Reason(s) #2 to support a minimum wage hike in Greensboro

Ed Whitfield, a GMW Committee member, posted the following in comments below and I'm reposting it here so folks won't miss it:

There are a couple of possible attitudes toward a higher local minimum wage: one might take the position that there should be no minimum wage at all. Few on this blog seem to be saying that, though some pure free-market types will argue the point. But if we accept that there should be some minimum level at which people should be paid the questions are what should it be and who should decide it.

Those arguing that only the state government should decide such a standard might tell us why they think this is so. It would seem to me that we in this local community should have a right to decide on a standard of living that we think is fair for full time work.

Such local decisions are made all the time. For instance, there are wage level standards that the City Council uses to decide whether or not to offer incentives to businesses wanting to locate here. An ordinance establishing a base rate of pay is not that different.

The question of how high a local minimum wage should be is one that needs to be discussed. After I heard about the calculation that $9.36 / hour returns us to the purchasing power of the minimum wage of 1968, it seemed to me that this was a reasonable level.

I have glanced at some of the material that has been linked on this blog to economic studies done in San Francisco and Sante Fe where local minimum wages ordinances have been enacted. While I haven't read them in detail, I know from a cursory scanning of the news that the sky hasn't fallen in either of those communities. I am led to believe that raising the minimum wage will not cause dire economic consequences here either.

It is indeed a moral issue and a question of community standards. We get to decide what kind of community we want to be. It is for that reason that I support this proposed increase in the local minimum wage.