minimum wage should exist

"As for outsources, most jobs I can think of that pay minimum practically are not outsourced. Mcdonald's. etc." Labor in McDonald's is what has left AFTER all the inventory in McDonald's are outsourced. The uniform that McDonald's employees wear is made in China/Mexico, etc. If there are ENOUGH labor that are willing to take the minimum wage, then TONS of uniforms, paper cups, plastic knives/forks can be made here. Can you imagine how many jobs we can have here with all the McDonald's inventory productions? You think that Americans don't know how to make those products? No, but why the business outsource the labor, b/c the goal of business is to make profit, by making profit, they need to cut the cost as much as they can. The US dollar value is still higher than most other currencies, say RenMingBi, $1= 8 yuan, you pay Americans minimum wage $6.15 while you only need to pay the Chinese $2 (=16 yuan). 16 yuan/hr is enough to for a Chinese worker to survive in Mainland China. So it is not about fire the Americans if they are not as good workers as the other Americans, the problem lies on the US dollar value and stanadard living conditions/level in other poorer countries. We were talking about legal outsourcing, now let's bring up the concern on hiring illegal immigrants based one their comparative advantage. The minimum wage is a limit on the freedom of both employers and employees. Minimum wage laws make it illegal for employers to pay workers less than the minimum wage. This also prevents workers from being made to provide labor or services for less than the minimum. For example, during the apartheid era in South Africa, white trade unions lobbied for the introduction of minimum wage laws so as to exclude black workers from the labor market. By preventing black workers from selling their labor for less than white workers, the black workers were prevented from competing for jobs held by whites. The minimum wage can also increases the number of people on welfare, thus requiring greater government spending. (http://ideas.repec.org...) Keep in mind that minimum wage laws apply to more than big businesses, they apply to government and non-profit organizations. Non-profit charitable organizations are hurt by the minimum wage. Let's take an example. Consider a domestic violence shelter. This type of shelter normally needs workers to clean, collect & organize donations, counsel & assist residents, monitor help-lines, provide legal assistance in such things as obtaining restraining orders, and so on. Volunteers help relieve some of the duties, but it's often tough to find dedicated ongoing volunteers to do the job. After all, volunteers still have to earn a living, raise a family, etc. However, if the charitable organization were able to pay some amount, even a few dollars an hour, it would better be able to build a more steady set of workers. A non-profit organization may simply not be able to afford a $7 per hour pay rate. Thus, non-profits have only two solutions: dissolve their organizations or hire fewer people to provide the charitable service. Many people believe businesses have endless supplies of cash and can easily withstand minimum wage increases or other cost increases. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case. The minimum wage can drive some small companies out of business. Every time there is a recession, thousands of businesses go under. Restaurants, which pay wages at or near the minimum wage level, have the highest rate of failure of any business type. Anytime you increase the costs of businesses, you push them closer to the edge. Let's take an example. Imagine a small neighborhood hardware store. This hardware store isn't going to have the logistics and economy of scale advantages of say, Wal-Mart; thus, it must charge more. It probably makes up the price difference with better service. When you raise the minimum wage, it increases the operating costs for that hardware store even more. Thus, it must raise it's prices to cover costs. Eventually, prices get so high that customers conclude that shopping there isn't worth the additional cost. Slowly, the local hardware store is driven out of business.