in a living wage.

Minimum wage must go up. It was meant as a lower limit of decency, a minimum wage on which a family could survive with some dignity. It hasn’t been raised in years. It has never been adjusted for inflation. It should be in the $10-$15 range by now, and much higher for factory workers.

But we can’t just raise the minimum wage without also protecting our jobs through a much tighter and more protectionist trade policy as well. If we simply raise the minimum wage, we just lose more jobs faster as companies ship them overseas. I’ll get the minimum wage up, don’t worry. And I’ll do it whle keeping those jobs here.

And no, prices won’t go up just because minimum wage goes up. These jobs pay so little that the real cost to companies is more in their products and general overhead. Yeah, OK, maybe prices will creep up a little bit, but not near as much as Corporate America will have you believe. And they’ll be making more money anyway once things settle down... because people will have a lot more to spend.

Minimum wage should also be adjusted by location. For instance, one might be able to get by on $10/hr in Fargo, North Dakota. But that wouldn’t even pay the rent in Washington DC or New York.

Odds are this won’t even be an issue after I start bringing jobs back home. Employers must compete for workers. If they don’t, our price goes down.