I have often wondered if Mr. Conservative/Libertarian turns down raises his company offers to *him.* Because I’ve only ever heard this argument applied to low-wage workers. Apparently, when you increase executive salaries and bonuses, that money comes out of a magical portal somewhere, so prices are unaffected. And no one ever tries to tell middle-class knowledge workers that getting a raise would only leave them worse off in the long run. It’s only ever the working poor. I guess they get paid with a different, more sinister kind of money.
Rebecca Wald, quoted in Mia Nutick – For those who are in discussions with people who believe that raising the minimum wage is bad for the people who get minimum wage, or bad for prices in general, I give you this quote which breaks it down *perfectly*: (via mslorelei)
Compensation from profits:
CEO and execs – of course, they deserve raises and bonuses.
Workers – NO WAY, that will drive up the price of the product/service.
Same money, two stories.
(via liberalsarecool)
So I just did this math. One (1) $5000 raise, or bonus, for a guy at the top (going from $50k to $55k a year, say), is the approximate equivalent of a $0.25 hourly raise for 9 or 10 folks at the bottom. Assuming those 9/10 work 40 hour weeks, which often they don’t.
I’m sure you can do the multiplication from there.