Chapter 3 - 4

04 Business

Now listen to a lecture related to the topic in step 1. Fill in the blanks of the note diagram below.

W: OK, while we’re on the subject of government intervention, let’s quickly address the minimum wage.

It turns out that there are many people who are against having a minimum wage at all.

However, the logic that they used to argue against it just doesn’t hold up when you analyze it.

So, let me explain why these common arguments don’t work and why we should keep the minimum wage.

Now the first thing I want to point out is that minimum wage laws do not raise unemployment rates.

You see, one common misperception about the minimum wage is that it makes workers too expensive for small businesses.

However, when you look at the actual rates of unemployment before and after minimum wage laws are passed, you’ll see this just isn’t valid.

Basically, when the minimum wage low is passed, the unemployment rates don’t go up or down − they remain pretty steady.

This suggests that even small businesses can adjust to minimum wage laws without much trouble.

So the fact of the matter is that minimum wage has no impact, positive or negative, on employment rates.

Now, it’s true that many companies do move their manufacturing operations to foreign countries, but this has nothing to do with minimum wage lies.

In fact, most countries that these companies move into you already have minimum wage laws.

So the companies still have to pay the workers they hire a certain amount of money.

The reason companies move is because of the cost of living in foreign countries.

If the cost of living there is high, foreign companies won’t move there.

However, if the cost of living is low, then owners of foreign companies believe it would benefit them economically to move there.

In other words, the fact that companies move to foreign countries has nothing to do with minimum wage laws and everything to do with the cost of living.

Finally, the fact that certain companies will buy machinery to do work that human worker could normally do has absolutely nothing to do with the minimum wage.

Even businesses in countries without minimum wage laws typically choose machines over workers if it means saving money.

A company is going to try to save money wherever it can, and if that means buying automated machines over hiring workers, then that’s probably what it’s going to do.

Minimum wage doesn’t increase or decrease the likelihood of a company to adopt technology at all.

OK, so to recap, the problems of the minimum wage do not outweigh its benefits.

Economically, the minimum wage doesn’t affect the country in a negative way.

So, there’s really not much of a reason to get rid of the minimum wage.