No, Federal minimum wage needs to be at least fifteen and closer to twenty in some markets. The only time low wages saves anything is lowering employer's costs. After that, it's a drag on the economy THE WHOLE REST OF THE WAY- even up to and including that employer's bottom line; fewer customers with less money is not an economic environment conducive to growth or profitability, is it?
Maybe instead of subsidizing low wages like we do in this country, we should simply expect employers to pay fair and competitive wages- and legislate accordingly. Companies hike prices when their costs go up and no one complains; fuel surcharge? No problem! When it's wages driving costs up, why should that be different?
Even Wal-Mart, a heavy user of low wage employees if ever there was one- acknowledges that labor cost is less than fifteen percent of their total costs, so it seems to me that there's some room there.
