sweatshops are the best option for them to work at. Though they have to work 70-hour weeks and get paid less than two dollars an hour, their wages are actually higher than most adult jobs in those countries, and they have slightly (very slightly) better living conditions. When looking at the alternatives that those kids could work, it was said that most turned to prostitution. Prostitution at the ripe age of twelve years old is a horrible thing, making sweatshops look like a dream in comparison. And, in many of these countries, the women have many children, all of whom contribute to the family and can help bring their quality of life up a few degrees, just because they will actually have food on the table when they come together for dinner. Now, all of this is not to say that sweatshops are wonderful or amazing things, but they are useful and prevent young girls and boys from having to go into something less than desirable.
Closing Thoughts
Everyone wants to be socialist and have all the same pay until they look to see the detrimental effects of those things. We whine and complain that we do not make enough to afford the top of the line house, designer clothes and shoes, or the latest technology, but the truth is we would be able to live off of what we have without having to go into prostitution or send our elementary school kids off to work instead of school. Should we take a look at raising wages to keep up with the rising inflation? Probably, but it would have to be proportionate to the city or state you live in, and it is important to note that inflation will eventually go down, but companies would not have enough profit or job openings to support the new wages after inflation fell. And the uproar that it would cause to lower the wages after everyone got to enjoy the new ones would be worse than listening to the complaints while we wait for the inflation to fall again.
