The Ethical and Political Aspects
Whether it be considered from the viewpoint of ethics, politics, or economics, the principle of the legal minimum wage is impregnable. The State has not only the moral right but the moral duty to enact legislation of this sort, whenever any important group of labourers are receiving less than living wages. One of the elementary functions and obligations of the State is to protect citizens in the enjoyment of their natural rights; and the claim to a living wage is, as we have seen, one of the natural rights of the person whose wages are his only means of livelihood. Therefore, the establishment of minimum living wages is not among the so-called "optional functions" of the State in our present industrial society. Whenever it can be successfully performed, it is a primary and necessary function. So far as political propriety is concerned, the State may as reasonably be expected to protect the citizen against the physical, mental, and moral injury resulting from an unjust wage contract, as to safeguard his money against the thief, his body against the bully, or his life against the assassin. In all four cases the essential welfare of the individual is injured or threatened through the abuse of superior force and cunning. Inasmuch as the legal minimum wage is ethically legitimate, the question of its enactment is, politically speaking, entirely a question of expediency.
The Economic Aspect
Now the question of expediency is mainly economic. A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken about the alleged conflict between the legal minimum wage and "economic law." Economists have used no such language, indeed; for they know that economic laws are merely the expected uniformities of social action in given circumstances. The economists know that economic laws are no more opposed to a legal minimum wage than to a legal eight hour day, or legal regulations of safety and sanitation in work places. All three of these measures tend to increase the cost of production, and sometimes carry the tendency into reality. A minimum wage law is difficult to enforce, but not much more so than most other labour regulations. At any rate, the practical consideration is whether even a partial enforcement of it will not result in a marked benefit to great numbers of underpaid workers. It may throw some persons, the slower workers, out of employment; but here, again, the important question relates to the balance of good over evil for the majority of those who are below the level of decent living. At every point, therefore, the problem is one of concrete expediency, not of agreement or disagreement with a real or imaginary economic law.
Some of those who oppose the device on the ground of expediency set up an argument which runs about as follows: the increase in wages caused by a minimum wage law will be shifted to the consumer in the form of higher prices; this result will in turn lead to a falling off in the demand for products; a lessened demand for goods means a reduced demand for labour; and this implies a diminished volume of employment, so that the last state of the workers becomes worse than the first. Not only is this conception too simple, but it proves too much. If it were correct every rise in wages, howsoever brought about, would be ill advised; for every rise would set in motion the same fatal chain of events. Voluntary increases of remuneration by employers would be quite as futile as the efforts of a labour union. This is little more than the old wages fund theory in a new dress. And it is no less contrary to experience.
The argument is too simple because it is based upon an insufficient analysis of the facts. There are no less than four sources from which the increased wages required by a minimum wage law might in whole or in part be obtained. In the first place, higher wages will often give the workers both the physical capacity and the spirit that make possible a larger output. Thus, they could themselves equivalently provide a part at least of their additional remuneration. When, secondly, the employer finds that labour is no longer so cheap that it can be profitably used as a substitute for intelligent management, better methods of production, and up to date machinery, he will be compelled to introduce one or more of these improvements, and to offset increased labour cost by increased managerial and mechanical efficiency. This is what seems to have happened in the tailoring industry of England. According to Mr. Tawney, "the increased costs of production have, on the whole, been met by better organisation of work and by better machinery."[259] In the third place, a part of the increased wage cost can be defrayed out of profits, in two ways: through a reduction in the profits of the majority of business concerns in an industry; but more frequently through the elimination of the less efficient, and the consequent increase in the volume of business done by the more efficient. In the latter establishments the additional outlay for wages might be fully neutralised by the diminished managerial expenses and fixed charges per unit of product. This elimination of unfit undertakers would not only be in the direction of greater social efficiency, but in the interest of better employment conditions generally; for it is the less competent employers who are mainly responsible for the evil of "sweating," when they strive to reduce the cost of production by the only method that they know; that is, the oppression of labour. Should the three foregoing factors fall short of providing or neutralising the increased wages, the recourse would necessarily be to the fourth source; namely, a rise in the price of products. However, there is no definite reason for assuming that the rise will in any case be sufficient to cause a net decrease of demand. In Oregon the increased labour cost due to the minimum wage law amounted, as we have seen, to only three mills per dollar of sales in mercantile establishments. Even if this were all shifted to the consumer—something that is practically impossible—it would be equivalent to an increase of only three cents on each ten dollars' worth of purchases, and thirty cents on each hundred. The reduction in sales on account of such a slight rise in prices would be infinitesimal. In the case of possibly the majority of products, the lessened demand on the part of the other classes might be entirely counterbalanced by the increased demand at the hands of the workers whose purchasing power had been raised through the minimum wage law. The effect upon sales, and hence upon business and production, which follows from an increase in the effective consuming power of the labouring classes is frequently ignored or underestimated. So far as consumers' goods are concerned, it seems certain that a given addition to the income of the wage-earning classes will lead to a greater increase in the demand for products than an equal addition to the income of any other section of the people.
Nevertheless, the possibility must be admitted of some diminution of employment, owing to higher prices and decreased demand. And it is certain that some workers would not be worth the legal minimum to their employers. A part, but probably not all, of these could find employment at a lower wage, through a system of permits for "slow workers." Whatever the amount of unemployment resulting from both these causes, it would undoubtedly be an evil of lesser magnitude than that which at present follows from the under-payment of a majority of the labouring population. And it could be remedied by two measures which are in any case necessary for social welfare, and which would be hastened by the establishment of a legal minimum wage. These are adequate and scientific laws and institutions to deal with the general problem of unemployment, and a comprehensive system of industrial and vocational training.
These conclusions, then, seem to be justified: the economic objections to a legal minimum wage are not essentially different from those that may be urged against any other beneficial labour legislation; and they have been sufficiently refuted by experience to throw the burden of proof upon the objectors. Expediency suggests, however, that in the United States the device should be applied gradually in two respects: for a few years it ought to be confined to women and minors; and when it is extended to men, the rates should approach the level of a complete family living wage by stages, covering, say, three or four years. The former restriction would enable the law to be carried through its experimental stages with a minimum disturbance to industry as a whole, and with a minimum of opposition, and the latter would greatly reduce the danger of male unemployment.[260]