NationStates Jolt Archive

The region of sigma draconis and the nation of Book Spinning want to propose a minimum wage bill in the UN. Whether you approve of it or not I would be interested in how you would classify it under the options given. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

wrong forum!

Such a bill would be categorized as "Social Justice".

However, I think a minimum wage resolution already passed, so any such proposal would be deleted for being a repeat proposal. I'll have to check the list of past UN resolutions to be sure.

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I can't find any mention of "minumum wage" in the list of passed resolutions.

I also did not see any listing of minimum wage within passed proposals.

I do wonder though, with currency being independent, how we shall govern minimum wage.

The only thing I could think of is the (1/12)(GNP)/40.

But then again that is based on the current average, and would cause inflation.

Then I thought minimum cost of living (per month)/40(4.3).

But then how do you determine minimum cost of living, and what is included in minimum cost of living.

Seems to me that minimum wage would need to be a national issue.

I thought I had remembered one getting passed, or at least put up to vote at some point...

Reccommendation for your draft, however:

Do not set a specific money value for the wage. Instead, write that the wage must be "sufficent for the worker to provide food, housing, and basic nessessities for himself" or, that the wage actually has to be food, housing, etc. Just in case the minimum wage you set is not enough to get those things in some countries.

Good luck with it!

must be "sufficent for the worker to provide food, housing, and basic nessessities for himself"

Though good in that it pretty much bridges the gap of differences in currency and economy, the thought of classifiying minimum wage in this fashion seems somewhat vague and relative. And, if a person is recieving just what they need, what will be left for savings? how will workers have saved so their children go to secondary school and exceed the lower class? how will they have money for emergencies/rainy days? deal with the bills when they have children and they have only enough "sufficient for ... himself" I'm not trying to bring you down, it seems like a better idea to let the nation judge the specific number, but this suggestion will probably recieve less support than using a fixed calculation method

How about "must be how much money is sufficent for the worker to provide food, housing, and basic nessessities for himself, multiplied by a number (like 1.3) to give the worker a chance at improving their condition. It could be modified by the number of children they have, and how much support the goverment gives for children (such as whether the goverment has free public schools or not)

The amount of compensation paid out in exchange for labor is an issue that involves only the employer and the employee. Wages should not be artificially inflated beyond what the market can bear, as doing so disrupts normal economic functioning. If a company has to pay their workers twice as much due to this new legislation, they have to either fire half of them, or raise the cost of their goods. When the price of goods increases, the minimum wage would then increase, creating an ever-worsening economic climate until the entire monetary system collapsed.

Making the wage a derivative of GDP is also inappropriate. Typically, GDP is calculated by adding total government spending, total consumer spending, and the value of exports minus the value of imports. Sophista exports a great deal of aerospace and orbital technology, most of which is extremely valuable. Despite bringing much wealth into the country, though, the space industry is hardly the dominating force in the economy. It just happens to sell an expensive product. Should companies be penalized for the success of a different industry? Why is it logical for a gas station to have to pay its attendants more because Ikonos Aerospace makes satellites that can cost upwards of $2 billion each, inflating the nations GDP?

Beyond that, some jobs don't merit a salary that can pay for an above-poverty lifestyle. A person who works 20 hours a week as a grocery clerk cannot expect to be paid enough to meet all the expenses of living, and the store should not before to over-pay the position. This, as previously mentioned, would cripple their ability to do business, as profit margins would disappear.

I think that a "minimum wage" must be tied to a national definition of a "poverty line." Basically one should set the minimum wage so that a person working full time (35 hour work week, 50 weeks a year - 1,750 hours) can be above this poverty line.

Placing this idea as an example: The 2004 guideline for the poverty line in the United States for a family of 1 is $9,310. This would require a minimum wage of $5.32 after taxes. (The actual minimum wage is $5.15 before taxes.) A better example might be to use a family of 4 which is $18,850. This would require a minimum wage of $10.77 after taxes.

Raising the minimum wage is on the one hand bad for business. But a minimum wage below the poverty line is also bad for business. The difference between the minimum wage and the poverty line will be made up in government programs. These government programs have to be funded from somwhere, typically from taxes on business or on income. Since people tend to look at net pay rather than gross pay, higher taxes requires higher salleries to compensate. In other words business has to pay upper management higher wages because they aren't paying the lowest workers enough, as well as other business related taxes.

THE 2004 HHS POVERTY GUIDELINES (http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/04poverty.shtml)

Thank you very much for your suggestions and I believed the previous minimum wage proposal in the UN already failed yesterday. My minimum wage proposal used the formula 1/3GDP percapita /2000 for an hourly rate. I realize that in some countries this would not be sufficient to provide neccessities but I figure its at least a start. The formula was figured according to 2000 hour work week and would equate to about a $5.00/ hour salary in the United States(again this is only trying to get a start on the problem). I am going on vacation tommorrow so I probably won't propose the bill until i return on the 21, but when I do I will let those who posted know. I appreciate the advice and look forward to any more.