North Dakota Has Lessons For The Minimum Wage

See North Dakota’s booming job market — where you can make 24% more delivering pizzas than the average college graduate. By Mark Perry of "Carpe Diem."

"The average starting salary this year for college graduates is $45,473. But in the booming oil patch of North Dakota, you can get a job in Stanley (population 1,800; unemployment rate of 1.3%) making and delivering pizzas, and start at $56,400 per year (plus benefits) without any educational requirements! That’s what Jimmy’s Pizza is offering on this Craigslist post (via a post by Kathy Hoekstra at the Job Creators Network website titled “North Dakota: What Happens when a Market is Free to Run Wild”).

Pizza Delivery Driver (Make $56,400 per year + benefits)

Jimmy’s Pizza of Stanley is building a staff and needs delivery drivers. Looking for self motivated, hardworking individuals who love being part of a strong team moving toward its goals. Must have a clean driving record and no criminal history as well as a reliable vehicle.
Drivers Compensation:
Salary: $36,000 per year
Tips & Delivery Charges: $20,400 per year
Total Yearly Income: $56,400
Benefits Include:
- One week paid vacation every 6 months after your first six months.
- During your week of paid vacation you also receive a $1,000 bonus.
- We will match up to $100/month in an employee savings account.
- If you like, we also offer a Personal Financial Assistant to pay bills, do taxes and help manage your money.
Responsibilities include:
-Making pizzas, taking orders and delivering pizzas
-Work 6 days per week (about 49 hours per week)
We will be opening more locations soon, so there is huge potential for advancement. If you are interested please send your resume. Must be available to start immediately.

That works out to about $23 per hour as a starting wage to make and deliver pizzas in Stanley, ND, or more than three times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. But what about housing in the oil patch, which we always hear is so expensive? According to the Craigslist posting,

We do have rooms available to rent for $900/month if you are in need of housing.

And about 70 miles away from Stanley in Williston (where the jobless rate is 0.80%), the nation’s busiest Walmart is offering starting wages of $17 per hour for full-time and part-time workers, see photo below of the sign in the Williston Walmart parking lot:



Check out some of the hundreds of other job openings near Williston, ND listed on Craigslist here, (there are currently 647 current job openings with the word “Williston” in the listing), many offering signing bonuses of $500, $1,500, $3,000, $5,000 (here and here) and $6,000. That’s what happens when there’s a booming economy and a high demand for labor – starting wages get bid up many multiples of the federal minimum wage for entry-level positions, and firms actually start engaging in bidding wars to get the best workers by offering signing bonuses of thousands of dollars. The hottest job market in the country is now in western North Dakota, thanks to the oceans of shale oil that are now being accessed with advanced drilling technologies. And thanks to the “miracle and magic of the marketplace” of course.
Here’s Kathy Hoekstra’s conclusion, an excellent and well-taken point:

As the minimum wage battles spread from Seattle to other parts of the country, our policymakers need to heed the lessons of North Dakota, that is, a market allowed to operate freely does a much better job at determining our paychecks than government."