So why then did you not just pay those extra pennies prior to the minimum wage legislation? Had the government simply given the workers the power to negotiate on equal terms, they might have been earning those pennies already before the legislation passed. So from the workers' perspective, just giving them more negotiating power would be more useful than minimum wage legislation for which they have to wait and are at the mercy of the government's whims.
That depends. If it's a small raise in the minimum wage, that might not make a big difference, but then what's its point? You yourself admitted that it's but a matter of pennies. And a high raise that actually would be theoretically worthwhile would most certainly lay workers off and certainly could make a difference between success and failure.
So it comes down to the same issue originally mentioned before. Either the raise is so low as to be pointless, or if it is raised to make a significant difference, it certainly would cause layoffs. You yourself admitted that a small raise in the minimum wage is but a matter of pennies.
I'm quite happy with my current profession and do earn well above minimum wage. From that standpoint, the minimum wage is of no use to me. On the other hand, I've heard of enough cases of employers hiring under the table. Why might that be? Have you had experience of that? If not, then clearly there are other business experiences out there that you yourself have not experienced and can only theorize on. So, why would we be hearing so much of under-the-table work? And ow would you propose eliminating that?
