20.
Current Pay in the Market
Pay rates in the market clearly refute one basis of support for the
minimum wage law -- that employers would pay only some minimal amount
to low-skilled workers; telling them in effect: "take it or leave it."
Labor is a valuable resource and therefore will command a commensurate
wage. There is no employer power to underpay workers any more than there
is an employer power to underpay for land or bricks or paper cups used
in their businesses. What protects workers from some ridiculously low
wage offer is the fact that their labor is valuable to employers, and the
competition among employers for their labor. Currently, many entry level
workers are being offered significantly more than any legally required
minimum for their hourly labor. If the argument that the minimum wage is
necessary to protect workers from pitifully low wages were valid, then
no employer would waste funds ever paying more than that legal minimum.
For that matter,
no one
would make more than the minimum wage if this claim for the need
for the minimum wage were valid -- not accountants, or movie stars,
or professional athletes, no one -- but they do. How come? Again,
the fact is that their labor is valuable to employers, and employers
compete with one another to acquire that valuable labor.
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