Employment Duration Indexed Minimum Wage

Minimum wage vs rental prices (Ref: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders Facebook Page)

When considering minimum wage proposals, some may ask, why not let the free market decide? And the answer is that the employment market is far from ideal. Two of the classical market problems are information asymmetry and lack of liquidity. I present a simple proposal below that addresses both.

With regard to information asymmetry, employees may not be aware that the market can bear a greater wage than they might otherwise settle for. With regard to liquidity, the market needs to push employers to reduce their utilization of low-wage workers in permanent positions. In the job market, liquidity means unemployment, so my proposal is to set the bar low for initial employment and then raise it incrementally. I call this the employment-duration-indexed minimum wage. For example:

1st month = $5/hr minimum
2nd month = $10/hr minimum
3rd month and beyond = $15/hr minimum

The key idea here is the structure, not the specific wage levels that would change over time. This structure would enable internships, seasonal odd jobs, trial periods, and young people getting started. This rule would be enforced for the cumulative lifetime work of each person on a per-company basis. That way, large companies like McDonalds and WalMart could not skirt the law by firing and re-hiring, so they would end up paying $15/hr for the vast majority of their workforce.

This rule would increase employee turnover, but if this pushes people to find a role in the workforce where they create greater value and earn more, instead of settling, then they will be better off and require less government assistance in the long term.

For background, this idea came from thinking about two different perspectives that are both true:

 

1. If I agree to work for you for 8 hours on a Saturday at $2 per hour, it does no harm whatsoever to the rest of the society. Assuming that I include this on my income taxes as required by law, I will actually end up donating a few dollars to the government which it definitely would not have received if I had stayed home and watched TV instead.

 

2. It is a fact that long-term low-wage employees end up utilizing government welfare programs far more than those who earn 2-3 times the minimum wage. Additionally, when the minimum wage is raised, it turns out that the vast majority of employers are able to create higher valued positions, and employees who were pushed out of low-wage jobs migrate to these positions. However, creating a higher barrier-to-entry has a harmful effect at the low end of the market.