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There’s been a lot of talk about the recent Budget Address, especially about the taxes on low income workers and about their minimum wage. Presently, the government is asking parliament to past an Act to increase the salaries of government officials â€“ because these government officials havenâ€™t had a salary increase since the 1980â€™s.

Itâ€™s not habitual that Dominica Weekly comment on political affairs going on the island, but I couldnâ€™t stand there and listen to the Political garbage that the Labour Party was dishing out. In my opinion, I have no problem in government officials getting an increase in their salaries. But isnâ€™t the government put in power to protect the people and care about their needs. It appears the table has turn. If this Act is approved in parliament to increase these salaries then again it falls back on the tax payers who are the minimum wage workers. Who themselves havenâ€™t had an increase in their minimum wage since the 1980â€™s too. So basically what this government trying to say to the people is that itâ€™s ok for my salary to increase but itâ€™s not ok to increase the minimum wages of workers who are the fragile backbone of this country. Can someone explain the justification in this ❓

Yesterday, one of my favorite bloggers John Chow wrote an article titled â€œWhy Minimum Wage Laws Should Be Killedâ€, where he shared some interesting insights on the Minimum wage and its direct relation to minimum wage workers. Below is are quotes from the article.

Minimum Wage Law Hurts The People It Was Designed To Protect

Jobs are subject to the laws of supply and demand just like any other commodity, with or without a minimum wage law. If something is price low, you sell more. When you price it high, you sell less. When wages gets too high, companies hire less. The means more unemployment. Canadaâ€™s (British Columbia) minimum wage is $8.00 an hour (and our dollar is almost on par with the U.S. now). Canada has higher unemployment than the U.S. I wonder why?

The whole point of a minimum wage law is that the market wage for some workers is deemed to be too low. If it is fixed by law above the market level, it must be at a point where the supply exceeds the demand. Economists have a technical term for that gap. Itâ€™s called unemployment. Advocates of minimum wages either reject that elementary logic or donâ€™t care.

A minimum wage law denies workers the freedom and right to negotiate their own wage contracts. It forces employers to lay off workers whose work is no longer worth the minimum wage and reconsider future hiring plans.

Minimum Wage Laws Are Unfair To Workers

What is a fair wage? My answer would be whatever the employee and the employer negotiates. Certainly it is not fair to be forced by the government to be unemployed at $5.85 per hour. Minimum wage laws forces workers to remain unemployed rather than accept work at a lower wage. It forces the unemployed to accept the indignity of welfare rather than the indignity of a job. It kills job opportunities for youth, women, visible minorities, unskilled workers and denies young workers the chance of getting on-the-job-training and work experience.

Itâ€™s Self Defeating Model

Raising the minimum wage may make it look like itâ€™s giving more money to workers but itâ€™s really a self defeating model. Assuming the business doesnâ€™t lay off any workers, itâ€™s operating cost just went up. What does a business do when their operating expenses increase? They raise prices to make up the difference. That adds to inflation. Suddenly, everything cost more and that wage increase buys about the same amount of stuff it did before.

We Are In A Global Economy

An increase in the minimum wage is always followed by an increase in off shoring jobs. Does the US have any tech support call centers left? When you operate in a global economy, having minimum wage laws just means businesses can go somewhere else to find labor. Itâ€™s not just big businesses that are off shoring jobs to districts with no minimum wage laws. Youâ€™ll be amazed at how many mom and pop operations are sending work offshore.


People! We live in a Capitalist country. You have no limits on what you can achieve in life. I have the power to change my situation if I donâ€™t like it, and so can you. Its not the governmentâ€™s job to take care of you and your family but for many people they believe that the government owes them something. You donâ€™t like living on minimum wage? You canâ€™t live on the salary youâ€™re making now? Then do something about it â€“ turn things around. So when the government decides to increase the minimum wage. You can tell them to â€œGo to Hellâ€. I donâ€™t know about you, but no government is going to control my destiny.

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