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Bill: The Minimum Wage Act of 2176
Details
Submitted by[?]: The Mordusian Green 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: July 2178
Description[?]:
| This is the most recent minimum wage proposal. We believe this is the lowest minimum wage standard that exists. Although we have not found support for a living wage, we believe we owe it to our workers to provide a minimum renumeration for their work. Otherwise, we fear that workers here will travel to other nations that provide their workers with greater levels of dignity. |
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 that a full time worker on it can support a family of four without falling under the poverty line.
Proposed: There shall be a minimum wage at a level that a single full time worker on it can adequately subsist.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 22:29:56, January 29, 2006 CET | From | el-militante Party | To | Debating the The Minimum Wage Act of 2176 |
| Message | a minimum wage is the backbone of any form of ecare for your workforce, which is essential |
| Date | 05:31:31, January 30, 2006 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Union | To | Debating the The Minimum Wage Act of 2176 |
| Message | (OOC: Who the hell are the el-militante Party?) |
| Date | 05:31:50, January 30, 2006 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Union | To | Debating the The Minimum Wage Act of 2176 |
| Message | Oh, and for, for reasons given prior. |
| Date | 18:44:33, January 30, 2006 CET | From | Country Labor Party | To | Debating the The Minimum Wage Act of 2176 |
| Message | From one of the many other times this has come up: In a labor market, employers are the demand and employees are the supply. Like in any other market, increasing the demand raises prices (wages) and increase quantity (amount of labor). This occurs because as more companies enter the market, more jobs become available but there are still just as many workers, so the companies have to compete for the workers. On the other hand, increasing supply decreases prices (wages) while still increasing quantity (amount of labor). This occurs because this time, the potential employees have to compete with one another for the same jobs. As the workers try to outbid each other, each offering his services for a little less, companies can afford to actually hire more workers because the costs of hiring new workers have fallen. (OOC: Incidentally, this is why many unskilled workers HATE immigrants. Immigrants increase the supply of labor and are willing to offer their services for much less if they are from poorer countries, so they tend to drive wages down.) That said, let's look at what happens when we implement a minimum wage. If it is set below what companies would normally pay (the intersection of the demand and supply curves called the equilibrium price), it has no effect because companies are already paying more than the minimum. If it is set above the equilibrium price, however, there are consequences to consider. Remember how decreasing labor costs (wages) actually let companies hire more workers? Well, increasing labor costs have the opposite effect. Companies, who have a limited amount of money available for paying wages, will have to cut back on the amount of labor that they buy, which means cutting back hours or laying off workers. (OOC: On a side note, this is exactly why Wal-Mart advocates increasing the minimum wage: it pays above it already, but some of its competitors do not. Increasing the minimum wage would not hurt it, but it would drive the other companies out of the market.) The end result of implementing a minimum wage above equilibrium price would therefore be fewer workers getting paid more, or workers getting paid more per hour but working fewer hours and thus not making much more. Finally, many if not most jobs pay above the minimum wage already. Consider why jobs that require some amount of formal education pay more. The reason is that the labor pool (supply) for those occupations is a lot smaller because the workers are very specialized. Same with business executives -- there are very few people who actually qualify for the job. On the other hand, there is usually a much bigger supply of unskilled, unspecialized labor. The companies that pay more to their skilled workers -- engineers, IT consultants, etc. -- don't do so because they are being nice. They do so because they have to (as a result of supply and demand). |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 302 | ||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 297 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
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