Minimum wage indexed to inflation???

[MillCreek]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/02/would-a-minimum-wage-hike-lowe.html

I found this to be especially striking:

Instead, the main safety net provider these days is Social Security, through its Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Disability Insurance (SSDI) programs. The former, SSI, is for the indigent disabled who don't qualify for Social Security; the latter, SSDI, for the "disabled" who have worked enough hours to qualify for SS.

Between these two groups, some 14 million Americans under the age of 65, including dependents, receive either one or the other. By comparison, only 4.3 million or so are on welfare.

So perhaps rather than complaining about welfare queens, perhaps we should focus attention on the disability queens.

[Waitone]

One other factor to consider is sometime during '13 Obamacare will decree a fulltime employee will be deemed one who works a minimum of 30 hours per week as opposed to the now 34 (IIRC).  Then all companies with 50 or more full time employees will have to provide healthcare.  Companies unable to afford the hit to the bottom line will reduce hours to get below the magic 50.  I anticipate the lower rungs of the employment ladder will be snapped off throwing millions on those rungs into the market looking for another job all at the same time. 

An increase in the minimum wage will provide a little cover to the inevitable outrage.

[RevDisk]

No, not hardly.  Also, some folks are not worth paying the existing minimum wage.  Lack of skills and good work habits mean they cost more than they are worth.  Makes it hard to learn skills and just plain learn how to work.

Minimum wage laws screw those folks as well as the skill-less who might be go-getters like many high school & college students.  Toss in seasonal jobs and those same folks are priced out of the market by gov't.  Then, toss in illegal alien labor competition and it gets even worse for young workers.

I'd say the illegal aspect is probably more corrosive to lower end wages for menial work than minimum wage. As MillCreek pointed out, it's not the biggest point of contention. I would concur with his point that disability is the new "welfare". Only drastically moreso. I know of more than a few people who gamed the system to be declared disabled. They did have health issues, but arguably could have found employment.

It's more profitable these days if you're making minimum wage range to go after benefits than employment. It's also useful in gaming unemployment numbers, and avoiding increases in welfare statistics. Social Security is the third rail of politics. Touch it, and die, unless you're padding the benefits. SSDI stats are grim, only 6% returned to work and 3.6% exited the program due to medical improvement. 1 in 14 workers is now on SSDI. Plus, you can get medical. Minimum wage rarely gets medical, and even more rarely can afford it.

The following is a pretty good presentation by Pennsylvania's Secretary of Public Welfare.

http://www.aei.org/files/2012/07/11/-alexander-presentation_10063532278.pdf

Slide 8 is very very telling.
Slide 15 should be scary.

Basically, the number of private employees is essentially flat lined. Government employees and benefit recipients have increased. This is not good. You have less and less workers for every government worker or benefit recipient. Even with productivity gains, you want a wide ratio. We don't have it. Even ignoring libertarian ideology, you want a wide ratio of private workers to government workers or benefit recipients.

[Tallpine]

I know of more than a few people who gamed the system to be declared disabled. They did have health issues, but arguably could have found employment.

Maybe or maybe not 

From experience I can say that employers in general do not hire anyone with a disability unless it is a highly visible one like being in a wheelchair so that they can get credit for their good works. 

I know that nostalgia ain't what it used to be, but I think that generally this wasn't so before the government started mucking with things (and yes, including minimum wage laws).  Back then you could hire somebody with a limitation and pay them whatever it was mutually worth.

[longeyes]

The minimum wage was never designed to be a floor for the normal worker, with family, in America.  It was meant to be a base, a staging area, for inevitable advancement.  Of course we are little by little moving the norm downward, thanks to unemployment, partial unemployment, and, not least, illegal immigration.