Once they have that kid, he/she is an American child, a baby, so now the ethical responsibility is on THE PARENTS OF THAT CHILD to ensure their well-being.
An 18 year old kid because they're probably able to get more work done than someone post-retirementI look at min wage this way. I it goes up lets say to 12/hour. What does that do for the rest of the work force? Will all wages move up? IMO the higher the min wage goes up, the harder it will be for young adults to find jobs. Would you rather hire a 18 year old kid, or someone who is looking for a post retirement job now that it is worth taking one as you make $12/hour?
I was having this discussion at work with a coworker and wanted to get RCF's view. IS the below story and issue of not having a high enough min wage, or people who do not have self control and take personal responsibly.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/07/news/economy/working-poor/index.html?iid=EL
I look at min wage this way. I it goes up lets say to 12/hour. What does that do for the rest of the work force? Will all wages move up? IMO the higher the min wage goes up, the harder it will be for young adults to find jobs. Would you rather hire a 18 year old kid, or someone who is looking for a post retirement job now that it is worth taking one as you make $12/hour?
There are currently two problems with minimum wage law.
1 - it doesn't account for different areas having different costs of living. When you adjust for cost of living, a $7.25 minimum wage is only worth $4/hour for someone in NYC. i.e. what they can buy with that is what an average american can buy with $7.25. The minimum wage should be higher in NYC to account for that. The minimum wage in other areas doesn't need to be increased to fix the issue in NYC.
2 - it doesn't adjust from year to year as the national cost of living increases. Some states (like Ohio) fix this by indexing the cost of living to changes in the US Consumer Price Index.
Both of these issues should be fixed.
It is insane to just blanket raise it to $15 across the country. This would have so many unintended consequences. Companies would have to do some combination of raising prices, cutting staff, lowering quality, cutting payroll of higher paid employees, etc, to cover the sudden increase in the cost of their own staff and the increased prices from their suppliers. Some companies would go out of business.