Forum Post: Shadow Labor
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 11, 2011, 11:13 a.m. EST by libertarianincle
(312)
from Cleveland, OH
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Interesting article for the Minimum Wage hike supporters:
"Plenty of teenage boys cut their employment teeth filling people's tanks, checking their oil, and airing up their tires. When not pumping gas, these kids poked their heads in the attached garage and learned from the mechanics.
Gas pumps don't sit out in front of service garages anymore. You pump your own gas, pay your own bill, and go inside if you're hungry for a Twinkie, or in some places a McDonald's hamburger or DQ sundae. In Las Vegas, you can fill up, go inside, and play video poker.
Those selling gas at the retail end make somewhere around a dime a gallon. So paying an attendant even minimum wage means pumping more than 80 gallons an hour just to cover wages, employment taxes, and the like.
Increases in minimum wage over the years have made the more expensive gas pumps that include the payment mechanism more cost effective.
Money makes the division of labor possible. "The great accomplishment of reason is the discovery of the advantages of social cooperation, and its corollary, the division of labor," Ludwig von Mises wrote."
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