Living wage

[Mister Agenda]

Economists largely agree that the main negative consequence of raising the minimum wage (within reason) is increased unemployment among younger people (under 25), particularly among African Americans in the USA. It is also normally accompanied by inflation, which can increase what is required for a 'living wage' rapidly. It seems this flaw would easily be corrected by only applying the raised minimum wage to persons 25 and older. That ought to make younger people desireable for those businesses that do rely on low wages to stay in business, reducing unemployment among persons (especially African Americans) under 25, allowing them to gain work experience before competing for higher wage jobs. Of course higher skilled younger persons would still be able to command good wages; it is only low-skilled (such as high school dropouts) that would actually have to settle for lower wages than the new minimum.

Now if we want those persons to have a living wage, we could subsidize them through taxation, say the difference between what they're making and the new minimum wage. Not fighting one war that we would otherwise have gotten into would pay for that completely many times over.