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How is the fault for low wages on the worker, and not the employer? Why is the employer granted the freedom to push unlivable wages, rather than the worker bein
by CapacitorSet 8y ago
How is the fault for low wages on the worker, and not the employer? Why is the employer granted the freedom to push unlivable wages, rather than the worker being granted the right to be paid livable wages?
- closeparen 8y agoStarting from the proposition that the worker has a right to a decent living, a minimum wage statue is a terrible way to get there: the employer always has the freedom to "push" no work at all and deploy his capital elsewhere, leaving everyone strictly worse off. As the gig economy companies did just a few years ago, when they didn't exist. It's much cleaner to tax the employer class's excess income, however it's earned, and redistribute it to "gross up" the worker class to whatever the minimum wage would be. Then employers don't have the option of shifting their investment to automation, self-service, less labor-intensive industries, etc. to avoid the concession.
- AstralStorm 8y agoUnfortunately, the tax does not work in a global economy, where the bigger employers can vote with their feet and employees cannot. (minimal wage doesn't work either for the same reason) Both measures impact smaller employers more too and cause problems for local employers but not global ones. The good solution would be to either tax local revenue of global companies, hunt the dodges and tariff the imported products (again problematic) as well as imported labour. This stinks of mercantilism of course and could have higher order effects.