KLITZKIE TESTIMONY ON PROPOSED MINIMUM WAGE BILL

Following is a copy of Bob Klitzkie's testimony submitted to Sen. Roy Quinata's committee relative to a proposed increase in the minimum wage. 

Robert Klitzkie, Esq.

22 Baki Ct., Yigo, GU 96929

 (671) 653-6607

klitzkie@hotmail.com

May 5 

Re: Minimum wage

Honorable Roy Quinata, Chairman, and honorable members of the Committee on Infrastructure, Economic Development, etc.

  

 The real minimum wage is $ ZERO!

The Minimum Wage is $0.00 for many. It is against our law to hire anyone and pay him less than $9.25 per hour. For the person whose labor is not worth that $9.25, there is no job, sentencing him (1) to unemployment. 

Considerations:

1. I went to work on my first real job at 15 in 1954 at fifty-five cents an hour. I was probably worth about thirty-five cents an hour. I had to learn what it meant to have a job. I learned and came to grips with the fact that being a soda jerk at King Morgan Drug Store would never yield a living wage nor was it a career position.

2. If the statutory minimum wage is really effective at raising real wages (2) why are we screwing around with miniscule amounts, e.g., $9.25? Why not go for $92.50 so that everyone can be “rich?”

3. Assuming the existence of Homo economicusas the default employer, how does the 15-year-old or an occupationally immature adult learn what it means to have a job? NB Homo economicus (3) will not pay for labor at a rate higher than its value. No law can increase the value of a person’s labor. But perhaps in times of labor scarcity a minimum wage law can engage in wealth redistribution by providing what amounts to a subsidy to one who is marginally productive

.

4. I submit that your goal should be:

An effective, efficient government that provides basic services in accordance with the rule of law on at least a break-even basis.

While the phrase “basic services” will evoke quibbling in some parts, l submit that wealth redistribution ain’t it! I hold that the “basic services” does not include setting the price of anything (4) —certainly not labor. Attempts to do so distorts markets and causes misallocation of capital.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Klitzkie

PS Some random facts gleaned from a piece by Matt Vespa at Townhall.com:

• 98% of Americans make more than the minimum wage

• Americans working for the minimum wage fall within the top fifth of world wealth distribution

 

Footnotes

(1) Him, IAC standard English usage rules, means members of both sexes.

(2) A real wage rate is a nominal wage rate divided by the price of a good and is a transparent measure of how much of the good an hour of work buys. It provides an important indicator of the living standards of workers, and also of the productivity of workers.

(3) The homo economicus is a cornerstone of the neoclassical economics approach, particularly in microeconomics. In modern economics, the neoclassical theory rests on three assumptions: rational decisions, maximization of utility, and a self-interested orientation.

(4) Certain regulated industries, e.g., are the exception that proves the rule.