I am not an economist, but...

[spudtater]

More jobs == good, yes?

Then the minimum wage is going to have bad effects, in that it's effectively a tax on the number of workers that a company employs.

Why not do away with minimum wage, ramp up corporate tax, and then feed the proceeds right back to low earners?

An additional advantage would be reducing the overworking of low-paid employees.

(I might be missing something here, so feel free to point it out...)

Comments

[wee0ne.livejournal.com]

More jobs == good, yes?
No.

More people with a disposable income == good.

The problem of no minimum wage is actually a complex one, which fails more on a socio-political level that a commercial one.

If you earn less than the amount required to live, you turn to the state for benefit (lets just no go anywhere near the "no state benefit" discussion).

Now, given the choice of working in a shitty job, for a shitty boss, who's basically trying to get the most for the least, or getting the same money for less hassle and less stress (and believe me, getting money out the state is a lot of hassle, and a lot of stress)
... most people will go for the second option.

So, what you end up with is lots of people on state income (either wholly or partially), and lots of businesses paying minimum wages (thus minimum tax bills).
Now, the state-supported income has to come from somewhere - either higher corporate tax or higher personal tax. Both of these lose votes, politically.
Also, the state supported income system has to be administered. As you have more people in the system, and more money sloshing around in the system, it requires more resources to manage... which means even more corporate- or personal-taxes (again, losing you votes)
In addition, the working population objects to "free-loaders" - those people who take from the state system and never give back - so resources need to be allocated to catch these people, and to use "carrot & stick" methods to ensure that people do not "free-load".

So, in short: no minimum wage leads to lost votes and more drain on the treasury.

(there is another interesting wrinkle in the minimum-wage situation: easter european workers actually get a higher standard of living coming over here to do the minimum-wage jobs than they can get at home, so the indigenous population [which wants more income] actually lose out on jobs to immigrant workers... which means the taxes of the immigrant workforce helps to pay the state benefit for the indigenous unemployed....)

And following on....

[wee0ne.livejournal.com]

I quote:

A friend is reasonably senior within the Dept of Employment and was "born
with silver spoon in his mouth" so is totally out of touch with the real
world at base level.
Last week he was moaning that there were plently of jobs for those who 
want to work in our area (we have lost pottery industy, Michelin tyre 
company, all the pits and a big steel works)
I asked where as my son is lucky to have a job as an asssistant manager in 
a shoe shop yet is still only paid a few pence above minimum wage.
What has happended is this area (The Potteries / Stoke-on-Trent) has 
become the distribution warehouse capital of UK.
Sound reasonable but they aren't sighted anywhere near the lower end of 
the housing market where most of the workers are obliged to live so that 
means either running a car or 2- 3 busses to get there.
Consiquently these "plently of jobs" are minimum wage, away for workers
homes and often shift hours.
By the time you take into account fuel needed to get there people are
certainly going to feel the travelling costs in their wage packet.
Those without their own transport are probably looking at  2-3 hours a day
traveling on busses / walking.
Where is the government when planning how to revitalise a depressed area
such as ours ?
Common sense says if you are going to pay low wages then you should least
make sure you have easy access to workers who can get there easilly and
cheaply not miles away.
Actually the answer was in last night paper - they employ Poles anyway so
aren't bothered if the local unemployed have difficulty getting to 
business areas :-(