There is a pro-labour case to be made against the minimum wage. In many jobs it can end up as a de facto maximum wage. It also puts future wage developments in the hands of shifting parliamentary majorities.

Unions in places with high rates of unionisation are often not happy about statutory minimum wages as it removes the incentive to join the union and risks jeopardising the bargaining power of the union.

In general I think a system of strong unions and a functional minimum wage created by robust and safe unemployment benefits is to be preferred over a statutory minimum wage.

It goes without saying that statutory minimum wages are always a better idea than whatever the sociopaths catered to by The Economist wants.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, like IIRC doesn’t Sweden technically not have a minimum wage and unions make sure the ruling aren’t the sole deciding factor in wage?

Like yeah, in burgerland for most folks the minimum wage will pretty much be the maximum wage. Yeah, not good anywhere but for major cities in particular you can expect the people doing a lot of the work to make the place run are either lucky enough to be crashing with their parents at best or having two shitty full-time service jobs at worst unable to do anything else.

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago

Nordic countries don't have statutory minimum wages and I think that most of the time, the worst paid Scandinavians are better off than the worst-paid Americans.

But the system has its obvious flaws. Not all workers are covered by collective bargaining. Unions and employers alike love to hand-wave it away by pretending they are all high-paid professionals like lawyers or engineers who doesn't need a minimum wage and while that is true for many un-unionised workers, the category also covers the absolute shit-tier jobs with shit-tier employers.

Often the people working these jobs are ethnic minorities or otherwise marginalised. Unions are more concerned with the interests of steadily employed unionised workers and do little for these marginalised workers as they are often not union members. When they do care about improving their conditions it is usually because they are competing with unionised workers.

The Nordic model might relatively speaking be in the good end of the spectrum of working class conditions under capitalism but it definitely has it's flaws.