At franchises of McDonald's and Burger King and other fast food restaurants famous for minimum wage jobs, are you as a franchise owner allowed to pay employees more, or are wages fixed centrally, and forced on you through the franchise agreement? Who is the bad guy here? The Franchise owner or the corporate CEO?
Wages are not fixed centrally. Local establishments can offer more if they need to attract workers.
They will only offer higher wages if they have to to attract workers. This will only happen if there is a shortage of workers. As long as we tolerate a high level of unemployment and under employment, workers having to take parttime work or a job that they are over qualified for, then the supply of workers will exceed the demand and wages will stay low.
Maintaining a high level of unemployment and unemployment is done intentionally in the US to keep wages low and to increase profits and the incomes of the already wealthy. We also maintain a high level of immigration both legal and illegal, maintain a a high level of free trade, intentionally obstruct unions, reduce taxes on the wealthy, increase the taxes on everyone else and keep the minimum wage low to accomplish the same result.
All that it requires is that we have to lie to ourselves about why we do these things so that the sheep who vote for the people who advocate these policies don't realize the reason behind all of these policies, to keep wages low and profits high.
This combination of policies intended to keep wages low and profits high by intentionally increasing income inequity is bad for the economy because it reduces effective demand. The main component of demand is wages. Keeping wages and in turn demand low reduces the growth in the economy as well as how much economic activity there is, the amount of money that is created and the so-called velocity of the money that it creates. In simple terms the already wealthy who control the Republican party who advocate these policies, are saying that they are willing to settle for a bigger piece of a smaller pie.
This all comes down to what you believe that the economy is suppose to do and to a very large degree how our society is suppose to operate. The Republicans want you to believe, they need you to believe, that the current set of economic policies that direct ever increasing amounts of the nation's income to the already wealthy aren't responsible for directing ever increasing amounts of the nation's income to the already wealthy. This is in spite of the fact that thirty five years ago when they championed and instituted these policies they were sold to the American people as doing the very same thing that the the Republicans now deny that the policies do, direct ever increasing amounts of income to the already wealthy in order to provide more money available for investment to increase growth. Investment that has dropped over the last thirty five years, not increased. As has growth slowed. The rich have gotten much richer. The poor and middle class are much worse off. You'd be forgiven if you believed that this, and not increased investment was the reason for these policies.
