Look, a minimum wage would spur economic activity

Here’s more evidence to show that a minimum wage can actually keep the economy purring.

This time, we go to the United States.

San Francisco-based journalist, Dick Meister, a specialist on labour issues, is actually calling on the US administration to raise the minimum wage there to a more decent level. A minimum wage, far from dampening economic sentiment, could actually spur domestic demand and boost economic activity. Here’s what he has to say:

But what of that other bit of fiction spread by opponents, their flimsy argument that raising the minimum forces employers to eliminate jobs? Don’t you believe it.

Just the opposite has happened after each of the 19 previous times the minimum has been raised since it was initially set at 25 cents an hour in 1938. The job growth has been spurred primarily by the increased spending of those whose pay has been increased.

What’s more, the raises have benefited employers, since increasing workers’ pay raises their morale and, with it, their productivity, while decreasing absenteeism and recruiting and training costs.

Taxpayers would benefit, too, since so much of the billions paid out in public assistance goes to families whose working members do not earn enough at the current minimum wage to be self-supporting.

So isn’t that reason enough for Malaysia to introduce a minimum wage? After 50 years of Merdeka and 44 years of Malaysia, do you seriously think our nation as a whole stands to gain by paying poverty-line wages to hundreds of thousands of long-suffering workers?