What is your take on the minimum wage?

Do you think the minimum wage has any effect on jobs in the US? As a nation we have decided to mandate a minimum wage to ensure workers received what society perceived as a fair wage. I certainly don't want to argue about whether we should have a minimum wage or not, fact is we do and it's not going anywhere but up.

If everything was made in the US, the minimum wage would not have an impact on our jobs. The reason for this is because if you opened a factory and I opened a factory both of us would be paying employees the same minimum wage or better right, it's the law. What would happen if the government allowed my factory to ignore the minimum wage and labor was plentiful? The result would be my factory would operate at a much lower labor cost and allow me to sell my goods at a lower price than your products and make the same profit margin and increase my sales at your expense. So of course in the US we don't allow that. If you and I have the same labor cost we are forced to innovate and get creative with ways to out perform one another. Maybe I would choose to modernize my factory lowering cost. Maybe you would focus on branding and image. The point is that it would not be a race to the bottom with prices and wages.

The problem as I see it is that while in the US we create a baseline, we have no limits on factories operating in other countries. Of course we don't they are not in America and none of our business right? Why do we allow companies to bring in goods made by workers that are not paid minimum wage if that product could not be made in the US? Is that not unfair? They call it fair trade but is that misleading? I think it is in fact misleading. Often times it is American corporations that are using the cheap labor (again that would be illegal here) that compete with factories that use American workers paid a minimum wage or better.

What is the answer? Should we not import? If we don't import then all our cost for products we have become accustom to buying will increase dramatically. Do we wish that to happen? Probably not. Should we impose huge tariffs on imported goods?

I have a couple solutions to kick around. First off is not allow American Corporations to import products made overseas that were made by workers not paid an equivalent minimum wage to ours. If they are going to have all the protection and benefits of America then they should be forced to use American labor or pay the same amount or get out! When we allow American Companies to use cheap labor in other countries and flood our domestic markets with those products all we do is sub contract worker abuse.

What can you do right now about this problem. Buy American Made products when you can. You will empower the American worker and the American company that is trying to do the right thing.