4 ms·
Exactly - when minimum wages are introduced, they need to be met with rigorous protections against reductions in working hours.
by drugme 8y ago
Exactly - when minimum wages are introduced, they need to be met with rigorous protections against reductions in working hours.
- jcims 8y agoHow would that work when it is voluntary by the employer?
- drugme 8y agoHow would that work when it is voluntary by the employer? It won't be. We've had a go at letting employers "voluntarily" provide a reasonable living wage to low-skilled workers -- but obviously that tactic has failed miserably. So it's time to try something else.
- lotsofpulp 8y agoWhy not just have the government pay the person directly? Complicating things only introduces avenues for corruption and errors.
- squish78 8y agoYes, the government has no corruption and makes no errors
- lotsofpulp 8y agoMy comment does not imply that the government makes no errors or cannot be corrupted. Corruption and errors are a possibility with all entities, but adding more entities in the chain increases the probability of it.
- sf_rob 8y agoEITC is very roughly this.
- zapita 8y agoThe US government already subsidizes underpaying employers in the form of food stamps and other palliative services. If employers were required to pay for the foodstamps and welfare services of their own workers, I wonder if we would see a change in their behavior? It would suddenly make less economical sense to reduce costs by pushing their most vulnerable workers below the poverty line, since that would just push up their welfare costs. Today they don’t pay a dime - so hey, if the government is subsidizing you to screw your workforce, and public opinion is brainwashed to blame the workers instead of you, why would you not do it?
- lotsofpulp 8y agoI see all of that as a consequence of unnecessary complications. If society’s goal is to provide people with a quality of life floor, then do that for everyone equally. Then you don’t have to calculate the costs of which employer is using how much welfare (which are impossible calculations anyway subject to political pressure).
- sieabahlpark 8y agoThen you just layoff half your workforce to afford the half you can't reduce.
- jmpman 8y agoUniversal Basic Income plus the elimination of the minimum wage would be an interesting experiment.
- mathgladiator 8y agoThis is where I am at with my thinking. Minimum wage creates an oversized leadership/management problem.
- xtreme 8y agoWhich will be followed by reduction in the number of workers and increased unemployment.
- drugme 8y ago... or an increase in the price of goods and services, per the Scandinavian model. Which seems to work well enough for those countries.