Re:Is the four-day workweek finally within our grasp?
by medvezhenok on Wednesday December 01, 2021 @03:00PM
(#29408434)
Then pass UBI instead and drop the minimum wage laws (there's no need for them if UBI were a thing). Problem solved.
Right now the problem is in the power dynamic between companies and employees - the dynamic is very unbalanced in the companies favor. In "Bullshit Jobs" Graeber compares the current system to a Dom-Sub relationship with no safeword for the "fake-competitive" industries that are not unionized.
UBI is the safeword.
But note also that there are people one might be willing to gamble on employing at $12/hour but that don't offer a positive return at capital at $15/hour.
I think minimum wage laws are important, but that reducing the supply of labor will do more to push up the wages of the lowest earners.