Minimum Wage

Just read an interesting article in the Kansas City Star by Mary Sanchez on this issue. (H/T Michael Kruse)

Congress is debating raising the minimum wage. It may, or may not be a good idea. Sanchez seems to argue that it is not a good idea, if the idea is to make the minimum wage a "living" wage. She argues:

And yet, so many politicians seem bent on continuing to argue solely for higher wages for the low-skilled. They should be arguing for giving people higher skills, not more money for low skills that could soon be obsolete anyway.

Instead of people relying on minimum wage, why not encourage them to increase their skill set in order to make more money? Hmmmm. Reward initiative? Reward more skills, rather than less? She has some interesting statistics on minimum wage as well.

My first summer job in 1974 was at minimum wage, in the shopping center where the store in the photo was taken. I think I was making $1.60 an hour, working at Mashey's Carousel. Owned by a mixed race couple (he white, she black), it was a coffee shop/ice cream place. I loved scooping ice cream there, and cooking. Evidently, the neighborhood girls all liked me scooping ice cream as well, as a whole flock of them came in every day after the movies, watched my every step in creating their frozen concoction, and then lingered at a table in the corner long after their treats were finished. Of course, it could have been because of my co-worker, Carrie, a college student home for the summer from UC Davis.

Alas, I left for school in the fall, and the Carousel closed a few months later. It was a wonderful experience, for me, not for the owners.