I’d really like to know what the end goal is for Democrats who want to continually raise minimum wages for menial jobs.

There is a difference between a job and a career. Jobs are ways of earning money for a short term period of time while doing something to better themselves or get the education needed in order to find themselves a career where they can earn more money for doing more skilled work.

In today’s economy, I agree that you can’t live on $7.50 per hour or even $10 per hour today. But jobs that pay those amounts of money should either be jobs for younger people who maybe still live at home with parents or get government assistance. Or maybe they are companies that will soon be out of business because they’re not willing to pay their employees what they deserve.

I’ve seen companies that require Bachelor’s degrees for a job and 5 years of experience in order to earn $12 per hour. That’s ridiculous.

However, I think that as a private business they have the right to pay whatever they want and people have the right to not accept that pay.

But with raising the minimum wage, there are three groups of people who get hurt. The first group is the small businesses who can’t afford to pay $20 per hour for someone to sit inside a bookstore waiting for someone to come buy a book. That job isn’t worth $20 per hour. It’s a simple job that requires little to no skill.

Another group that gets hurt is the people who are looking for jobs that pay that much because ultimately what companies will do is start moving more toward automation, just like we already see today.

Go to McDonalds. Go to Target. Go to Walmart. You can shop and leave without ever talking to a single person.

But Gavin Newsom just signed a bill which will pave the way towards paying McDonald’s workers $22 per hour.

CBS News reported,

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a nation-leading measure giving more than a half-million fast food workers more power and protections, despite the objections of restaurant owners who warned it would drive up consumers’ costs.

The landmark law creates a 10-member Fast Food Council with equal numbers of workers’ delegates and employers’ representatives, along with two state officials, empowered to set minimum standards for wages, hours and working conditions in California.

Newsom said he was proud to sign the measure into law on Labor Day.

The law caps minimum wage increases for fast-food workers at chains with more than 100 restaurants at $22 an hour next year, compared to the statewide minimum of $15.50 an hour, with cost of living increases thereafter.

The state legislature approved the measure on Aug. 29. Debate split along party lines, with Republicans opposed. Sen. Brian Dahle, the Republican nominee for governor in November, had called it “a steppingstone to unionize all these workers.”

Restaurant owners and franchisers cited an analysis they commissioned by the UC Riverside Center for Economic Forecast and Development saying that the legislation would increase consumer costs.

Today’s signing of #AB257 into law is a watershed moment in the history of the labor movement, led by Black and Latino fast food workers building a new model for workers having a seat at the table #unionsforall pic.twitter.com/PxJjYrK2ZB

— Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (@AsmLuzRivas) September 5, 2022

I’m going to be honest, I used to work hard jobs and I never earned $22 per hour unless it was overtime. When I stopped working those kinds of jobs, I was only making $17 per hour and I was taking care of a wife and young kid without government assistance.

The last group that gets harmed by this sort of policy is the consumer. Companies don’t just magically have extra money to give employees, it has to be generated and not printed like the government does. So, they have to raise the prices of goods and services to make up for the additional cost.