Sarah Johnson, CFO.com | US
January 11, 2007

On Relativity of Wage and Salary Earners

The article stipulates that, "A wage hike could force small-business owners to eliminate jobs, reduce hours, and cut employee benefits, according to Bruce Josten, the Chamber of Commerce's executive vice president for government affairs." Now is this only true if we assume that monetary resources paid to managers are fixed and could not be re-distributed to labourers? In other words, it could be possible and even morally justifiable to lower the luxury based compensation standard of living level purchasing power capacity paid to managers such that labourers can earn higher than the poverty level legalized minimum wage so as to afford them a reasonable standard of living in absolute terms and in terms relative to the management level. In turn, there would be no need to reduce hours, to eliminate jobs, or to cut employee benefits. All that is required is a moral virtue to compensate labour and management, in a fair and equitable manner, by considering the relativity of standard of living, purchasing power, and basic necessity to luxury purchase and consumption positions for the wage earner and the salary earner.

Posted by David Newman | Jan 13, 2007 12:49 PM ET