14th Century Plague Doctor
Minimum wage is the least amount of money a company is required to pay it’s employees. The idea of minimum wage can be traced back all the way to the 14th century. Towards the middle of the century, the black plague started to decline after 1350. After this decline, workers began to seek jobs again, but this time they demanded triple wages of their pre-plague salaries. To control the high demands, King Edward III created the “Ordinance of Laborers”. This allowed the government to create a maximum rate of how much money workers could demand. The result of these laws, birthed what we now know as “minimum wage”.
Millions of lives were affected by the Great Depression
Minimum Wage in the United States was introduced much later, in the 90’s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), which in turn introduced the first federal minimum wage laws in the United States. The president stated that: “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country”. Roosevelt approved the NIRA, in hopes to combat the great depression, in which it did. However, the great depression could of easily been dealt with by abolishing the federal reserve, and creating a true free market economy.
Should businesses really be required to pay employees $15 an hour just for flipping burgers or making pizza?
Some claim that minimum wage is a human right, however this is the opposite of what is true. Forcing a business to pay it’s workers a certain amount is tyranny, and it contradicts free-market capitalist values. Minimum wage should not be enforced. Instead businesses should set up their own standards of appropriate wages, and be able to voluntarily balance out salaries, according to the average living wage of their communities. Minimum wage policies should be discarded, because it is an infringement on the human right to private property.
Jail time for those who refuse to pay minimum wage
Minimum wage laws are also very violent. If a company does not pay the minimum wage requirements, the institution will be fined by the government (At least in the U.S.). If the managers of the company refuse to be fined, they may face jail time. If the managers refuse arrest, then they will be forcibly handcuffed or even shot. Therefore minimum wage laws also abuse the right to a free life and the right to economic opportunity. Minimum wage is not a right, it is a violent set of policies used by incompetent workers to steal money from businesses.
Minimum wage is not as glorious as it sounds. If a company is required to pay their workers more, then they will either have to maintain a lower amount of workers per establishment, or the company will have to raise the prices of their services/products if they decide to keep the same amount of workers. What McDonalds has done in response to minimum wage laws, is that they have started implementing more machines to replace their workers. In my opinion, I think that robots will inevitably end up replacing human employees in the far future.
There are multiple countries that do not have minimum wage laws. One successful example is Switzerland. This country has rejected minimum wage laws, and yet their economy is very strong and stable. With it’s limited amount of government control, a market economy, no wage laws and stable politics, this country is an ideal place to live.
How liberals view minimum wage
In conclusion, minimum wage is a utopian view of how the economy should work. However, as most people know, utopias don’t exist. The best economic system, based on history, current real-world evidence and libertarian values, the free-market is the greatest and most successful economy for all individuals, no matter how rich or poor.
- Sam A. Stace
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Sources:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/30/employers-repay-minium-wage-hmrc
http://www.valuesandcapitalism.com/what-actually-happens-when-you-raise-the-minimum-wage/
http://www.forbes.com/places/switzerland/
http://www.forbes.com/places/switzerland/
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