Minimum Wage

My opponent mentions how an employee doesn't have to work at a job where the pay is only $1 an hour. But as I already stated in round 2: "People opposed to the minimum wage argue that if such a company payed such a low wage, no one would work there. This argument is flawed for 2 reasons: 1. Since many people cannot get other, higher paying jobs, they WILL take the $1 an hour wage. Because a tiny wage is better than none right? Employers know this: it's exactly what happened in the Industrial Revolution. Companies took advantage of their employees because they could. And just because $1 is better than none does not mean it right. That does not suffice for the cost of living. 2. This logic only works for certain jobs. If I am a teacher and the school offers to pay me $20,000 a year. I could take it but at the same time, there are hundreds of other schools and high demand for teacher jobs. I could go to a different school, or at least I have a better chance of finding a better job. Or a doctor for example, if the hospital doesn't want to pay them the money they feel they deserve, they could go somewhere else easily. But this only applies to jobs in such high demand. People with only the skills for jobs in low demand are likely to be taken advantage of." Also could you please explain this again?: "Also, if they are able to pay their employees $1 an hour, they would likely also change the price of their shoes (or whatever they are making) down since they have less wages they need to spend (they don't have as much money used for wages, so they can lower prices and lose a little bit of money while not having to use that lost money for wages [if you don't understand, I'll try to reexplain this next time].)" You're right that not every factory or restaurant will pay their workers $1 an hour. However, many will. I have nothing against capitalism but in a capitalist society, it's about making profits. Money becomes equitable to true success. Unfortunately, with that mindset you get companies that care more about profits than people. If we abolish the minimum wage, companies will take advantage of their employees. I mean, they do it already and it'll just get worse. "Some restaurants pay more than minimum wage if they are doing well and have enough money. Also, again, if minimum wage is abolished, prices will go down." Maybe some will but again, for many companies it's about profits. Even if they COULD afford to pay their employees more money, they don't have to anymore. And they won't. You mentioned the dime stores, I feel like that is a misinterpretation of history. I was always under the impression that that was connected to inflation but if you have some sources, could you please provide them in your next argument? "Many things have changed since then. Also, what about after 1840? Companies didn't always take complete advantage of their employees." You're talking about the first industrial revolution. But there was also a second one and one of the changes we saw was minimum wage. Obviously not every single company took advantage of their workers, but many did. Since there was no minimum wage before 1938 (like you mentioned), companies paid whatever they wanted. These employees worked in horrid conditions, received little pay, and if they were injured on the job, they were just kicked out and not compensated for damages. Why did these companies still thrive if they were so evil? Because there were millions more people who needed work and were wiling to take the other employees' places. This doesn't happen on as large a scale as it used to but my point was that companies are willing to take advantage of employees for profits. I know minimum wage jobs are in high demand (factory working for example) but that doesn't mean the employees have any leverage. When you work for minimum wage, you don't have much negotiating room like you would have if you were a doctor. If you're a factory worker, you NEED the job and the company has alll the power. If you're a doctor, the hospital NEEDS you and you have a lot more room to argue for your pay. Also, if you are a factory worker and say you want more pay, they'll just tell you to leave and they will find someone else who WILL take the job as is. You mentioned how now the companies could cut the wage and employ more workers but that only benefits the companies like I keep saying. Companies are incentivized to get the most profits. This isn't inherently wrong until they start taking advantage of people. Now, the people are paid less and have even less money to survive on. Your argument basically is that trickle down economics will occur. The companies cut wages, they improve service quality, get more cut mores, get more profits, lower service prices to benefit consumers, and raise wages because they can afford it. I have never been a huge fan of this because I don't believe it works large scale. I know there are many opposing viewpoints but my view is that it can work but not as much nor as widespread as people believe. If the restaurant has better service, people will definitely come more often. Thus they get more money. However, they are not necessarily incentivized to lower prices. Why would they do that? Then they get less profits! The restaurant is more likely to keep the prices the same or raise them. Let's just say they keep the prices the same, then the workers are still paid less but the cost of living still hasn't gone down. So now the workers are even poorer. It is also unlikely that they will bump up the wage. Why would they cut the wage, make even more money, and then raise the wage and thus make less? My view might be a little pessimistic to some but assuming every restaurant or factory or company wants to share their profits is a little naive. I do not think abolishing minimum wage will lead to lower prices. Also, even if other jobs are available, if the wage has been cut everywhere, how likely are people to find a job with a wage that can help them survive? It is most probable that they will end up taking the highest paying job (if it is available) which will still be ridiculously low. And regarding competition, if the company can now spend money on better service and less on employees, people will still come and purchase their services. The company won't have to worry about competition or companies with higher wages because they will have the best quality (not necessarily the happiest employees). And if their employees are not the best, they have the power. They can fire them and someone else who needs a job will show up at the interview. I think that the government should not control the economy but they need to supervise it occasionally. We can't allow companies to pay their employees whatever they want, they will take advantage of them. I understand some people who work minimum wage are just high school kids who want money (not necessarily need it), but what about the adult with a family who is only qualified for this job? I don't think we should abolish the wage because high schools kids don't need money. And also we don't even know that either. Many high school kids work jobs to pay for college or help out in their families. It is not always because they can, sometimes it because they have no other choice. Regarding interns, I think that the company needs to make a decision. Do you want an intern or an employee? If you want an intern, DO NOT PAY THEM. If you want an employee, pay them a salary or minimum wage. If I was in that situation and if the intern was high quality and deserved a job, I would hire them and pay them appropriately. If they weren't, I wouldn't pay them at all. The intern isn't being hurt, we can all agree that interns are their for experience and references. Their payment is a learning experience. This is different from a factory worker who is there to survive. If you can find the argument your sister learned, that would be great. But I can't rebut you if I don't know your argument. It would be easy for me to just say "Well, my mom has a degree in economics and she told me the minimum wage is good." That isn't fair on you. Sorry if I didn't answer some arguments, I realized I only had 13 hours left and it was bed time haha.