New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani forcefully defended his call for a $30 minimum wage during the final debate of the race Wednesday night, warning that under the status quo, the expensive metropolis is at growing risk of becoming “a museum of where working-class people used to be able to live.”
The inability of many New Yorkers to make a livable wage in the city, Mamdani said, “is pushing them to live in Jersey City, to live in Pennsylvania, to live in Connecticut, because they can’t afford to live in New York City.”
Under Mamdani’s proposal, which would have to be approved by lawmakers, New York City’s wage floor would rise incrementally before reaching $30 an hour by 2030. The minimum wage would then be tied to either cost-of-living increases or worker productivity jumps.
I’ve met several people who buy into how minimum wage just leads to higher prices. They think they’re smart because they’re considering a consequence beyond just “people get more money”, but they’re not understanding that few workers serve many customers, so to give a fast food worker an extra dollar per hour you really only need to raise prices maybe like 1%, and then workers have more money to spend on luxury stuff like fast food, so business actually picks up as a result of paying people more.
I don’t think they actually think they’re smart. I think they’re just selfish assholes.
Time and time again, I come across the argument that “it will make the price of everything to up because now businesses have to pay workers more.”
Ok—so? Businesses are forced to pay workers to a standard that allows everybody to live without drowning in debt and inescapable poverty. Isn’t it a good thing that people won’t be suffering?
No, not to them. Their wages won’t increase equivalently, and now they have to pay more to maintain their standard of luxury. It’s wealth redistribution away from those who can afford excess towards the people who can’t afford basics. They actively choose not to support that because it’s a personal inconvenience to them.
It’s an amazing demonstration of “equality looks like oppression to the privileged” and “fuck you, I got mine” attitude.