Is the Minimum Wage really the Slave Wage?

Question

What do you think? honest people in circumstances that makes only minimum wage work available. Working up to 40+ hrs a week and barely able to pay for basic utilty bills( gas water elecric ect)
then the rent. then the basic food and household things and childrens needs.
So basically caught in a circle of work sleep work. working all the time but still struggling to get by in Britian today. What is your honest view on this?

Answer 1

well its quite low i guess, but remember before it was introduced we had employers paying very very low wages to some for a lot of work in return, so it may not be perfect but it is better that what we had before.

Answer 2

Yes. They (the powers that be) keep it low just to keep a certain segment of the population from getting ahead or being successful. If you have no poor then you have no obscenely rich either. The money has to come from somewhere. And somebody has to do the dirty work that keeps the rich comfortable and satisfied. If there were reasonable means for most people to escape this vicious cycle then what would become of the rich? The same problem exists in schools, where certain students are taught to succeed and others are put on drugs and taught to obey orders. Actually that's where it starts.
The rich know what I'm talking about. The poor will never believe it until it's too late. They have been taught to blame themselves and their parents since childhood.

I'm in the US. For anyone who thinks that government benefits keeps these people from falling through the cracks, think again. If you report your income and living circumstances as you are legally obligated to, then you lose your benefits the minute you start to get ahead. Unless you are an illegal alien.
.

Answer 3

The best minimum wage is zero. The benevolence of government assistance is admirable, but unfortunately it is counterproductive. Policies designed to help workers earn a higher wage are 'solutions' for a "problem" that is more of a long-run issue. For instance, radical government interventions today don't take into account that maybe that person earning minimum wage now won't be earning that wage in 15 years. In reality, a vast majority of people earning a minimum wage today rarely stay there long enough to "struggle" with paying bills.

Another problem with this type of thinking is that it presumes that nothing is variable and these workers are doomed for the rest of their lives. However, experience, location, education, etc are all variable and have some impact on the wage earned by a worker. Even if I started making minimum wage at a retail store and worked there the rest of my life, chances are (unless I was truly incompetent) I would see my fair share of raises, promotions, and/or benefits in general.

Perhaps the biggest problem with minimum wage and the thinking behind it is the utter disregard or minimal knowledge of markets and elementary supply and demand. When a market is in equilibrium, the quantity supplied and demanded are equal at a certain price. When price ceilings and floors are set, the market will still react despite regulations being placed on it, resulting in a surplus or shortage. Think of minimum wage as the 'price' and labor as the 'good' being demanded and supplied. If a floor (minimum) is set at a wage (price) higher than the equilibrium, then the amount of labor supplied will rise and the amount demanded will fall. Since employers are doing the demanding and workers the supplying, there is now a surplus of workers with respect to the demand for them at that particular wage. A seemingly benevolent idea and program, which hinged on tinkering with the market, has once again proven exactly why handouts don't work. Is a person better off at a lower than average wage or at no wage at all? You decide.

Answer 4

Gee. It's like that here in America too. The truth is companies are only out there to make a profit and if they pay something that people can live on it reduces their profit margin despite the fact if the company executives would cut back on their own wages by serveral million a year they could afford to pay everyone what they need to survive plus a little extra to prosper. You know what if they don't pay their people any more and the little people can't afford to consume the garbage they put out. Let them go out of bussiness and amen to that.
I say go into business for yourself start paying your people a fair wage and I'll come work for you. If enough of us get together hopefully these companies will get the message that the little people matter more than they realize. So keep your chin up and continue to speak for us little people.

Answer 5

particular, they could abolish the minimum salary. Your advice that persons gets 'slave' wages isn't something extra effective than a liberal speaking element, as a small agency proprietor i'm able to provide help to be attentive to that ought to no longer take place. businesses could compete to stay alive, no longer in basic terms in products and amenities, yet for workers to boot! the only people who earnings from government interference in agency is the government and its huge bureaucracies!

Answer 6

Minimum wage is not Slave Wage,because slaves are not paid any wages.Minimum wage that the bare rate on which a person can manage his basic needs.It is based on cost of living,standard requirements,inflation and economic prosperity.It is just a concept to prevent exploitation.But the fact is that minimum wages are not fixed realistically.But eventually minimum wage taken as maximum wages by employers,though they have capacity to pay more.

Answer 7

Well i'm not sure how it is in britain but here in America i really don't think thats true. People constantly want to raise the minimum wage however a huge majority of the people making the minimum wage are teenage sons and daughters or rich white people. Forcing the minimum wage to be raised only makes it harder on the company so they employ less people cuz they can only affoard to pay 5 employee's now instead of 7. So instead of making minimum wage now 2 people make nothing. Also very few people stay at minimum wage for long, everyone moves up eventualy. So no i think the minimum wage is fine.

Answer 8

I think it sucks and I know a lot of intelligent people in that situation. I'd say do part time education to raise earning potential but it's hard when you're doing overtime all the time just to make ends meet. There needs to be better and more funded training available to people in that situation to allow them to rise.

Answer 9

Of course, it is a slave wage. Any less and people would have to steal and the police and prisons wouldn't cope. Go to any country (most anyway) and you will find similar.

Answer 10

Slaves would cost business owners a lot more than minumum wage. They would want to protect their assets. Food, housing, clothing, and medical needs would be met.