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Minimum Wage

October 8th, 2007 · Posted by Skuds in Politics · No Comments · Politics

I treated myself to a day without newspapers today, but Iansredlog alerted me to this story which was in the Observer.  It is all about the minimum wage and whether it is set high enough, leading to this quote:

What does the minimum wage say about our society? 'It's the floor beneath which nobody should fall,' says Mary Maguire from the public service union Unison. 'It's the safety net and the higher the net the more prosperous a society we are.'

Another point of view is the one in a throwaway comment from Robin Williams in one of his live shows where he says something along the lines of:

Minimum wage is just the company's way of telling you that they would pay you less if they were allowed to.

That is what we need to remember.  By all means talk about what the right level is but never forget that the reason many of these employers are paying the minimum wage is because it is the lowest they are allowed to pay.  I am pretty sure that every single person who is earning the minimum wage would be getting less if it did not exist and in some cases it would be a lot less.

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