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RE: Minimum Wages - To be or not to be...
So what are you suggesting @meesterboom ? That a third party get involved in the agreement between two people and FORCE the company to pay the worker more, even though he/she may not be deserving of it? A company (no matter what company) should be free to pay what they want to pay. And the worker should be free to agree to whatever wage is offered. To force a person to pay what he doesn't want to pay is immoral. Curious to hear your thoughts.
Well there are two issues there. I am firmly of the opinion that if a person is not deserving of the wage that they are paid then they should be let go. Work is not charity, I am no bleeding heart in that respect. On the other hand I do believe that a company should pay a wage that it is reasonable that someone should be able to live on. If you let them they will happily pay peanuts and often way less than a particular job may be worth. I say this because i live in a country that implemented such a thing and it has worked well for pulling people out of poverty. If people want to work then surely it is only right that there is some kind of minimum that is deemed proper? In fact in my country we are now taking about implementing a "living" wage which goes beyond the minimum wage.
It's controversial certainly but in my view and I am not trying to force that view on anyone we shouldn't pretend that companies care for anything other than their bottom line. Why not force them? Poverty affects us all in different ways, even if you have a high paid job the impact of poverty on society impacts you. It may be seen as immoral to force a company to pay more than they want to but isn't it immoral to pay someone so little that they have to work 2 maybe 3 jobs? Some people, again through poverty do not have the options that some of us do. Anyway, I apologise, I am starting to sound like some kind of hippy which I blame firmly on the whisky. :0)