How do you figure? We know the wages won't be zero. No one is going to work for a for-profit group for nothing.
So we know the wage will be greater than zero. Currently, the minimum wage completely ruins the negotiation aspect of entry-level and retail positions. There's no need to negotiate, since no one's going to get less than X, even though the job might be worth less than X. This then means that the jobs above that get overpaid/undernegotiated as a result - if a supervisory position gets $1 over minimum, it means that you're now distorting the wages further up the chain, and you've still removed the negotiation aspect for that as well.
So we have an option. We can maintain the unworkable status quo where the poorest and most needy individuals are told by the government what they must work for, and then watch as prices continue to rise and the dream remains out of reach, or we can really upend the process and empower the workers to actually negotiate for a truly fair wage, and watch as competition pushes prices back down to a reasonable level and/or wages actually rise to meet actual labor value.
I'm in favor of empowerment. You?
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 18/3/12 16:06 (UTC)So we know the wage will be greater than zero. Currently, the minimum wage completely ruins the negotiation aspect of entry-level and retail positions. There's no need to negotiate, since no one's going to get less than X, even though the job might be worth less than X. This then means that the jobs above that get overpaid/undernegotiated as a result - if a supervisory position gets $1 over minimum, it means that you're now distorting the wages further up the chain, and you've still removed the negotiation aspect for that as well.
So we have an option. We can maintain the unworkable status quo where the poorest and most needy individuals are told by the government what they must work for, and then watch as prices continue to rise and the dream remains out of reach, or we can really upend the process and empower the workers to actually negotiate for a truly fair wage, and watch as competition pushes prices back down to a reasonable level and/or wages actually rise to meet actual labor value.
I'm in favor of empowerment. You?