How would a negative income tax get rid of a minimum wage?
So with a negative income tax there would be a cutoff at which someone would simply pay no tax. Suppose that was $30,000 per year. If you made more than $30K per year, you’d pay taxes, but if you made less you’d get money from the government. If you made exactly $30K per year you’d get nothing but pay nothing. There would really be no need for the minimum wage with a negative income tax, because if you worked 40 hours per week and made $1 per hour, then you’d be in store to receive money back in the form of a negative income tax, which if you calculated your salary plus the money the government gave you, would equate to something more than $1 per hour. The rate of the negative income tax could be fine tuned to set the same basic guaranteed standard of living as the current minimum wage. So a negative income tax is an alternative way to insure that people make the minimum needed to get by. The argument for why it’s a good idea is: Since there are a lot of people who don’t have the skill
