Will their wage double the same way a minimum wage earners will? No.
And should it? Not necessarily.
But now they are only earning $6 more (or 29% more) than an unskilled worker. before they were earning $7.75 (107% more). Comparatively you have devalued their work.
No model of economics focuses on how one job's wages compare to another. That's what machinists don't understand.
An electrician makes more money than a machinist because it requires greater intellect and more schooling and apprenticeship.
No it doesn't. A machinist and an electrician both have to go through a journeyman program. As someone who can do both, I think electrical work is easier.
electrician should be upset if a machinist were to use the force of government to legislate that a company pay him the same as an electrician.
The minimum wage is based on the cost of living. Not random arbitrary numbers. Either you increase it, or you subsidize shitty business like Walmart through welfare. Or you do neither and watch crime explode. I don't know about you, but were I a service worker, I'd sooner rob you or even eat you than lay down and starve to death.
My academic background is in economics, and this is an economics issue.
Cool beans. Me too. What school did you go to? Own any businesses? I retired just recently at the age of 29 via my real-estate company, that I initially started using money I saved up working as a machinist (it's also how I payed for my college tuition, OSU incase you were wondering).
It's not about the subject value judgment 'loser/schmuck/winner/etc."
Actually that is what the conversation is about. Go back and read it.
The economic price of their labor (and thereby skills) is however an objective, measurable fact.
As is wage suppression and union busting, but we're not supposed to talk about that huh?