Minimum Wage

Economic BasisHigher wages help the economy. The money given to low-paid workers is not thrown into a bottomless pit, but rather spent - and generally in the local community.The money paid to the employees in wages comes back to the companies in purchases. Indeed, this is exactly what Henry Ford did voluntarily to stimulate demand for his own products. While people said he would be bankrupting himself, he successfully expanded his business with the benefits accorded to paying his workers higher wages.[1]Indeed there are a host of factors for why the way minimum wage increases work not only minimises any cost but can benefit businesses. In his 2013 report Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? For the Center for Economic and Policy research, John Schmitt set out 11 potential channels which factor into why raising the minimum wage is not forcing businesses to cut employment or go bust as a result of minimum wage increases[1]. Indeed, even businesses feel benefits from minimum wage. For instance higher wages increase staff retention and lower turnover, cutting costs on the hiring process and allowing workers to accumulate skills and be more productive!For the last couple of decades as the effects of minimum wage have been intensely studied to see if the positives such as this outweigh the negatives. The consensus has been that there is no scientifically significant evidence for the overall negative effects of typical minimum wage increases and indeed reason to think it will have an overall positive impact.In 2012 an analysis by the IMF, World Bank, OECD and ILO found that for G20 countries “a statutory minimum wage set at an appropriate level may raise labour force participation at the margin, without adversely affecting demand, thus having a net positive impact especially for workers weakly attached to the labour market”.[3] These are some of the most important economic organisatiosn in the world, staffed by expertsThe 2013 study by Cooper and Hall found that "Using these same standard fiscal multipliers... we find that increasing the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour by July 1, 2015, would result in a net increase in economic activity of approximately $32.6 billion over the phase-in period, and over that period would generate approximately 140,000 new jobs".But how can we be sure that I'm not cherrypicking? Afterall, there are enough studies out there that surely there are some contrary ones. To be sure what I'm saying is reputable we turn to Meta-analyses, which are essentially studies of studies. Meta-analyses "use a set of well-defined statistical techniques to pool the results of a large number of separate analyses. Meta-study techniques effectively increase the amount of data available for analysis and can provide a much sharper picture of statistical relationships than is possible in any individual study. Meta-studies are widely used in medicine, where the results of many small clinical trials can be combined to produce much more accurate estimates of the effectiveness of different kinds of treatments."They give an idea of what the consensus is in terms of research.Two notable meta-analyses have been conducted into them potential negative effects that are commonly touted in regards to employers having to cut costs and slash employees. In the study of Hristos Doucouliagos and T. D. Stanley (2009) they found “Two scenarios are consistent with this empirical research record. First, minimum wages may simply have no effect on employment... Second, minimum-wage effects might exist, but they may be too difficult to detect and/or are very small.” Either the negative effects they search for don't exist or are so small that the most sophisticated statistical techniques available can't detect them.[2]This was confirmed by the research of Paul Wolfson and Dale Belman whose study "revealed no statistically significant negative employment effects of the minimum wage" and indeed found that the studies largest in magnitude showed a positive effects on employment![2]Minimum wage has a positive economic effects, with claims of a negative effect being completely overblown and not supported by the evidence.Moral and Democratic Basis"A fair day’s-wage for a fair day’s-work: it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing. It is the everlasting right of man." - Thomas CarlyleIt plays into our basic morality that people should be paid well and equitably for there work. Studies and polls of popular opinion have shown that this is the majority view.For instance in one recent notable poll[4] it was found that not only did most people want to see the minimum wage actually raised, but only 8% of the population favoured getting rid of the minimum wage altogether. There is clearly a huge popular consensus on the minimum wage and in a country founded on democratic values the will of the people should be expressed in its laws. Meanwhile in a major study of people's preferences for wealth distribution, people massively and overwhelmingly thought that more wealth should be redistributed from the top quintile towards the bottom.[5]This shows that based on popular conceptions of morality, there is a massive and overwhelming amount of support for the minimum wage.However, when extended to the rest of the world the case for a higher minimum wage becomes even more imperative. Unicef, for instance, gives the figure of six million children who die each year from causes which are not only preventable but preventable at low cost[6]. The World Food Programme cites 3 million children dying each year from malnutrition and 795 million people in ill health due to lack of food[7] even though the world currently produces enough food to keep everyone fed[8].In Malawi, for example, where about 40% of the population lives below the absolute poverty live of £1.25 PER DAY, children as young as five are forced to work in sickening conditions . Literally, the conditions also make them sick. They do this to provide tobacco for companies like BAT, Philip Morris, China National Tobacco Company, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco - which collectively earned $300bn. That is more money than the GDP of most countries on Earth. It is sickening to think that children must die and slave away to maintain the profit-margins of some of the world's biggest companies.[9]Children are dying and being forced to work away their childhoods because their families don't have enough money. A minimum wage is required to ensure that this horrific bodycount is done away with. Supporting no minimum wage is not only immoral, but it amounts to the supports of murder - even perhaps genocide seeing as these ill-effects are congregated around specific national and ethnic groups and so fit the criteria.The Social Struggle BasisThe minimum wage is something that people fought long and hard for, indeed having shed blood for it.Most Western nations have strikes and labour action, but nowhere near the scale it used to be where the entire country might grind to a halt.[10] This is because the social contract between employers and employees is good enough that people don't feel they need to take drastic and radical action.With no minimum wage, where it would be legal to pay people pennies a day, the labour movement would become resurgent and we would see massive collective action as hasn't been seen for generations because the minimum wage is viewed as a basic and fundamental part of what Labour is due.Protests, riots and strikes would follow with all the chaos and economic issues that they cause. You can look to the situation in France, for instance, where far smaller issues than the entire abolition of the minimum wage have caused labour protests and riots. [11]Anyone who imagines this is a situation where minimum wages are abolished and then people just carry on as normal is looking at this in a wholly unrealistic fashion. To abolish minimum wage is to create immense social strain and damage the very fabric of society as people will resist its implementation fiercely.ConclusionAbove I have shown that there is a moral, economic, democratic and societal basis for not abolishing the minimum wage. Amongst other things I have backed this up with several peer reviewed scientific studies which themselves are supported by dozens of scientific studies.As shown there is a consensus amongst the experts at the world's leading economic organisation and in the research from academics all over the world that the minimum wage is beneficial for countries and that the downsides are blown out of all proportion and essentially non-existent.Not only that but it would be immoral on several levels to abolish the minimum wage, spitting in the eyes of working people and damning the chances of millions of people who will die each year because they can't afford what they need to live.It is clear that the evidence all points in one direction and that is that the minimum wage should never be abolished and if anything should be increased.[1] http://goo.gl...[2] http://goo.gl...[3] http://goo.gl...[4] https://goo.gl...[5] https://goo.gl...[6] https://goo.gl...[7] https://goo.gl...[8] https://goo.gl...[9] https://goo.gl...[10] https://goo.gl...[11] https://goo.gl...