Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
Tuesday, October 01, 2013 :::
I've been mulling recently that it might be salutary and politically feasible to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, but to exempt
employees under 25 years of age
employees who have not worked more than 3 months in the last 12, or who have not worked 12 months in the last 60
employers who are nonprofits (we can negotiate exactly which tax code 501 subsections would be included here).
The employee exceptions are aimed at providing advantages to people who are particularly likely to have a high return on human capital investment and, to some extent, people who are particularly likely to have trouble demonstrating to potential employers their value — I'm thinking particularly of a stay-at-home mom whose kids are now in school and has trouble getting into the workforce because her skills are perceived to have gone rusty (which may or may not be true). The employer exception is mostly supposed to deal with certain (possibly isolated) idiocy in which volunteers were told they couldn't volunteer for an organization, and instead would have to be paid minimum wage if they were to continue to offer their services.
Coming back to this a week and a half later, I note that some people might be confused that I am "providing advantages" to groups by keeping their statutory minimum wages lower, and that those people won't find this blog, anyway.
