this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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Not disagreeing with the idea, but it seems like this would also have the side effect of incentivizing employers to aggressively and artificially reduce wages and pass that burden on to the taxpayer, if you're eliminating minimum wage.
I think it's an interesting idea, but one that seems prone to abuse by unethical parties. Not that our current system is immune to that either.
My state has no minimum wage, so we inherit the federal minimum wage ($7.25 IIRC), yet starting wages tend to be $10-12 in my suburb (probably higher closer to downtown) and median is $13 for fast food.
Yeah, companies will probably try to reduce wages, especially if those wages are essentially subsidized by NIT. But at least in my area, that would only happen if worker supply increases (in this case from people quitting worse jobs). Since almost nobody actually works for minimum wage here, I don't think that's a major concern.
On net, workers would probably be better off. I think we'd see a bit more intentional unemployment, which should drive wages up instead of down.
The main people who would lose out are middle class people relying on Social Security for retirement. We could balance that by removing the income cap on Social Security to preserve some traditional benefit for retirees (I propose income caps for benefits).