Why should we refrain from infringing on the rights of businesses to consensually interact with their biggest stakeholders— employees in this case—devoid of coercion?
To begin with, a minimum wage is a government mandate instructing businesses that they cannot pay an employee below a certain given level. They are bound by law to do it. The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi recently had some amusing comments to make regarding this. Gopal Rai, the Minister for Employment, Development, Labour, General Administration and Irrigation in Government of Delhi, says it is a “gift” to the people that his party has now forced businesses to pay their employees higher. The incumbent Modi government, too, set a national minimum wage.
I do hope that by the end of this article, I can somehow show you how the government has not only slowed the economy, but made it harder for the unemployed to get a job, as well as putting current employees at risk.
I mean, is it not a natural right to do what we wish with ourselves and what we own? So if a business is the one to make payments, why is it that we assume it is acceptable for an external party (government) to tell an entity how they should use their money? Minimum wages help boost pay for the people currently working with a company, but the damage normally far exceeds the benefits. This is because it makes businesses want to get rid of those workers they believe are inefficient and costly. Furthermore, they stop hiring low-end workers to avoid higher costs.
The psychological impact is probably the hardest. Businesses start believing, and often rightly so, that the government has lost respect for private property, freedom, and natural rights, and they ultimately stop or slow their investments, business plans, improvements, and innovation.
Consider the Modi government’s national minimum wage. It’s much more harmful than state minimum wages. That’s because we have variations, huge variations, with state incomes. Goa is a very, very rich state when we consider the income and wealth of the average Goan. Upto 5 time richer than the poorest Goan. Guess who the minimum wage will affect most? Surprise! The poorest one! Businesses in this state depends on, needs, and wants cheap workers to get the economy working. Business owners aren’t flushed with cash, neither are the workers—which is why low wages are a win-win! The business gets to keep work running, and the workers get a job. With the minimum wage, neither business gets employees as they probably cannot/do not want to pay that much. The workforce is then deprived of get jobs. This harms consumers and with a stulted economy, it tends to not innovate fast enough to create newer jobs that people can take up. So we are really left asking whom minimum wages help.
If we really wish to help, let’s donate. Let’s volunteer. Let’s share what we have. Let’s do consensual acts of kindness. How can we ever force an entity who has every right over every penny of their money to give it up? That is cruelty, not kindness. It is patronising to the poor, and an act of maliciousness and narcissism.
Kindness, on the other hand is an act of voluntary support and help. Coercion isn’t and never will be. As Indians, most of us are rather malicious folk who just love governing and dictating each other’s businesses, it’s a hobby. Which is exactly why our nation is what it is.
We must be at liberty to do and act however we wish with our own money, our bodies and our actions. We will find our individual destinies, whatever we deem them to be, or however they unfold. When these freedoms are guarded, we will find ourselves a free, just, peaceful, and loving place to live and die in. It is up to us, now, to choose what we want for ourselves and act accordingly.