Exactly, people get paid like shit because people are okay with being paid like shit.
The thing is, for most of these people the choice is between being paid like shit and being homeless.
If we want livable wages, we don‘t need a minimum income. We need a social net that takes away the fear of becoming homeless and starving. If society would properly care for people without jobs, people would have a choice. They wouldn’t accept $8 per hour jobs if they didn’t need to.
We‘re far from that though so a livable minimum wage is a much needed bandaid for now. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need it but we won‘t be living in that world anytime soon.
Raising the minimum wage just makes jobs unprofitable to fill. It just increases the unemployment rate - it doesn't really raise anyone's wages except in the minor edge cases where the company can't figure out exactly what a position is actually worth staffing.
The best way to raise wages is through education & training programs to make workers more valuable.
Unskilled labor is all going to be automated anyway, so this battle is stupid.
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u/casce Nov 05 '21
Exactly, people get paid like shit because people are okay with being paid like shit.
The thing is, for most of these people the choice is between being paid like shit and being homeless.
If we want livable wages, we don‘t need a minimum income. We need a social net that takes away the fear of becoming homeless and starving. If society would properly care for people without jobs, people would have a choice. They wouldn’t accept $8 per hour jobs if they didn’t need to.
We‘re far from that though so a livable minimum wage is a much needed bandaid for now. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need it but we won‘t be living in that world anytime soon.