Our nations GDP works out to nearly $150k/worker. That means that our average worker produces about $75/hr of production.
Poor figure to grab: GDP includes governmental spending, which is to say, it double counts the same productivity. Not to mention the interference of our trade deficit, which in no way indicates hourly production of the American worker. If I produce a dollars worth of wealth, and it is then taxed and used to pay a cop to keep me from speeding, then the actual wealth of society has not increased.
Gross National Income works out to
9.8 Trillion, but still includes government salaries. We've got 142 million people currently working, about 20.5 million of whom are government employees (using
latest BLS numbers), leaving you with about 122 million private sector workers (we'll just pretend that government contractors are producing something rather than filling in governmental roles. We'll just understand that will make the final figure a bit off). Using 2010 Census data, monthly federal salaries come out to
$16.238 Bn, State monthly salaries come out to
$19.579 Bn, and Local monthly salaries come out to
$50.825 Bn, meaning that of the 9.8 Trillion in Income that Americans earned, only about $1.04 Trillion of it is just reshuffled productive earnings going to government workers.
Slightly more accurate numbers, therefore, are 122 million American private sector workers bringing in about $8.75 Trillion in income. That comes out to an annualized $71,721 per actual private sector working American, a little less than half of your claimed $150K. Utilizing back-of-the-napkin math, assuming that your original $75/hour figure was the correct derivative of the $150K/year figure, that means that the
actual average hourly income of a private sector American worker is about $35.86. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly earnings for non-farm employees is
$23.39. That $12.47/hour difference, of course, being your small business owners, who are not "employees". Frankly, given their higher risk and level of investment, I'm pretty sure I'm fine with them pulling in an extra twelve bucks an hour.
Anywho, given that the average hourly wage is significantly
above the minimum wage, it seems rather obvious that, in fact, quality labor is in demand. Given that we do not, in fact, have clusterings of large percentages of the workforce at the minimum wage, the claim that we would see large numbers of people's incomes slide as a result of lowering or revoking the minimum wage is ridiculous. Were that the case, they would already be making the minimum wage.
There is only one group of actual private sector American citizen workers I can think of off-hand who would
actually face a potential reduction if the minimum wage were lowered or removed. That would be unions whose wages are often negotiated in multiples of the minimum wage, and whose political money often goes to advocate for hikes in said minimum wage..... :thinking huh. Odd, that. It's almost as if a cartel were seeking to artificially reduce supply, thereby increasing price....
