Minimum Wage and Equal Pay - Essay Example

Minimum Wage and/or Equal Pay Assignment

If one takes a close look at the social environment, one will be able to see that it should be regarded as an important prerequisite for the development of the inner potential of a human being. However, in order to live a prosperous life in the society, a person has to have a secure source of income. Nevertheless, sometimes people have a job, but the amount of money that they receive is barely enough to cover all the expenses. That is why it may be logical to introduce the idea of minimum wage and align so that people can earn a certain sufficient amount of money, regardless of their occupation. It is also important to make sure that the minimum wage is equal to or above living wage. This paper will explore the concept of minimum wage and problems that are associated with it, based on the article titled "In the US they even have ‘sub-minimum' wages for disabled people".

To begin with, it may be important to state that the very existence of what the author calls "sub-minimum wage" is a tremendous problem. Indeed, the concept of minimum wage implies that any person can find any job and will at least receive the specified amount of money. However, it seems strange that while the government claims to have established a minimum wage, there are exceptions to this practice. In other words, it is not what the people expect from their state: they want equal treatment, but it seems that a single rule comes with too many exceptions. One may go as far as saying that the introduction of the practice of "sub-minimum wage" which is not justified by the applicable legislation should be recognized as the violation of the applicable legislation. While the employers might justify their action with the help of governmental instructions, the latter should be carefully examined since it may happen so that they contradict with the law. All this leads to the understanding that while the concept of minimum wage is supported by the government, the actual implementation of it brings up the opposite effect. One should keep in mind that the very reason why the minimum wage was designed is to allow people live a happy life, knowing that they will always be able to earn a sufficient about of money with their hard labor. However, it seems that the governmental practices have modified this idea, introducing exceptions that make some groups of people vulnerable. Therefore, it is not the concept of minimum wage or the legislation itself that should be blamed, but the modifications which were introduced. One should also keep in mind that it is quite possible that the public may not be aware of the practice of paying "sub-minimum wage". Indeed, this mostly affects the disabled employees who do not comprise a large part of the workforce. That is why some might suggest that this should not be seen as a big problem. However, the reality is quite the opposite. On the one hand, this practice shows that the proper application of law is negatively affected by other provisions and this should be avoided. On the other hand, it is possible that the disabled workers may not be the only vulnerable category and these exceptions will include other groups.

Another point that is stressed in the article is discrimination. The evidence shows that the disabled workers are the group of people that is most likely to receive "sub-minimum wage". This goes against the principle of equality since it implies that a disabled worker is not entitled to a minimum wage because of his or her disability. Nevertheless, the latter can be innate and it is not the fault of a person. This leads to the understanding that a person can be discriminated against based on a characteristic that one has no control of. For example, it is reasonable for a company to hire people that have a diploma since the latter signifies that a person has had extensive training and is qualified to perform a certain job. Moreover, a diploma can be obtained if one puts conscious efforts to it. On the other hand, a person cannot get rid of a disability; so, discriminating against disabled people is unfair. As a result, the policy of minimum wage which was designed to support the citizens is actually responsible for dividing them into groups. This means that while formally the employees may be equal the amount of money that they receive will show the actual attitude to them and will make them vulnerable. This is a rather sorrowful state of affairs with the employer might justify this kind of treatment that his cannot be recognized as discrimination since it follows the established protocol. It is quite understandable that when the governmental requirements were designed, they did not have the goal of affecting the disabled people negatively; however, that is exactly the kind of consequences can be witnessed.

It is quite understandable that the government cannot issue laws that would favor one category of people over another. However, it is capable or designing measures that would be applied equally to the workers, but some of them will simply not be able to keep up with the requirements. As a result, formally, the requirements will be fair, but, in fact, they will make the labor of one group of people, namely the non-disabled ones, more valuable than the labor of the other group. Of course, it would be logical to insist that there is no difference between the two in terms of performance; however, if there is a provision that ensures earning minimum wage then everyone should be entitled to it. Some might suggest that the disabled will receive as much money as an able-bodied person and this may be regarded as unfair as the outcome of their work will be different. However, it is also obvious that the former will put much more effort that is why the possible difference in the outcomes may be justified.

Finally, the author points out that the current state of affairs can only be described as exploitation. Indeed, the disabled workers hope for at least a minimum wage, but receive what is below the required level and have to work extremely hard to earn it. In other words, the amount of money that they receive is disproportional to the amount of effort that they put. This can be compared to the work of a senior manager who earns much above the minimum wage and does not have to work as hard. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that to a certain extent the disabled workers are exploited. It is obvious that the employer might provide various benefits to the disabled employees, claiming that they are being taken care of similar to any other worker. However, the amount of money that they receive for their work is what people are most interested in. As a result, unfair compensation will bring up negative feelings and will spoil the climate in the workplace since the employee who is discriminated against will rightfully feel that one could have been earning more if it had not been for the prejudices of the employer. One would make no mistake suggesting that these thoughts are likely to have a negative impact on one's performance, leading to the deterioration of the bond between an employee and the employer. Another point that should be mentioned is that the labor which is exploited will show less productivity if compared to the labor that is performed by the people who are work under good conditions. Therefore, one might suggest that by discriminating against the disabled employees in terms of payment, the employers do more hand than good since they could have enjoyed high effectiveness of labor if they had treated their workers fairly. That is why it is a matter of time when they realize how wrong they were.

Having examined all the points which were mentioned in the paragraphs above, one is able to come to the following conclusion: minimum wage is a concept that is designed to provide the citizens with a financial safety net, but in reality there are certain exceptions from it may make this concept a tool of discrimination. Thus, the public welcomes the idea that there is a minimum amount of money that every worker will receive for one's labor, but they did not expect that it would be legal to pay below that to the disabled workers. Moreover, one cannot find an example where the legislation explicitly says that the latter category of workers should be paid less. The latter is justified with the help of another norm that should not be applied to these people. In other words, while the disabled workers are still formally entitled to a minimum wage, the amount of money that they get is modified based on their performance and it is obvious that they will perform worse knowing that for every little mistake that they make they will receive less money.