YouTube’s $15 Minimum Wage: Oh, wait. It doesn’t exist.

Working for less than $15 an hour on content for Quora/Medium/YouTube

I find it interesting how the very people who scream the loudest about a $15 federal minimum wage don’t see how they support congresspeople who employ free work “interns” or technocrats in Silicon Valley who’ve built their platforms off of free labor.

Many content writers make their money by pushing nonsensical populist progressive ideals like a $15 federal minimum wage where it would destroy the labor market in low-income areas, therefore, hurting poor Americans the most. A $15 federal minimum wage is built on the back of pseudoscience and emotional appeals, which such a policy is even more anti-American-worker when you consider that many of the same people pushing it simultaneously want to make undocumented and overseas work easier to employ. Are you purposely trying to increase American unemployment?

Just consider: if you’re happy to work for FREE on Quora, Medium, YouTube, TikTok, Substack, etc. then don’t go out of your way to strip Americans of the very same opportunity you are building/built your career off of, i.e. interning, freelancing, free work, and low-wage work. If minimum wage laws applied to Quora/Medium/YouTube’s Partner Program then they’d be forced to discontinue it for at least 99% of its creators.

If we demolish the ground floor then it will be even harder for people to rise up and become financially independent, which is EXACTLY why big corporations like Amazon and Walmart lobby for a $15 federal minimum wage. It’s just one more well-intentioned tool meant to strike at the heart of entrepreneurship.

Don’t buy it, Substack Readers. May you continue to enjoy my low-wage work without guilt or shame.