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Bill: National Minimum Wage Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Social and Labour Reform Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 2121
Description[?]:
| A minimum wage will be actively enforced that prevents employers from exploiting workers, and guarantees a worker can support their family. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The nation's policy on minimum wage regulation.
Old value:: There is no provision for a minimum wage.
Current: There shall be a minimum wage at a level considered a "living wage," well above the poverty line for a full time worker.
Proposed: There shall be a minimum wage at a level that a full time worker on it can support a family of four without falling under the poverty line.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 20:52:38, October 03, 2005 CET | From |  Protectorate Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | no, this artificially inflates the salary scale. A better method would be for training those in low wage jobs to achieve better positions, then forcing a salary for every job to be at least a set amount. This means a paper boy must be paid a salary to support a family of four. The teen job market would collapse, as would industries that depend on them. we should work toward educating our population, and training not just raising the salaries. Think of the inflation that would occur: more money+fewer products=higher cost per product. |
| Date | 21:20:23, October 03, 2005 CET | From | Malivia Democratic Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | Let me get this straight... We provide benefits to those who don't work.. some kind of income level... and we don't provide a minimum wage? Very inconsistent IMO. Seems to the MDP the current laws as written give more incentive to people not to work. The MDP will support this minimum wage bill. |
| Date | 00:33:05, October 04, 2005 CET | From | Social and Labour Reform Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | Precisely, some on benefits may have no incentive to ever get off benefits and support themselves if they will be earning less in a job than they would by being unemployed. To the Protectorate Party: a paper boy would not be paid the salary for a family of four, as a paper boy is not a full time position. This bill refers specifically to those working full time. It will also help those who are single handedly raising a family, as they will not have to take on more than one full time job and, as a result, will be able to spend more time with their family, helping provide a better upbringing for their children. |
| Date | 00:37:10, October 04, 2005 CET | From | LibCom Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | The PP argues that a minimum wage would lead to higher costs. Perhaps we should legalise slavery? That'd certainly keep costs down. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work may cause some inflation in the short term, but what's worse: inflation or poverty? |
| Date | 18:07:55, October 04, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | and the long term. Paying full time workers this rate will lead to three scenarios for the companies. one: more part time workers, so to avoid this entirely. (OOC: see the US job market done to avoid health care costs,and wage laws) two: the increased payroll costs lead to higher prices, which requires a higher payroll (since it now costs more to care for 4 people) and the cycle continues. three: less jobs, when a company cannot raise their prices, they will lay off people and put more work on those left, or switch to more technological options. In all cases the situation for the nation gets worse not better. |
| Date | 19:00:50, October 04, 2005 CET | From | Malivia Democratic Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | OOC: The PP presents a nice, but very simplistic.. and incorrect version of minimum wage effects on the economy. One.. Incorrect: While part time employment is common, particularily in retail services, there is no direct evidence that minimum wage causes full time jobs to be lost. The US has had a minimum wage since.. 1938, with the Fair Labor Act, and there is still many full time jobs on the market. Two: This was not the case in the US, because the business sector still realize that they have to keep their prices competitive. Three: Not always the case. They can have a hiring freeze,or cut expenses in other areas besides payroll. |
| Date | 02:06:38, October 05, 2005 CET | From | LibCom Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | Interesting that the PP suggests that switching to more technological options is a bad thing. Presumably it's better for people to work more and produce less? |
| Date | 09:26:57, October 05, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | better to be employed then unemployed. Technology can be a good thing, but what we just did was force those unskilled into part time jobs if they can find any at all. |
| Date | 09:31:35, October 05, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | OOC: the us has a min wage of about what 6 an hr. Not enough for a family of 4. See what happens when its set to 12. yielding 25K a yr a closer salary for a family of 4. You cannot compare the us min wage to the proposed bill there is no real correlation. Thus the battle for living wages that occur at universities and other locations. |
| Date | 09:33:25, October 05, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the National Minimum Wage Act |
| Message | if they could cut other expenses in a competative market they would have done so to stay competitive. So they have a hiring freeze, how does this help, the labourers are already there and just got a huge pay raise. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 58 | |||||
| no |
Total Seats: 20 | |||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 22 |
| Random fact: "Treaty-locking", or ratifiying treaties that completely or nearly completely forbid any proposals to change laws, is not allowed. Amongst other possible sanctions, Moderation reserves the discretion to delete treaties and/or subject parties to a seat reset if this is necessary in order to reverse a treaty-lock situation. |
| Random quote: "It is obvious that the laissez-faire ideology represents the interests of big business. For decades, the right-wing has opposed welfare programs and nationalised companies, in favour of big business disguised under 'economic liberty'." - Cecilia Xu, former Gaduri politician |