MP Podcast — 1

“Consider a community based pizza parlor selling 100 pies a day for 360 days at $10 each. Total revenue is $360,000. It employs 10 minimum wage workers earning $7 per hour, working 2000 hours a year, making labor costs $140,000. Assume rent, utilities, equipment, depreciation, insurance, supplies, licenses, and food costs come to $170,000 per year, leaving a profit of $50,000 for the owner and his/her family. Raising the minimum wage $1 would raise labor costs by $20,000 (paying more for the same amount of labor) and reduce profit to $30,000. The owner must either move into a smaller house or raise prices, which reduces the demand for pizza, resulting in the loss of a worker. So, the full increase in the wage cost of an increase in the minimum wage comes out of the pockets of customers or the owner’s family, and the one person who loses a job. There was no net gain in income to increase spending in the community served as every dollar the minimum wage workers received came out of someone else’s pocket in the community.”

  ― William Dunkelberg (Chief Economist for the National Federation of Independent Business)

“It’s called “efficiency wage theory” (EWT), and it was derived to explain why we often see the “law of one price” broken in the labor market. According to this “law,” one would expect that low-wage workers, say those in fast food, in the same area should make the same wage, and that that wage would typically be around the minimum. But EWT argues that some employers will pay more than they have to based on the “you-get-what-you-pay-for” principle: Paying above the minimum inspires effort above the minimum, and that translates into higher productivity, which absorbs the higher labor cost.”

  ― Jared Bernstein (former chief economist to Vice President Biden)

Links

The Real-Life Purge Could be Coming to Your City [please share this]

Why Are Some People Protesting or Refusing to Donate to the ALS Association’s Ice Bucket Challenge?

White House touts achievements on raising minimum wage

The Minimum Wage Debate: Who’s Right?

Heineman stays neutral on minimum wage debate

Cafe charges customers 35 cent “minimum wage fee”

Effort to force vote to repeal Seattle minimum wage increase fails

Why Raising The Minimum Wage Kills Jobs

Bill Gates: Not sold on minimum wage increase

Study: 38 Percent Of Employers Will Lay Off Workers If Minimum Wage Is Hiked

No, raising the minimum wage doesn’t lead to layoffs

San Diego council approves minimum wage hike to $11.50 an hour by 2017

Fast Food Worker Protests Over Minimum Wage Spread Across The Globe

Study: A Minimum Wage Hike Would Stimulate The Economy

Music

Felixprod – Endless

Aloma Steele – Neptune Man (SirensCeol Remix)

Andreu Dominguez – Immunity

Laura Brehm – Sunrise (Popeska remix)

Pixie Lott – Lay Me Down (Dustake remix)