Almost daily on the news we hear local, state and federal politicians screaming to raise the minimum wage. Unions wanting to increase their membership ranks are fueling most of this fervor. The fight for $15 per hour is center stage among several vigorous union organizing efforts, including fast-food workers who have been traditionally difficult to organize due to high turnover rates. But is this campaign in the best interest of workers’ long-term health and increased wages?
Two important facts that most politicians and labor leaders have lost sight of are: a) history proves that government is extremely inefficient in creating jobs and raising wages and b) workers are not entitled to anything from employers. Instead, the main goal of any business in the private sector is to make money. They have no obligation to hire anyone or pay any specific wage. However, as I wrote previously “Key To More Jobs: Fuel Entrepreneurs!” research from the Small Business Administration proves that 70% of the net new jobs in the U.S. over the past 30 years (prior to the recent recession) were created by small businesses! Therefore, when entrepreneurs increasingly start and grow new companies, they significantly increase jobs creation and wages!
Additionally, many R&D recruiters, scientific recruiters, engineering recruiters, technical recruiters, IT recruiters and manufacturing recruiters we polled, that are part of our executive recruitment network, shared that employers naturally and gladly (without any government intervention) will pay higher wages when skilled employees are in short supply and high demand in the marketplace. They do so not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because it is in their best economic interests to grow their businesses and make money. Therefore, all these misguided efforts towards mandating a minimum wage should be refocused towards creating a healthy environment for entrepreneurs to flourish. When successful, they will naturally hire many new workers and gladly pay higher wages.
Mistakenly, many major city mayors from Los Angeles to New York are fixated on boosting sluggish wages with legislative measures. Fourteen states raised their wage floors in 2014. Many of these cities were encouraged by the Obama administration’s very pro-union stance. Furthermore, as I wrote previously at “Mr. President: NLRB Policies Are Killing Jobs!“ the current National Labor Relations Board is one of the most antagonistic towards business of all time! These foolish efforts are squeezing the lifeblood out of entrepreneurship and new business creation. For example, the percentage of Americans under 30 years old who were willing to risk becoming an entrepreneur recently hit a 24-year low! According to the latest figures from the Federal Reserve, only 3.6% of households headed by adults younger than 30 owned stakes in private companies. This compares with 6.1% back in 2010 and 10.6% in 1989, when the central bank began collecting this vital information.
There are many reasons for this decline including limited access to capital, lack of skilled workers and increased taxes and regulations. Anyone of these areas could be the focus of government to help entrepreneurs and in turn raise wages. For example, the government should improve STEM education. As I wrote in “Exercise Our Nation’s Students Into More Engineering, Scientific and Technical Graduate Studies and Jobs“ our science, technology, engineering and math instruction is sorely lacking. Many companies have to spend a lot of their own money to create training programs to make up for significant skill gaps.
Another area the government can help is significantly reducing tax and legislative burdens on small business owners. Growing taxes and regulations only increase the risk to young entrepreneurs, which makes them think twice about wanting to start a business.
In summary, the real way to create a lot more jobs with significantly higher wages is not through mandating higher minimum wages. Instead, government needs to provide a lot more incentives for the historically proven creators of new jobs and higher wages, entrepreneurs!
What are your thoughts?
4 Responses
Spot on Scott. All about entrepreneurship and creativity to stimulate jobs.
Good points but we should consider internal company policies for average employee wage to fully complete the wage-growth picture when talent is less scarce.
I am agreeing with you in what you said with entrepreneurs in salary increases.
Unfortunately what people in unions are expecting to have more money in their union members packets. Finished with the following consequences;
1.- Yes, they can have more minimum wages and more money in their packets.
2.- But, What’s case more money in their packet if the products that have to buy are even more expensive. Increase all products in the free market.
Increase minimum wages start a chain reaction to an inflation.
1.- With regulation of increase of minimum wages finished in free market with products more expensive. Companies and business, product distributors have to increase their expenses to cover their workers minimum wages.
2.- Inflation can be considering to have a good minimum wages and more money in their packets. But more money will not pay the products and services that became even more expensive than before.
However, why? Increase the money in their hands if that money will be less valuable to buy food and basic services.
To stop people minimum wages rise, the society has to;
1.- Increase productivity in each product and service. Means, production of more products with less cost and effort.
2.- Increment the availability of those products in the market and create competence and free enterprises.
3.- Provide better communication and distribution channels that provide those products and services cheaper and accessible to customers
I hope finally government representatives will be able to see around and start working for good of all human been and educate the Unions and Companies about minimum wages repercussions.
Government is rarely the answer. However, entrepreneurship often is.
Comments are closed.