$7.25

Well, it's done. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that increases the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. Now it's off to the Senate, and so on, and so on...but it's on its way.

Since the creation of the federal minimum wage in 1938, there have been arguments for and against it. Of course, people should be paid something for the work that they do. But how can we put a number on the minimum?

I've spoken out against the minimum wage over and over again. I believe employers should be allowed to offer whatever they want. If they only want to pay $2.00 an hour, and no one wants to work for $2.00 an hour, they'll either raise their pay or go out of business. Simple.

Arguments in support of raising the mandatory minimum usually include "helping people" who are supporting their families. But if you are supporting your family, shouldn't you strive to make more than the minimum. In reality, most minimum wage jobs are held by those who are supplementing a larger income. High schooll kids still living at home, a spouse earning a secondary income, that sort of thing.

I don't want to get into all the arguments I've made in the past. I want only to bring one new argument to the table: the negative effect on illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens that raising the minimum will have.

By virtue of being in this country illegally, alien workers are unable to effectively negotiate a higher rate of pay. Who will they take their arguments to? Will they threaten to expose their employer's illegal hiring practices at their own expense? Doubtful. It's like that episode of "Cops" where the drug user flags down the police to report that the drugs she bought weren't real. Uh, duh!

We can assume the employer who knowingly hires illegals is gambling that he'll save some money and not get caught. If he's not saving money, he'd eliminate the risk and hire U.S. citizens. So if U.S. citizens are required by law to make $5.15 an hour, and he can get an illegal worker to do the same job for $2.00 an hour (as an example), he's saving $3.15 per hour, per worker! If the minimum is raised by $2.10 for legal workers, well guess what? He won't be raising his illegal immigrants' pay by that much. They'll still make $2 an hour, and the employer will now save $5.15 per hour, per worker! $5.15! The exact amount of the current minimum wage!!

"Compassionate" people will argue that the illegal immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans won't do. That's bull! Americans CAN'T do the jobs at $2.00 an hour, thanks to our wonderful government. It's not allowed, lawfully! So, when an employer has the option of paying $2 illegally to someone who will work their butt off for any amount or $2 illegally to someone who can get a job legally somewhere else for almost 4x as much, who do you think he's going to choose?

We can see now that an increase in minimum wage will not help those who are working illegally (except that more of them will be able to find low paying jobs). We see that American citizens who are working minimum wage jobs are only partly helped, because fewer of them will be hired. That leaves two more groups: Those working for between $5.15 and $7.25 now, and those working above $7.25.

Starting with the "Middlers" (not Bette...that's with one "d"), let's say one is working for $6.50 an hour now. Upon the increase of the minimum, that employee will get a mandatory raise of 75 cents. Good for them, right? Wrong. Because whatever distinction that gave them a rate of pay of $1.35 higher than the minimum, a special skill, years of service, whatever..., is now lost. They are now at the same rate of pay as an entry level, unskilled worker.

And what if you're making $8 an hour now. You are earning nearly $3 above the minimum wage, a certain level of distinction. You've got some special skills, maybe some experience, maybe it's your first job out of college. Eight dollars an hour maybe isn't great, but it was at least a level above a minimum wage job. After the increase, you're only making 75 cents more than anyone else could make. Someone who dropped out of 6th grade is breathing down your neck, financially. Maybe you're unhappy and you quit your job, figuring the worst you can do is $.75 less. Or maybe you take your case to your boss and demand a raise, get it, and happily settle into the same job for just a little more money. (That higher pay will rear its ugly head on the market place, and the raise you've just made will have to be spent on higher prices of food, clothes, gas, and whatever else.) And you say to yourself, "Well, I guess I can stay here a little longer, since they did just give me a raise" and you forget that this is not what you wanted to do for the rest of your life.

Minimum wage, maximum headache. My advice, abolish the minimum wage and let employees make what their job is really worth. Sure, there'll be a rough transition as the employers think they can get better for less, but the free market is a mysterious thing and in the end, great businesses prosper more than good businesses and bad businesses cannot stay afloat. That's the way it should be.