8.
Organized Labor
One of the identifiable special interest groups which supports the minimum wage is labor unions. This group is composed of workers who earn significantly more than the minimum wage. Union officials would argue that their support of the minimum wage law is out of a sincere interest in the conditions of low-skilled workers. (All special interest pleading is done in altruistic terms.) However, their support is actually based on their knowledge of the law's effect on union workers. There is always more than one way to accomplish any work -- using a few high-skilled workers versus using many low-skilled workers is the pertinent example. When workers are free to accept a lower wage of their own volition, low-skilled workers may be paid less than what is in the interest of the high paid unions. If an employer has a choice between 3 low-skilled workers at $4.00 each (a total of $12.00 an hour) or 1 high-skilled worker at $13.00, it is obvious he will choose to get the job done with the 3 low-skilled workers. But after the union (and others) get a minimum wage of $5.00 into law, the employer will find it in his (profit -maximizing) interest to now hire the 1 high-skilled worker rather than the 3 low-skilled ones ($13.00 vs. $15.00). The minimum wage law prices the low-skilled workers out of the market. It has been a matter of routine this century for the U. S. Congress to pass a higher minimum wage law to protect the jobs of higher-skilled Northerners from being moved to the lower-skilled South.
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