What's better, raising minimum wage for unskilled labor, or increasing people's skills?

Question

I go with the latter. I think it makes more sense to teach people marketable skills to give them more earning power, instead of mandating that businesses pay artificially high rates for unskilled labor that leads to less demand for unskilled labor. How about you?

Answer 1

I think lowering taxes for individuals but slightly raising them for businesses is the solution.

Raising minimum wage, while it sounds like its a win-win for everyone, os really not.  A business' biggest expense is labor. By raising minimum wage you are helping an individual out slighty, just slighty because really a dollar an hour for a full-time employee is $40 a week. Before taxes. After taxes that is roughly $32 bucks a week. Thats not much of anything. But raising the minimum wage that a company has to pay can be detrimental for them. Especially in the tough economic times we are in now.  When things get tight for a business the first thing they do is cut employees hours or force lay-offs which would put people out of work and offset any good raising minimum wage did.

I dont believe increasing people's skills will do anything at all.  Unskilled labor is really something that is needed in the world.  It really is the bread and butter of what we live for.  Besides if you just started handing out free college to everyone in the country that wanted it, colleges all over would turn into high school. We all know how effective high school is.  College and trade schools are already made readily available for those who cant afford it and that want to work hard and prove that they are in it for the long run.  We cant force unskilled laborers to want to learn something they dont want to.

Answer 2

The ideal solution would implement both strategies.  

Answer 3

i think people like you who have never walked a mile in their shoes will be a victim of Karma, and come down with Alzheimer's like Reagan did~!!!

think about it~!!

Answer 4

I agree....the latter.  Like the old Chinese proverb goes...."Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Answer 5

I think both need to be done. Unskilled labor will still need to have people to do it and they need a decent living wage.  

Answer 6

The better educated and trained the person is, the more likely they will vote the Democratic ticket.

Answer 7

You've got to have the jobs available for the increased skills.

You don't.

And how are people working 3 jobs to make ends meet going to find the time to study?

Answer 8

I believe heavy metal leftist answer (althrough simple) is the right idea. What should happen is increase minium wage yet at the same time subsidie colleges and other meathods to make higher education affordable for all Americans, reguardless of race, class or creed.

Answer 9

what you're saying makes sense, but the problem is there is always a need for unskilled labor... if we teach all of these people a skill, who will flip burgers, clean hotel rooms, etc.?

I'm not a big fan of raising minimum wage (people will always get paid what they're worth to a company or they will leave for a better paying job) but the govt keeps raising minimum wage.

There is a reason people are working at those jobs and for the most part, the people making min. wage make it due to poor choices in their life (i.e. dropping out of school, abusing drugs, only showing up to work when they feel like it, etc.)  If we trained these people we'd be wasting our money.

  

Answer 10

Neither.

Increasing the minimum wage is not necessary.  The free-market has taken care of that. If you don't believe me, just try to find a job that actually pays minimum wage. The federal is $5.85 an hour. McDonald's (the proto-typical c**p job) pays over $7.00 an hour in my town.

Teaching skills is not desirable. If it's done for free,it will greatly increase the number of skilled workers in the labor pool. Workers (people) are a commodity just like everything else in our world. When a commodity increases, it's price drops. Skilled labor is able to command higher wages because it is scarce. When it's supply is greater than it's demand; wages will drop.

Finally, someone has to do those unskilled jobs. Not everyone is meant to or capable of going to college. As my teachers often told me growing up; "The world needs ditch-diggers too.".

If you want to help the working class. Lobby for tariffs to increase the cost of imported goods to those that weren't produced by virtual slaves.

Lobby the government to actually control our borders. Illegal immigrants work in an underground economy for less then minium wage. This practice undercuts the living of American citizens.

I know what you're going to say: "But no one will do those jobs for the low wages the migrants do."  I say if those migrants weren't around those employers would have to provide decent wages and bareable working conditions.

Answer 11

When minimum wages are increased, to be competitive, employers offer prospective employees high starting pay, which sometimes results in the new employee earning more than a more skilled, experienced employee, regardless of the new employees background or experience. If we keep minimum wage consistent, then wages can be decided on peoples actual performance, and not on competition...

Answer 12

There is no authority for any government agency to dictate any "minimum wage".  If people lack the initiative to get off their butts and learn what they need to get a better job, that is their problem.

Answer 13

u need both because someone has to clean and pack meat and pick crops wash carsetc  and they should be able to survive as well

Answer 14

I agree that developing skills is every ones long term best interest. However, the cost of living far exceeds minimum wage. Last I knew, it was about $8 hr in CA. A days wages wont fill the gas tank to get to work. Housing is out of the question for such people.