Quote:
Originally Posted by saabmania2
i don't really see your point 
i don't know perhaps you could build better quality widgets or your selling too few for too little value (if people are paid more they have more) things would just cost more but pro rata to a higher income,
what would you have done if the national min wage never came about, would you have sat there scratching your rear and moaning because the govenment should subsidise your business, no i didn't think so  |
Widget represents any item (goods or service) which can be provided for retail.
So if it helps get your head around it, replace widget with chickens, cars, pocket calculators, fruit, vegetables, car washing, houses, beanbags, insurance, internet access, tofu etc
Now, how plausible is it to grow an apple so much better that you can charge twice as much for it and still have the same number of sales?
Vastly increase a company's wage bill and unless they're extremely profitable (remember 100 workers suddenly moved onto the current median wage is a £800,000 increase) and can absorb the additional costs, they either have to be reclaimed by sacking staff, increasing prices, or as is more likely, both.
You may have noticed something in the news about BA staff going on strike over staff reductions as BA tries to cope with the loss of income.
If the minimum wage had never come about, company wage bills wouldn't have increased as much and the price of goods wouldn't have been forced up as much as they were.
Rather than having to pay someone £5.80/h I could find someone willing to work for £4 an hour and thus secure the business' future easier.