LogFAQs > #956806829

Zeus posted...

The fact that some jobs pay far more than the minimum wage wrecks that idea.

Not remotely. Jobs that pay more than minimum wage do so because they feel the need to compete for workers that are able to do them. Jobs that pay minimum wage, however, would generally be paying less if they could legally get away with it, thanks entirely to the fact that they aren't competing for workers and there are workers out there willing to settle for lower wages (since making a little money is better than making no money at all).

If anything, the fact that any job pays minimum wage conclusively validates that idea.

Zeus posted...

In the absence of socialism and other government systems which f*** up the economy, if a job doesn't pay enough to support workers, those jobs go unfilled and the employers are forced to raise wages or find an alternative.

Government programs are generally a very good idea, though (since they mean people don't immediately starve when they're out of work). The fact that employers paying minimum wage rely on welfare to subsidize their workforce is indeed a problem, but it's one that can be solved by either mandating a livable minimum wage (cutting down on welfare requirements and ultimately creating opportunities for tax breaks that can offset the increased wages (not that corporations paying $0 in taxes care about further tax breaks >.>)), or by implementing a livable UBI so employers don't have to pay any wages at all to ensure their workforce's survival (increasing welfare requirements and creating a need for tax increases, which would be offset by dramatically reducing wages for corporations relying largely on minimum-wage work).

The current system of straddling between those two ideas is indeed rather awkward and doesn't work very well. One of them, however, needs to exist. The power imbalance between employers and employees demands that, as does the need for supports for those that have fallen on hard times in some capacity or another. You can't simply get rid of both welfare and minimum wage laws and hope for the best.

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