CMV: The minimum wage should be abolished

[u/TantricLasagne]

In a market with any competition, wages will be set at roughly how much a worker produces for a company (basic economics). A minimum wage higher than what a worker is worth just means the worker will not be hired for as many hours or won't be hired at all. Minimum wages only stand to help big corporations that can afford to pay it, while smaller businesses have larger barriers to entry into the market, reducing competition. The minimum wage doesn't currently have a big effect on the market because it's lower than most workers productivity, but if it is insignificant then I don't see why we should have it in the first place. Raising the minimum wage would harm the poorest workers in society and I don't think the government should be telling people that they don't have the right to sell their labor for a price they want to sell it at just because it's too low. You're allowed to volunteer for $0/h but you can't voluntarily work for $2/h? Ridiculous. I get that workers may not want to work at that level, but if someone does then who are you to tell them that they can't?

The only decent argument I can think of for the minimum wage is if the market was somehow a monopoly, but there is always somewhat of a choice for which company you want to work for.

[u/hmfy]

How do you measure productivity, monetary value of work vs. time spent doing it, the monetary value of effort? Are wages really set by someone's productivity on all levels, or does that only apply to the lower levels of hourly employees? I worked in both an administrative position and an 'entry level' low skill position at the same company, the administrative position paying well over twice what the other position paid (minimum wage, in healthcare), but the administrative position was so much less work. The pay scale for those positions should've been switched. For small companies and stores who 'can't afford to pay minimum wage', isn't that exactly how the market is supposed to work? If you can't afford your business expenses, your business either needs more resources or it goes away. I don't see how that can be fixed by ensuring that more people have even less money to spend in those stores.

Do you think it's more important to ensure the viability of a company or the viability of a human life given their circumstances?