Did I mention prices at all? (You've slipped into some other scripted debate, with fuzzy political euphemisms like "making ends meet", which is only tangentially related to the point I'm making about the topic of this article.)
The point above is that the system has many, many parameters in constant dynamic adjustment. Setting a minimum on one that's easy-to-observe (hourly wages) in law doesn't just cause that one value to change.
The adjustments happen all over. Marginal workers aren't hired or kept-on-staff. Hours of operation are trimmed. Outfits run on slimmer crews. It's harder to find someone to ask a question. Lines for check-out get longer. Facilities go a little longer between restocking/cleaning. (Minimum wages mean grosser store bathrooms.) Unregulated, harder-to measure benefits get trimmed. The topic of this article, schedule predictability or flexibility, is just such a benefit.
And it doesn't require conscious tit-for-tat book-balancing action by employers for these trade-offs to happen. As they notice they're making less, adjustments happen. (Or, smaller businesses that are slow to adjust simply become uneconomical and leave the market: minimum wages benefit Wal-Marts & McDonalds, with their expert formula operations, over intuitive "Mom-and-Pops".) Over time, since more people are now eager for extra hours at the legally-mandated higher salary, it's easier to place more informal demands on those people, like "you better take every shift when offered, or it won't be offered again".
There are likely some good workers who'd prefer steadier work, in predicable shifts, at a lower wage. That agreement is made illegal by minimum wage laws, and they are forced to compete with a larger group of people looking to scoop up shorter, more random, higher-paying shifts.
The point above is that the system has many, many parameters in constant dynamic adjustment. Setting a minimum on one that's easy-to-observe (hourly wages) in law doesn't just cause that one value to change.
The adjustments happen all over. Marginal workers aren't hired or kept-on-staff. Hours of operation are trimmed. Outfits run on slimmer crews. It's harder to find someone to ask a question. Lines for check-out get longer. Facilities go a little longer between restocking/cleaning. (Minimum wages mean grosser store bathrooms.) Unregulated, harder-to measure benefits get trimmed. The topic of this article, schedule predictability or flexibility, is just such a benefit.
And it doesn't require conscious tit-for-tat book-balancing action by employers for these trade-offs to happen. As they notice they're making less, adjustments happen. (Or, smaller businesses that are slow to adjust simply become uneconomical and leave the market: minimum wages benefit Wal-Marts & McDonalds, with their expert formula operations, over intuitive "Mom-and-Pops".) Over time, since more people are now eager for extra hours at the legally-mandated higher salary, it's easier to place more informal demands on those people, like "you better take every shift when offered, or it won't be offered again".
There are likely some good workers who'd prefer steadier work, in predicable shifts, at a lower wage. That agreement is made illegal by minimum wage laws, and they are forced to compete with a larger group of people looking to scoop up shorter, more random, higher-paying shifts.