Minimum wage . . . does it help or hurt the worker? Does it help or hurt the consumer? I encountered my first client with a wage dispute who was a home care worker about four years ago. I have had several home care workers come to me since. As I researched the law governing wage and hours for home care workers I was surprised to learn that there are no wage laws that apply to them establishing a minimum wage. Most are compensated without consideration to the actual number of hours they actually work. Dividing their compensation by the number of hours actually worked many of these workers are paid as little as $2.00 per hour (give or take). But if you look at the policy considerations behind the law excepting these workers from minimum wage laws a bigger picture begins to develop. The legislature found that if home care workers were subject to the minimum wage laws that many elderly would simply be incapable of paying for a home care worker. They would have to do without. This is what will happen with this new law. Here again we have bureaucrats ignoring the laws of economics in their policy making. As the price for a good or service increases the quantity demanded decreases. Minimum wage is a price control. All price controls result in shortages. This is basic economics. The consequence of this new law will be that the number of elderly people, who need home care workers, will not have a home care worker. This reduces the number of jobs for home care workers that would otherwise be available and deprives the elderly of home care that would otherwise be available. The law of unintended consequences will once again raise its sinister head and bite both the home care workers and the elderly. money.cnn/2013/09/17/news/economy/home-care-minimum-wage/index.html?goback=%2Egde_79023_member_275043728#%21
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 15:48:49 +0000
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