The Minimum Wage: Ethics and Productivity

Karen Moustafa Leonard

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DOI: 10.2190/CN.32.1.h

Abstract

The less- or unskilled worker has been the target of the minimum or living wage argument for over a century, and the idea of appropriate minimum rates is a current problem facing both domestic and global companies. For many, the issue of whether there should be a minimum wage in the United States is divisive. Arguments that it would cause job loss and other societal problems have not been supported. Neoclassical economic theory views workers as a means of production and competition as determining wages which are, in turn, aligned to productivity. The view of wage as a motivating force to improve productivity is discussed. The alternative view that wages are determined also by the needs of workers to subsist is also highlighted.

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