10 Things People Think Would Happen With a $20 Federal Minimum Hourly Wage

Increasing the minimum hourly wage to twenty dollars can mean many things. It can start many good things that can improve the standard of living, but on the other hand, some opinions are that it can trigger horrible stuff too.

1. Living Expenses Would Increase

While many agreed with “Cost of living would rise,” others argued it already rises anyway. Another claimed, “Except that this has never happened in all the instances of the minimum wage going up.

It is just propaganda repeatedly parroted on behalf of billionaires.” Still, others insisted they didn’t want to pay $10 for a McDonald’s cheeseburger by paying a living wage.

2. Small Businesses Would Close

This wouldn’t affect many businesses and companies in big cities. Still, smaller and undeveloped places where small business employers are forced to raise wages to twenty dollars per hour will hurt the business.

Or even put them out of business. Again, people suggested that the price of goods has to rise accordingly to the wage rise.

3. Reduction in Billionaires

“You would see a decrease in billionaires.” With the prices increasing and people making more money, the dollar would deflate in value, creating a situation of cost of living increases. “Everyone is making more money. So you can afford to pay more for your xxx or yyy.”

4. Decrease in the Gap Between the Highest and Lowest Paid in Industries

According to another individual, the disparity between the industry’s best and lowest pay would decrease as more people earn better money. So you would have a more balanced income between these factors.

5. Increasing Population Growth

Some suggested raising the federal minimum wage would lead to an increase in population growth. This is because people would have more money, which implies they have better conditions for raising children.

6. An Appropriate Increase in All Wages

This would mean that the competition would have to make an effort to give good wages because you would be in a situation where you can make twenty dollars per hour working everyday jobs. So you’d expect careers requiring good education and knowledge to be paid better.

7. Rise of Automation and Machines

Many people in the thread stated that an increase this high would also lead to the development and rise of machines that work instead of people. Artificially intelligent robots and similar ones would replace some human jobs. Many companies would invest heavily in automating and replacing humans as employees.

8. Rent Would Go Up

According to one user that semi-jokingly stated, “the rent is still rising, “which is unrelated to the idea of a wage rise. But with people making more money, the rent and housing prices would probably increase. 

9. Inflation

It’s not as if we aren’t already feeling the burn of inflation. However, one suggested that inflation would increase exponentially as a short-term answer to this concept. Printing more and more money would lead to more and more inflation.

10. Little Would Change.

A final user mentioned that it would lead to the situation being more or less the same now with or without the minimum wage increase. People would make more money, but the prices would go up. You would earn more for some jobs, but some would disappear altogether.

We are already suffering all of these things without the wage increase. So this user advocates for paying a living wage but fears it would no longer be deemed “living” when everything adjusts to put us back into the situation we’re already facing. 

This thread inspired this post.

This article was produced and syndicated by Invested Wallet.