Old Jones,
To be honest with you, it has been way too long sense I did jobs like that for me to have any idea of what the market clearing wage would be. Years ago, before I went to university, during a much worse recession then this (in terms both unemployment and GDP statistics), I recall working at one very physical job for long hours for $5 hr (which, by the way is a great incentive for people to get an education). I agree that the market clearing wage for garbage collectors would likely be significantly above minimum wage (some have made that claim) for the simple reason that there are other less unpleasant minimum wage jobs people could do instead (e.g. a few that come immediately to mind are coffee shops, grocery store employees, movie theatres, etc). However, I doubt it would be up to $18 (plus their benefits) simply because that would indicate that Toronto’s fair wage policy was not a binding constraint and thus (at least in this one case) would not serve any purpose.
To be honest with you, it has been way too long sense I did jobs like that for me to have any idea of what the market clearing wage would be. Years ago, before I went to university, during a much worse recession then this (in terms both unemployment and GDP statistics), I recall working at one very physical job for long hours for $5 hr (which, by the way is a great incentive for people to get an education). I agree that the market clearing wage for garbage collectors would likely be significantly above minimum wage (some have made that claim) for the simple reason that there are other less unpleasant minimum wage jobs people could do instead (e.g. a few that come immediately to mind are coffee shops, grocery store employees, movie theatres, etc). However, I doubt it would be up to $18 (plus their benefits) simply because that would indicate that Toronto’s fair wage policy was not a binding constraint and thus (at least in this one case) would not serve any purpose.