Pages tagged "jes"
In Defence of the Minimum Wage
This is not normally the kind of thing I would write about, but my colleague James Stanley wrote about his opinions on the minimum wage and how he perceives it to be economically unsound. I am very much of the opposite opinion to this, and said I would write a response—there’s only so far bickering on Slack can get you, after all.
You should read James’ article for a full explanation of his views, but his argument is simple—it’s what I learnt in the first few weeks of A Level Economics: setting a minimum wage causes forces employers to pay unskilled workers more than the market believes they are worth (above the equilibrium point), which leads to excess supply and higher unemployment. It makes sense.
However, I think this is too simplistic, and doesn’t take into account the more socio-economic side of the discussion. Higher wages make employees...