Will minimum wage laws work here?

[Meat Bao]

Minimum wage - survey of economists - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is the survey of economists, which seem to paint a picture that a majority of economists are against the concept of minimum wage, although there are dissenters / other schools of thoughts.

More pics :

Since the policy is controversial, and there are studies which show that it has negative impacts (although together with other studies which show mixed results or only little bit of negative impacts), it is better to choose safer option isn't it ?

I feel that the government is correct because they avoid a controversial policy prescription and choose a better option, WIS and skills training.

 

[Shutterx]

can someone show to me that min wage is bad for HK now?

 

[BioProEng]

If you read the HK related news articles, they already explicit write that there are negative impacts, such as reduction of restaurant service staff, reduction in service quality, etc.

And the experts quoted there say that the macro data is hard to interpret due to too many factors being involved.

In other words, it might be "inspite of" the bad effects of minimum wage, the data doesn't show poorer results due to other positive factors from other things.

The economists have pro minimum wage camp, and contra minimum wage camp.

There are other ways which are more risk-averse and safer / better in terms of lifting wages, reducing income gap, etc.

This minimum wage has side-effects.

The alternative of skills training, WIS scheme, etc, is a better policy.

Besides of this, other areas could be tackled by government in general to reduce the rich-poor gap, such as progressive tax policy, better housing policy, educational policy, transport, healthcare, etc.

sg no minimum wages, but service quality drop even much worse then most country.....

and you sure skill training (ppl complain increase skill still no job, or coy only want hire experience ppl, but pay still low), WIS scheme (it probably help the really really low income, but with the ever increasing inflation and no pay raise or worse pay reduction, how many others will be harder hit etc, does this scheme really help?)

even govt latest that wage scheme.... it only benefit the coy..... do you think the coy will give higher raise because govt sub 40%? i think they still happy give you the raise they intend to, and just pocket the $$$ govt give. and best, new employer are not affected by this scheme, meaning, coy still will not look forward in hiring locals etc.... so its more like using taxpayer money to increase the profits of these coys....

so you sure govt implementing these scheme actually helps?

 

[Empiricism]

Minimum wage - survey of economists - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is the survey of economists, which seem to paint a picture that a majority of economists are against the concept of minimum wage, although there are dissenters / other schools of thoughts.

More pics :

Since the policy is controversial, and there are studies which show that it has negative impacts (although together with other studies which show mixed results or only little bit of negative impacts), it is better to choose safer option isn't it ?

I feel that the government is correct because they avoid a controversial policy prescription and choose a better option, WIS and skills training.

Since you like to quote Wikipedia so much, I shall entertain you with some empirical findings from Wikipedia too:

Several researchers have conducted statistical meta-analyses of the employment effects of the minimum wage. In 1995, Card and Krueger analyzed 14 earlier time-series studies on minimum wages and concluded that there was clear evidence of publication bias (in favor of studies that found a statistically significant negative employment effect). They point out that later studies, which had more data and lower standard errors, did not show the expected increase in t-statistic (almost all the studies had a t-statistic of about two, just above the level of statistical significance at the .05 level).[74] Though a serious methodological indictment, opponents of the minimum wage largely ignored this issue; as Thomas C. Leonard noted, "The silence is fairly deafening."[75]

In 2005, T.D. Stanley showed that Card and Krueger's results could signify either publication bias or the absence of a minimum wage effect. However, using a different methodology, Stanley concludes that there is evidence of publication bias, and that correction of this bias shows no relationship between the minimum wage and unemployment.[76] In 2008, Hristos Doucouliagos and T.D. Stanley conducted a similar meta-analysis of 64 U.S. studies on dis-employment effects and concluded that Card and Krueger's initial claim of publication bias is still correct. Moreover, they concluded, "Once this publication selection is corrected, little or no evidence of a negative association between minimum wages and employment remains."[77]

 

[lifeisinforashock]

the only thing i care abt is that if most developed countries like US, Japan and HK has minimum wages, that's the market rate / global rate which singapore is no exception and should attain that as well. As for drawbacks, their impact on other economic variables very much depends on the 'ability of the govts', in which I highly doubt so for pap govt, given their own admission of 'lack of 20/20 or whatever foresight' and opt for more gdp growth through cheap foreign labor. The hard truth for all singaporeans is that the sg economy composes of cheap foreign labor, therefore the so-called gdp growth is fake and wun last long.

 

[kopitian]

Even my econs lecturers tell me these economic books are a load of crap cause u can't really apply to it in real world nor predict the economy.

So please... Stop taking pics of ur mc/ac curve and textbooks .. Ur not the only one who understands macro/micro econs.
Ur actually making urself look even more retarded

 

[dillion]

an economist agreeing with minimum wage is like scientist agreeing with a god.

minimum wage has more to do with sociology and politics than an arts wannabe science subject.

 

[TrollAndOgres]

Those earning top 5% income shd be taxed more than currnt rates. including their shares n dividends

Ministers pay to be reduced another 10%.


Erms. Like that wld happen.

 

[Empiricism]

an economist agreeing with minimum wage is like scientist agreeing with a god.

minimum wage has more to do with sociology and politics than an arts wannabe science subject.

An economist is only concerned with the truth. Your analogy doesn't hold as the effects of minimum wage can be positively determined through empirical research, which is the domain of higher level economics.

 

[dillion]

u get more scientific proof from anecdotal evidence than from empirical research.

 

[eleewhm]

minimum wage need to be implemented... else when all those schools which are going to be built for the 6.9 mil population growth.. good luck to those fresh graduates... they can dream of affording a HDB flat when they are at 40yrs old

 

[dillion]

minimum wage need to be implemented... else when all those schools which are going to be built for the 6.9 mil population growth.. good luck to those fresh graduates... they can dream of affording a HDB flat when they are at 40yrs old

u FT... shooo... go back to shoveling snow...

 

[widman01]

can someone show to me that min wage is bad for HK now?

ya lor ...
those arguing is based on theory..., nvr base on fact.

for hk, it has been good. new 500 hawker/ eateries and causing side effect, shortage of fnb labour hahaha

those theory normally come from 19th centuries economist

 

[BioProEng]

tbh

what i find about minimum wages....

ppl will have more spending power (thus improving gdp which i assume is good)

but if you no control, employers will cut wages, etc, giving ppl smaller spending power etc.... then how ppl earn? and this also create the huge income gap etc....

then profit no enough, cheap labours (FW) come in... yes, fw will increase gdp artifically, but these ppl will send they $$$ home, and not spend all in sg, thus do not really improve one country economy, and yet it continues to suppress locals wages, reducing their spending power.... solution? take in more fw to boost gdp?

based on history, US wall street crash, the govt solution is to create jobs, giving ppl the spending power, thus overcoming the crisis..... but nowadays, ppl are stripped off their spending power... and you expect the economy to grow?

 

[kampong boi]

cannot comprehend why msia can have min. wage while sg cannot

 

[widman01]

cannot comprehend why msia can have min. wage while sg cannot

197 countries already have min wages. why sg cannot? what is so special about sg that other countries don't have??????

really don't understand

 

[BioProEng]

197 countries already have min wages. why sg cannot? what is so special about sg that other countries don't have??????

really don't understand

cause............





uniquely singapore

 

[dark_aLLeY]

The alternative of skills training, WIS scheme, etc, is a better policy.

Besides of this, other areas could be tackled by government in general to reduce the rich-poor gap, such as progressive tax policy, better housing policy, educational policy, transport, healthcare, etc.

The govt scheme of re-training like WIS scheme is also not very helpful. Many sectors don't recognize one... and also still tell u, "$800 a month, take it or leave it."

My bro-in-law's sister is an example. In the end, she can't get employed either.

After your NS finish, and you start to work, then come back and flip all your textbooks to review.

 

[wahakuy]

why they put drawbacks no put advantages

 

[One Month Notice]

alot of economist and prof already say before in Singapore, the schemes provided now only seek to enrich the SME owners and business owners.

Training incentives - no. 1 benefit is those provide training de companies. You think u go some training the owner will increase your pay?

Wage supplement - no.1 benefit again is employers. You are reducing their cost which ends up in their profit margin. The scheme was intended that the savings be passed to employees but u really think those SME bosses with the mentality that they are the only one making the company profitable will share?

wage increment supplement - Already 70% of the survey companies have indicated that they WILL NOT pass the savings to workers or increase beyond the normal increment. Again they cite rising business cost hence will use the difference to offset the cost. RUBBISH, the only cost i see is their ******* director fees and bs rental. Anyone doing Audit for SME can tell.

All the anti above scheme de economist and prof all kena slience only those PRO above de get quoted by ****ty times. Min wage have some short term impact but like those 100k COE, eventually it will become normalise and bring down the scale of inequality.

All those quoting theory de.. we not in perfect market situation lah. wake up lah. All examples in textbook all based on perfect market situation of reaction de.