by T. W. Fuller

Created on: March 02, 2008

The much overlooked problem with raising the federal minimum wage is that it either succeeds in impeding business of the means to compete within its own marketplace, or it cripples business to such an extent that it is forced to fold, and withdraw from the marketplace altogether.

When we discuss a raise in the minimum wage, and how it will affect business, we do so primarily with small business in mind, leaving out bigger businesses that would not be affected by an increase because either they are paying well above the minimum wage already, or because they are better able to adapt to the wage increase through restructuring without hurting their bottom line. Small business makes up the greatest percentage of total business, and it is small business that is, and has always been, the backbone of our American economy; small businesses that comprise twenty or fewer employees, but often less than ten employees. Precious few small businesses have the means, or the luxury, to accept a minimum wage increase into their budget plan. Doing so inevitably means cutting back somewhere, and that habitually entails either cutting back on employee hours, employee benefits, or employees themselves - the very people the minimum wage increase was intended to help.

Another drawback to raising the minimum wage is that it now becomes that much more difficult for unskilled people to enter into a business that, before the wage increase, might have put less emphasis on qualifications, and been more apt, and more eager to conduct on the job training. A wage increase deters on the job training as it eats into their profits and bottom line. Now a search must be conducted for the most qualified of applicants, the one(s) that can begin their duties immediately, and thus begin, that much quicker, to make money for the business. The lesser qualified applicants being tossed aside to either continue searching for a job that ultimately will pay a lower wage than they might have made without the federal government butting in; or they will join the ranks of the unemployed, and collect an even smaller pittance - that is, if they even qualify for that.

But perhaps the most injurious crime to be committed by a minimum wage, an ideology so deeply flawed, so corrupt, and bereft of any redeeming value, is that it robs business of its most precious of treasures - its independence. Why does anyone start a business? To make money, naturally. But more so to be their own boss, and set their own standards, and create their own goals, and grow at their own pace, and to be free to run things as they want, and not to be dependant on others. Every time the federal government, and even state government, passes legislation to raise the minimum wage, it has the effect of reaching into a business and tearing to pieces that very independence, because now it is that much more difficult to succeed. With each new wage increase, a small business that once enjoyed independence, and that otherwise might have persevered, now is driven that much closer to oblivion, that much closer to the brink, to the very edge of - dependence!

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