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    Low Information BoaterHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:27am

    Unacceptable. I will not stand idly by and watch my self-esteem, as determined solely by the ratio of my salary to minimum wage, be diminished by people who couldn't even bother to be born with the same advantages imparted to me by my family's socioeconomic standing.

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      blameitonthecroutons goodbye tourLow Information Boater
      2/19/16 10:37am

      Hey how are all of the engineers of the world going to look down on fast food workers now? Have you even thought about that?

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      Low Information Boaterblameitonthecroutons goodbye tour
      2/19/16 10:39am

      The STEM folks will just have to stick with lording it over the humanities majors for the rest of time.

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    ReburnsABurningReturnsHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:33am

    If this model is effective in Oregon it could be copied all over America, so, hey, great.

    With the proviso that we should wait long enough to actually make sure it worked, yeah.

    A lot of the potential downside from mispricing a minimum wage takes time to develop, because while capital is mobile, it isn’t always instantly mobile.

    The only notable potential problem with this that I can think of is that it doesn’t have one feature that Australia’s oft fellated minimum wage laws have, which is a fairly substantial jailbait adjustment.

    Unless I missed it somewhere in the linked article.

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      BrianGriffinReburnsABurningReturns
      2/19/16 10:36am

      Uh...I don’t think you mean to type what you typed.

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      ReburnsABurningReturnsBrianGriffin
      2/19/16 10:39am

      Sure I did.

      I guess Brian looks similar enough to the Pedobear for me to say “Mission Accomplished”!

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    Hip Brooklyn StereotypeHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:23am

    Just who do these commies think they are? Making it so that folks are able to support themselves and stuff.

    Don’t they realize that’s entirely un-American?

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      toothpetardHip Brooklyn Stereotype
      2/19/16 10:24am

      Have they no faith in trickle-down economics? STAY THE COURSE

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      Hip Brooklyn Stereotypetoothpetard
      2/19/16 10:26am
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    Sid and FinancyHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:25am

    That’s not all they’re blazing, amiri— *cough* *cough* “Dude!” *pass*

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      Dave Sid and Financy
      2/19/16 10:27am

      “I’m not, NOT stoned”, the governor said while signing the bill.

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      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeSid and Financy
      2/19/16 10:32am

      Ah, what a life. To be a budtender in Portland making almost $15 an hour and all the weed you can smoke.

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    MattHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:50am

    I’ve always thought it would be good to have what we might call a 'floating' minimum wage. Basically, minimum wage tied to cost of living. As cost of living goes up, so does minimum wage automatically. If cost of living decreases, then minimum wage can go down. I would say that it ought to be tracked on something like a 5 year period. Every five years, we take an economic snap shot to see what the cost of living looks like.

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      m9105826Matt
      2/19/16 11:11am

      With the ease of tracking costs online these days I don’t see why this couldn’t be an annual census. Create an algorithm based on averages of things like housing, essential foods, transportation, etc., toss out outlying data points, and create a reasonable minimum wage per county.

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      Mattm9105826
      2/19/16 11:43am

      One thing that I would caution against is that it should be easier for the wage to go up than for it to come down. Prices fluctuate and can change rapidly. Just look at gas. A year ago it was still well over $2 a gallon for most of the country and now there are places selling it for $1.50, but at the same time, there is all sorts of variables that might make it shoot back up again in short order. While a minimum wage increase should be done maybe annually, I would say that any decrease needs to come after a prolonged period where prices have come down and stayed down.

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    IwasthelittleprincessHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:25am

    Can someone who is smarter than me explain why we haven’t done a tiered minimum wage before? It seems obvious.

    If the answer is just “politicians don’t care enough about poor people” then I guessed right.

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      ReburnsABurningReturnsIwasthelittleprincess
      2/19/16 10:37am

      At the federal level, getting agreement on that would be tough, even between somewhat like minded politicians.

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      Do-I-run-towards-the-center-in-the-general?Iwasthelittleprincess
      2/19/16 10:47am

      For the same reason that everyone thinks Sanders is “unrealistic.”

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    mrblergHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:29am

    So are the varying levels tied to population of the city/county or did they use some other kind of metric for it? I didn’t see it in the linked article.

    Can cities move into different brackets based on growth or decline?

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      ╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Bokemrblerg
      2/19/16 10:35am

      Economic health of the area. Theory is that the lower wages may revive industry in the rural parts, and the metro areas with the most robust economies can take the hit of higher wages. Seems like a win-win.

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      mrblerg╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Boke
      2/19/16 10:37am

      That’s what I figured it would be. Definitely makes the most sense. Thanks.

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    Hollow_LogHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:26am

    Have they addressed the dysentery problem?

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      DoodoobuttsupremeHollow_Log
      2/19/16 10:28am

      That’s only on the way to oregon, on that trail they have. What they need to fix is all the flooding rivers my oxen get stuck in.

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      Burnernating the CountrysideHollow_Log
      2/19/16 10:30am

      He was going to write on that next, but he lost his laptop fording the river.

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    Jujymonkey3Hamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:46am

    Why Hasn’t Darrell Merrell weighed in as to why a living wage is a bad thing yet?

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      XrdsAlumJujymonkey3
      2/19/16 11:04am

      He has to check if Clinton is against it. Or maybe he's out refilling his pain pill prescription.

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      Jujymonkey3XrdsAlum
      2/19/16 11:06am

      I’d suggest breaking the tablets in half.

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    bcallawayHamilton Nolan
    2/19/16 10:38am

    This is a great idea and will have a large, positive effect on Oregon’s economy. Money in motion is what makes economies boom; $1 in motion generates far more than $1 in economic growth, while $1 sitting in a rich man’s bank account does not. Giving more money, even a small amount, to poor and middle class people does great things for the economy. As we have seen, concentrating wealth at the top does not.

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      burps25bcallaway
      2/19/16 10:41am

      while $1 sitting in a rich man’s bank account does not.

      Yes it does. That dollar is used by the bank to fund home and small business loans, as well as larger investments that allow companies to be formed and expand. Money in the bank isn’t like keeping it under the mattress, it’s more like loaning it to the bank.

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      holierthanyourmamaburps25
      2/19/16 10:50am

      It’s actually like investing it in the bank (which is why the people of Cyprus, for example, had a “hair cut” applied to their deposits).

      As for the larger point, there are better more efficient and more pro-growth ways to put money in workers’ pockets while growing the economy that increasing the minimum wage above levels justified by the value contributed to the employer (which, of course, results in them not being hired or fired or replaced by automation).

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