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I think mandatory minimum wage laws are bad.

They are also misleading. What is more relevant is what actual wages are employees getting. For example I think Shimane's minimum wage is under 1000 (962?) but when I see ads for arbeito jobs they are all at least 1000 and often 1100 for regular hours with later nights/weekends being higher still 1200+ and/or they offer benefits to go with the 1000/hr base like a free meal

Full time work appears to be higher (though I admit to not checking in detail, just looking at occasional ads I see)

By far the best thing the government could do is set the minimum tax threshold to 50 week of 40 hours at the current minimum wage (~2M Y)

I don't know where to get the statistics but my hunch is that almost all jobs pay more than minimum wage and that those rates are gradually going up thanks to the labor shortage. If the actual minimum wage goes up above 1500/hour it doesn't matter what the legal minimum wage does

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Thank you for reading and sharing your opinion. There is a school of thought, supported by historical evidence, that by raising the minimum wage, nations often help to raise wages overall - especially for low-income workers. However, I am aware that people have strong opinions about the whole concept of a minimum wage.

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Problem is that you end up with a fraction of the population that is unemployable because no employer can afford to pay them the minimum wage and make a profit off their labor. So yes it does raise wages - for those that still have jobs. It also tends to raise unemployment

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Well, that's one point of view. The minimum wage is just one factor among many that affect employment levels. Other factors such as economic growth, technological advances, and government policies also play an important role. That's why it's difficult to make a definitive statement about the impact of minimum wage increases on unemployment.

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