Because, forcing employers to pay a “living wage” harm the very people it is supposed to
help, I negate the resolution. Resolved: Just governments ought to require employers to
pay a living wage.
The value is justice because the resolution questions the actions of a just government.
Respecting human worth is the most important and fundamental condition of a just
society, Arneson1 writes.
a just society is a fair scheme of
cooperation among persons regarded as free and equal. Each is free in having the ability and the
Several issues arise in considering Cohen versus Rawls. According to Rawls,
right to develop and pursue a conception of the good and also the ability and the disposition to cooperate with others on fair terms. In
any modern, diverse society that refrains from clearly unacceptable restriction of freedom, individuals will
develop allegiance to different and opposed conceptions of the right and the good, and a
conception of justice that can elicit everyone's reasonable acceptance must be
acceptable to the different reasonable ethical views that individuals espouse. The moral equality
of persons generates this unanimity requirement. To satisfy this requirement, a justice doctrine must be built
up from ideas deeply embedded in the culture of modern democracies. To enable satisfaction of this requirement, reasonable citizens
do not press as justice norms controversial, sectarian doctrines that some cannot reasonably accept. When we act together as citizens
through the state, we act on the basis of shared reasons, a common ideal of justice. But each of us has different ultimate ethical
allegiances, and no single idea of what demands morality places on us to promote justice in our private conduct will make sense to all
of us. Moreover, it would be a form of tyranny to require that we generally act only on the shared reasons of justice throughout our
lives rather than on the aims and ambitions that are uniquely our own. In
a just society, individuals in their daily lives
will decide from their own individual ethical perspectives what goals to pursue, including
justice goals, within constraints set by the rights of others. There is no social consensus on this issue, so no particular view of the
demands of justice promotion in ordinary life will be part of a conception of justice that all can accept (see generally Rawls 2005)…
[which] rests on the fundamental premise that all persons have
the same fundamental worth and dignity, which command[ing]s respect. An aristocratic
Egalitarian justice doctrines
doctrine that held that all lords are inherently superior to commoners and hence ought to have greater rights and privileges would
reject the basic equal human worth premise.
Therefore, the value criterion is respecting human worth.
Prefer my value criterion additionally because all other ethical theories pre-suppose
respecting human worth as the ultimate goal.
Contention 1 The living wage is counterproductive.
First, a living wage would cause an increase in the price of goods and services, Tolley2
writes.
Previous studies of the impact of higher wages show that higher prices are definitely
one result. According to Kevin Murphy, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, one effect of an increase in the
minimum wage is that “all of those whose wages and income are not increased by the
1 Richard Arneson. “Egalitarianism” http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism/ 2013
2 George Tolley [Prof of Econ @ Uchicago], Peter Bernstein [Adjunct Prof @ College of Business @ DePaul Uni], Michael Lesage
[RCF Economic & Financial Consulting], Economic Analysis of a Living Wage Ordinance, Employment Policies Institute
minimum will be worse off, as the higher minimum raises employers’ costs and the
ultimate prices of products.”6 The same conclusion was obtained from a study of New
Jersey fast-food restaurants by economists David Card and Alan Krueger. Card and Krueger found that the price
of meals at these restaurants increased when the state of New Jersey increased its minimum wage from $4.25/hour to $5.05/hour.7
Interestingly, price increases occurred at firms that previously paid most of their workers $4.25/ hour (direct cost-pass-through effect)
and at firms that previously paid most of their workers at least $5.05/hour (indirect cost-passthrough effect). In other words, firms
that did not experience much of an increase in costs as a result of the higher wage
still raised their prices because their competitors also faced an increase in costs.
This means if we affirm any reduction in poverty is destroyed by inflation - people can’t
afford any more than they could before and the economy suffers.
Second, this drop in employment is factually proven, not just speculative, Lammam3
writes.
As economic theory would predict and consistent with the broader research on minimum wage legislation, Professors Neumark and
living wage laws generally result in less employment for people at the lower
end of the wage distribution. When looking at all living wage laws without discriminating by type, Neumark
and Adams find that a 100% increase in the living wage (say going from a minimum wage of $10 per
hour to a living wage of $20 per hour) reduces employment among low-wage workers by 12% and
Adams find that
the impact is statistically significant. When looking at the separate effects of contractor-only and business-assistance living wage laws,
they find a stronger adverse and statistically significant impact from the latter—likely because of the wider coverage. Specifically, a
adverse
employment effects of living wage laws seem to become more prominent as the laws cover a
larger group.¶ Other researchers have also found that living wages adversely affect employment. For instances, University of
Kentucky economist Aaron Yelowitz (2005) examined the effects of Santa Fe’s living wage laws
increased municipalities in New Mexico. He found that living wage laws increased Santa Fe’s unemployment
rate by 3.2 percentage points and decreased the number of hours worked by those who remained employed by an
100% increase in business-assistance living wage laws results in a 17% decline in employment. Indeed, the
average of 1.6 hours per week.
This means that the affirmative will throw countless people into deeper poverty because
they have literally no means of supporting themselves.
Contention 2 minimum wage increases leads to exclusion of minority groups,
First, living wage furthers the gender wage gap, the facts say so , Middlesteadt4 writes.
Since then the Minimum Wage was
hiked 16 times. In 11 of those instances (69%) the percentage of women in poverty
went UP after the hike. In absolute terms it appears that women do worse when the
Minimum Wage goes up, but the “gender wage gap” is a relative comparison, not absolute. Did women do better
The Census Bureau began keeping track of poverty by gender in 1966.
(actually, did they do less worse) than men? We have another coin flip. Half the time women fared better when the wage was raised,
but half the time the men did. It’s a wash. There’s no evidence that raising the MW will close the gender wage gap.
3 Charles Lammam 14 [Resident scholar in economic policy @ the Fraser Institute], “The Economic Effects of Living Wage Laws”,
Fraser Institute, January 2014,
4 Minimum Wage Oppression WAYNE MIDDLESTEADT ON FEBRUARY 8, 2014
http://www.punkrocklibertarians.com/minimum-wage-oppression/
Second, living wage’s racist policy results in more poverty for African Americans,
Middlesteadt5 writes.
9 of the 16 wage hikes
(56%) since then saw the percentage of blacks in poverty go up. When we look at unemployment
statistics below, the data will give a clue as to why this happens. But you can’t say raising the bottom wage
will create racial justice if the historically most oppressed race does worse over half
the time when the wage goes up.
As with gender, the Census Bureau began breaking out poverty statistics by race in 1966.
Contention 3 is that there are better alternatives to a living wage.
Other alternatives instead of a living wage exist, and are more effective at reducing
poverty levels. One example is providing a basic income instead of a living wage;
Hiebert6 clarifies.
Each
month, every man, woman, and child would receive a check for a certain amount
that should cover their basic needs. This amount would be non-taxable, but any
income earned in addition to it would [be taxed].
The idea behind basic income is to provide a floor of income upon which people can build other sources of revenue.
And, in the places basic income has been implement it has achieved its goal of reducing
poverty and providing other benefits, Lowrey7 writes.
The left is more concerned with the power of a minimum or basic income as an anti-poverty and pro-mobility tool. There happens to
be some hard evidence to bolster the policy’s case. In the mid-1970s, the tiny Canadian
town of Dauphin ( the
“garden capital of Manitoba” ) acted as guinea pig for a grand experiment in social policy called
“Mincome.” For a short period of time, all the residents of the town received a guaranteed minimum income. About
1,000 poor families got monthly checks to supplement their earnings. Evelyn Forget, a health
economist at the University of Manitoba, has done some of the best research on the results. Some of her findings were obvious:
Poverty disappeared. But others were more surprising: High-school completion rates went up;
hospitalization rates went down. “If you have a social program like this, community
values themselves start to change,” Forget said.
Because the living wage hurts the very groups it wants to help and because there are
better alternatives, we should negate the resolution.
5 Minimum Wage Oppression WAYNE MIDDLESTEADT ON FEBRUARY 8, 2014
http://www.punkrocklibertarians.com/minimum-wage-oppression/
6 Paul Hiebert. “Universal Basic Income: Something We Can All Agree On?” Pacific Standard. July 31, 2014.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/business-economics/talking-basic-income-87057/
7Annie Lowrey. “Switzerland’s Proposal to Pay People for Being Alive.” The New York Times. 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/magazine/switzerlands-proposal-to-pay-people-for-being-alive.html?pagewanted=all