If you have read my work over the years, then you know that I am not a proponent of Minimum Wage.  An adult should be able to work for anyone at an agreed price.

However, a new issue has come into my view I did not realize existed until recently.

Apparently there are groups out there (think Chamber of Commerce) that works with your local governments to hold wages down by:

A)  Making sure that there is Affordable Housing in your area so their workers can live nearby

B) Making sure there is mass transit options so that low cost workers can get to the businesses that want to hirer low cost employees(A Chamber Objective for sure)

Sorry folks, but that is just plain wrong.  Taxpayer dollars being used to subsidize business interests so that they can pay lower costs of labor that what the market would otherwise support.

When this happens, everyone’s wages in the area are harmed.  It creates an aberrant pricing mechanism that harms both employees and taxpayers.

Outside of the Chamber of Commerce, it’s really hard to find any group that thinks American workers are earning too much money.  Wages have been flat to declining for more than a decade, and inflation and shrinkflation have destroyed purchasing power.

Here’s a unique idea!  Pay more to your existing employees and you will attract more qualified candidates.  It’s called supply and demand.  If labor is in short supply, then you need to raise the salaries.

Do not build yourself a business model that requires the taxpayer to subsidize the housing and transportation of your workers.  Planned economies do not work.

If your business cannot survive without artificially cheap labor and artificially cheap housing, I have bad news for you.

Your business is not suitable for this economic environment.

So while I do not agree with minimum wages, I also do not agree with artificially lower wages due to manipulation of the labor markets.

Let real supply and real demand set the prices.  We’d all be beneficiaries in the long run if we allow that to happen.  Trust the laws of economics.  Manipulated, they ruin economies, and left alone they allow real economies to prosper.