What Is The Role Of The Minimum Wage?
When I was a teenager most of us went
to work at some business in town. We were paid the minimum wage. The minimum
wage was designed so that teenagers would not be taken advantage of at businesses.
It was never intended to be a wage that an adult could live on let alone try to
raise a family.
Somehow businesses over time were
able to slowly raise the age at which people were paid the minimum wage and
expanded the number of jobs that were paid that rate. This may have been good
for the business and in a way for the consumer because prices were able to be
kept down.
I think it is important as the
society that there be a two-scale minimum wage. The first would be for
teenagers as it was originally intended. The second would be for adults in the
workforce. Some people call this a living wage. If every business had to pay
the same living wage, no business could undercut a competitor with cheaper
wages.
The pure capitalist would say to let
the market dictate the minimum wage. However, history has showed us that
business if left unchecked would take advantage of its lowest earning
employees. Our society needs the debate on this. Too many people are stuck in a
vicious cycle due to the existing minimum wage.
No comments:
Post a Comment