Here's what fast food will cost with $17 an hour wages

Maybe not, but I will absolutely pay more for quality. Whether it be customer service, tangible goods, etc. If one plumber charges $180, and another charges $220 but does a better job, I might go with the $220 one.

I recently got three estimates on a home renovation project. I ended up going with the most expensive one ($75K, cheapest being $60K), because I liked the company and its representative with whom I dealt. He was honest and knowledgeable, and has been consistently praised for doing great work. The company may charge more, but it's been made clear it will earn it in terms of quality.

Similarly, I'd be more inclined to go to the store with the friendlier employees, even if it costs a little more.

 

So when you pay $7.25 an hour, the workers you want are ...

 

People who can do the job the company wants them to do. Sling burgers. There's never a shortage of people who can do that.

If they want workers who are more skilled or more motivated, the pool shrinks and the price goes up.

 

If there were more of you, the pay for fast-food workers would likely rise. People go to fast food places for a variety of reasons but the "fast" part is probably No. 1 -- or perhaps with cheap for the top spot. In either case, employee friendliness might not be terribly high on the scale.

If it is, businesses will be forced to get better, friendlier employees or lose customers.

That's how the market works, right Doc Q?

 

Some landlords may not raise the rent if they already have a good tenant because they'd rather have a reliable one who pays their rent on time and doesn't screw the place up instead of a more expensive one who gives them problems.

 

Raising minimum wages will invariably result in a significant net increase in wages to workers at the bottom level and have very little impact on overall job growth, despite some employers around the margins who may slow hiring. But you know that.

Study: Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Reply(2000)

Summary: A follow-up study by David Card and Alan Krueger that repeats their 1994 analysis, but uses official government data to determine employment figures. The study finds that the minimum wage increase in New Jersey did not affect employment in fast-food restaurants after New Jersey’s 1991 increase or after the 1996-1997 federal increases eliminated the differences in minimum wages between the two states.

 

Actually, you probably aren't aware of this, but that interpretation of that study is wrong. Subsequent analyses have shown that there were job losses, they just weren't properly accounted for.

 

So why haven't previous minimum wage hikes helped the poorest workers long-term or are we just avoiding the inflation issue altogether?

 

Study: Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? (2013)

Summary: Reviews the past two decades of research on the impact of minimum wage increases on employment: this study concludes that the weight of the evidence points to little or no effect of minimum wage increases on job growth.

 

Which ones? The survivors who remained employed? Those poor souls who lost their jobs? Or the ones who, at the higher minimum, never got hired to begin with?

 

And the point is?