Corn Detasseling and minimum wage

Minimum wage just went up from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour. That's a raise of more than 10 percent.

IT's corn detasseling season in the midwest. Sunday a young friend of ours who detassles corn complained about the rise in minimum wage- she had worked her way up a bit and was considered a crew leader, getting a little extra over the rest of the crew. Now she has the extra responsbility, but not so much extra pay, since the rest of the detasselers without her responsibilities now make very nearly what she does. So she's writing a letter to the company asking for a raise (I hope she asks for it to be retroactive, dating to the day minimum wage took effect). I expect she'll get it, although, since the job is only for a weeks in the summer, the company might manage to put her off long enough that it won't matter until next summer.

I am sure she is not the only one whose pay status has actually been debased by the minimum wage increase, and who is now asking for a raise. Basically, the payroll costs just went up nearly 10 percent- and no business is going to eat that cost. Those costs will be added on to the prices of goods and services, and in no time at all, minimum wage will buy precisely what it used to, perhaps a bit less.


Corn Detasseling is also an illustration of the senselessness of the argument that minimum wage ought to be a 'living wage.' Corn detasseling isn't a job anybody could or should make a living at- it's seasonal, primarily a means of extra cash for teens and people in their twenties- and it's extremely temporary. Sometimes the season is only a little over a week long, sometimes almost a month.

Minimum wage hikes aren't just a reflection of the rising cost of living, they are one of the driving factors as well.

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