Political wage setting.

For a lot of people, I think this is going to contribute to whatever new elevated minimum wage number they're imagining down the line -- $22/hr... $50/hr... who knows.

But that's the wrong lesson.

The right lesson is that our tax policy is garbage and creates welfare traps that are by far the bigger problem than any state-mandated wage floor can fix; and that even if you get exactly what you want -- and you won't, because of all the well-known negative effects of large minimum wage increases -- it won't actually improve many lives.

These are not mistakes, the left likes poverty and hates wealth creation. Feudalism is a great business model for the elite. I don't think we can vote our way out of this.

BTW, to the left, the minimum wage is a ceiling, not a floor and they pat themselves on the back because they think they are generous.

Raising the minimum wage is really just a way for government to herd more compensation into income, which can be taxed.

There are countless forms of non-monetary compensation that aren't taxed. A good example is restaurant workers getting free meals while working. Raising the minimum wage will cause employers to reduce or eliminate those free meals by shifting that compensation into taxable wages.

In many cases this ends up being a net reduction in compensation to the workers--and more money in the pockets of government to spend on destructive bullshit, of course.