Compassion and the minimum wage

Published Oct 20, 2014

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YOUR columnist Pierre Heistein is to be complimented on his compassionate defence of minimum wages for low-skilled workers. Writing as both an economist and a sociologist, his contention that wages for the low skilled should be determined not by objective economic factors but by human compassion is authoritative as well as encouraging. His insight goes a long way to freeing society from the supposed iron laws of economics, utilised by capitalists to justify their ruthless exploitation of the workers.

If the wages of the lowest-paid workers may be increased without negative consequences for the unemployed seeking work, which he tells us is the case, and if compassion is to be the yardstick by which low-skilled wages are determined, then there can be no reason not to double the current minimum wages.

As Mr Heistein argues, the existing level of minimum wages is dismally low. If compassion is the primary determinant, then why should minimum wages not be doubled? On what rational grounds could this be argued against?

To deny that a doubling of the current minimum wage is economically feasible would be to bow to the capitalist argument that raising the level of compulsory minimum wages has negative economic consequences for other people.

And, anyway, as Mr Heistein has revealed, in respect of the wages of low-skilled workers, it is human compassion, and not economic considerations, which should determine wages. In his next article he will hopefully tell us how compassion is to be measured and apportioned.

David Matthews Llandudno

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