Minimum Wage Should Be Practiced in a Country or Not

Minimum Wage Should be Practiced in a Country or not

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labor. (Robert 2013) This essay aims at describing and discussing the differences of opinions about the benefits and drawbacks of a minimum wage policy.

People who agree with the policy say that the minimum wage has great advantages. It can not only increase the work ethic of those who earn very little, but also will help to increase the standard of living for the poorest and most vulnerable class in society and raise average. According to a Malaysian government survey in 2009 that about 34 percent of the country's workers earn less than 700 ringgit ($231) a month, which does not include overtime and other forms of allowances such as medical benefits. This amount, is below the national poverty line of 800 ringgit. To low-income earners, it can be quite a challenge to live a decent life when the cost of living keeps rising. With the minimum wage policy, government can protect those low income class have a better and standard life.

Moreover, the minimum wage will increase the incentive to take jobs and stimulate the countries consumption. People with better salary would like more to work and decrease the countries' unemployment rate. Mostly, people with lower income will spend most of their income on necessary goods, like food, cloth and something else. This will help increase one country GDP and push the economy growth rate going high.

On the other hand, people who take the opposite point of view warn that the minimum wage will force some businesses to collapse and cause unemployment and inflation to soar. The minimum wage policy actually harms some businesses by pushing up its labor cost, especially for businesses which lay on cheap labor, like cleaning services, security companies and retail trade. This maybe cause some businesses...