Bill Gates: Minimum Wage Increase Would Be a ‘Huge Tradeoff’ for Workers in Poverty

Bill Gates: Minimum Wage Increase ‘Huge Tradeoff’ for Workers in Poverty (Washington Free Beacon)

Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates warned against raising the minimum wage Tuesday on Morning Joe, saying it results in a “huge tradeoff’ that can adversely affect households in poverty.

The problem, he said, wasn’t so much the wage level for lower-income employees, but the lack of hours they are able to work.

“You have to be a bit careful that if you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution, that you’re going to go buy machines and automate things or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction,” he said. “So within certain limits, you know, it doesn’t cause job destruction. But if you really start pushing it, then you’re just making a huge tradeoff. You have to say which are the households that end up benefiting. Is it much more the teenager in a wealthy household or is it that household in poverty? A lot of the problem there is that those people don’t have many hours. It’s not the actual wage level.”