What would happen to the valley with a 15 "living wage?"


Would more people work if you could make more than just waiting around for a check?

Prices would go up and businesses would close/move. It'll happen in Seattle. You can't fight the laws of economics.

As long as people can "make a living" living off the government there will be no incentive to work. Full-time work at $15 per hour and a 51 week work year is $30K per year. I don't see that $30K per year is incentive enough to self-wean off the State teat considering all the "free" stuff heaped upon the Entitled Class.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

We will probably just increase the handouts to keep in line with the hike in minimum wage to be fair to the unemployed, ie. social justice.

None of the establishments that pay minimum wage are allowing their employees to work full time because of Obamacare.

But would lifting minimum wage above the amount gained in welfare build employment?

Maybe not to $15 and hour. We would need to lower benefits also.

If you wanted to take a pragmatic approach to it, I'd first start by looking at family statistics in the 4-county RGV area. What is average family size (serious question, haven't looked so I don't know)? Then, what are the benefits available to the "average family" in the area, on an annual value basis? Medicaid, CHIP, LoneStar, and other state benefits: http://www.benefits.gov/benefits/browse-by-state/state/TX

What Federal handouts does the family qualify for? What are the dollar values of those benefits?

The idea should be to develop a picture of how much in dollar value the "average family" receives annually in government hand-outs and work from there. Average household income is significantly impacted when factoring in these additional monies and without having a handle on that, minimum wage talk is only one-sided. If the "average family" real income includes all the handouts, what is the number? $45K annually? More? Less?

Scottimus

You are assuming that the government payments are all these folks get. Many of them get the full government benefits but work for cash on the side. This means that their real income is much larger than the welfare.