Is the Minimum Wage Detrimental to the Economy?

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-330
Author(s):  
Anna Krajewska ◽  
Stefan Krajewski
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Inflation Rate ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Average Salary ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Consequent Increase

The minimum wage in Poland is relatively low. It amounts only 1,600 PLN in 2013. Therefore, it is no surprise that the trade unions have been making efforts to have it raised to the level of 50% of the average salary. However, this has been met with staunch resistance from employers. The liberal model of the economy, which dominates in Poland, favours employers. Moreover, the attitude of the government, politicians, the media, as well as many scientists towards this is not favourable. These are the objections usually raised against the increase of minimum wage: - raising the minimum wage entails unemployment growth; - an increase in the minimum wage entails an increase in the average pay, with a consequent increase in the inflation rate; - the amount of the minimum wage and its growth rate is frequently the basis for an index-linked pay increase in the budget institutions and some social benefits, which results in an increase in fixed budget spending, which is not justified economically; - the minimum wage level, regarded by employers as too high, results in the practice of paying workers outside the official payroll, thereby extending the grey area; - an increase in the minimum wage is a threat to businesses, especially to micro-enterprises, which operate on the brink of insolvency and may face bankruptcy; - an increase in the minimum wage raises the cost of labour and makes businesses less competitive. This paper, in its later part, provides arguments against the allegations. There is a one-sided view of the issue of the minimum wage in Poland. Wages are regarded exclusively as an element of the cost of labour and, as such, they should not increase as this is detrimental to entrepreneurs and to the economy. Such analyses disregard the social and economic (in a broad context) aspects of having a minimum wage. 

Schwäche der Tarifautonomie und Legitimitätsfragen im Arbeitsrecht und im Sozialrecht

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-236
Author(s):  
Stephan Seiwerth
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
System Change ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Partners

AbstractSocial partners have played a privileged role in German social security administration since Bismarckian times. In 2014, a new legislation empowered the social partners to set the level of the statutory minimum wage and to demand the extension of collective agreements. This article examines the interdependence of the trade unions’ and employer organisations’ membership numbers and their involvement in state regulation of labour and social security law. In case the interest in autonomous regulations is not going to increase, the state will have to step in with more heteronomous regulation. This would incrementally lead to a system change.

Accountability and the Media

2014 ◽  
Vol 652 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-221
Author(s):  
Anton Harber
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Access ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
The Face ◽  
Public Broadcaster ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Poor Management

Two decades of contestation over the nature and extent of transformation in the South African news media have left a sector different in substantive ways from the apartheid inheritance but still patchy in its capacity to fill the democratic ideal. Change came fast to a newly open broadcasting sector, but has faltered in recent years, particularly in a public broadcaster troubled by political interference and poor management. The potential of online media to provide much greater media access has been hindered by the cost of bandwidth. Community media has grown but struggled to survive financially. Print media has been aggressive in investigative exposé, but financial cutbacks have damaged routine daily coverage. In the face of this, the government has turned its attention to the print sector, demanding greater—but vaguely defined—transformation and threatened legislation. This has met strong resistance.

scholarly journals The Internet´s role in the Bersih movement in Malaysia – A Case Study

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Melanie Radue
Keyword(s):  
Green Revolution ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Liberalization ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
Technological Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Use Of The Internet

Everywhere in the media, people talk about the so-called “Twitter and Facebook revolution” in regard to the Green Revolution in Iran or other new social movements which demand democratization in their countries and use the Internet for communication and mobilization. Libertarian advocates of the Internet state that the Internet has democratizing effects because of its reputed egalitarian, open and free technological structure for communication processes. Especially in countries in which the media is under strict control by the government, these characteristics are emphasized as stimulation for political liberalization and democratization processes. This essay critically examines the alleged democratizing effect of the use of the Internet on the Malaysian society exemplified on the social movement Bersih. The Bersih movement demands free and fair elections in Malaysia, often described as an ethnocratic and “electoral authoritarian regime”. 141 The objective of this study is to demonstrate the dependency of such possible effects on context.

scholarly journals Tax or Subsidy? Optimal Carbon Emission Policy: A Supply Chain Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Yin ◽  
Xiaolin Chen ◽  
Xiaolin Xu ◽  
Lianmin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Green Technology ◽  
Manufacturing Firm ◽  
Numerical Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
The Cost

With a rigid requirement for environment protection, governments need to make appropriate policies to induce firms to adopt green technology in consideration of the rapidly increasing demand for environmentally friendly products. We investigated the government policy from the perspective of a supply chain, which consisted of the upstream government (she) and the downstream manufacturing firm (he). The government decided on the policy (tax or subsidy) to maximize the social welfare, while the firm decided on the greenness level of the product, which affects the consumers’ choice behavior and hence his own demand. Assuming else being equal, the government should adopt the tax policy if consumers are very sensitive to the greenness, the cost of greening is high, or the negative impact due to carbon emission is large, and subsidize the firm otherwise. We also conduct some numerical studies when price is endogenous. The main insights can be carried over.

scholarly journals Optimal Design of Bioenergy Supply Chains Considering Social Benefits: A Case Study in Northeast China

Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cong Gao ◽  
Daogang Qu ◽  
Yang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Optimal Design ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Liaoning Province ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

Bioenergy supply chains can offer social benefits. In most related research, the total number of created jobs is used as the indicator of social benefits. Only a few of them quantify social benefits considering the different impact of economic activities in different locations. In this paper, a new method of measuring the social benefits of bioethanol supply chains is proposed that considers job creation, biomass purchase, and the different impacts of economic activities in different locations. A multi-objective mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to address the optimal design of a bioethanol supply chain that maximizes both economic and social benefits. The ε-constraint method is employed to solve the model and a set of Pareto-optimal solutions is obtained that shows the relationship between the two objectives. The developed model is applied to case studies in Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Actual data are collected as practical as possible for the feasibility and effectiveness of the results. The results show that the bioethanol supply chain can bring about both economic and social benefits in the given area and offers governments a better and more efficient way to create social benefits. The effect of the government subsidy on enterprises’ decisions about economic and social benefits is discussed.

Journalistic Organizations: Arenas for Professional and Symbolic Struggles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Le Cam
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The 19Th Century

From the end of the 19th century until the present, journalists have created associations, trade unions, clubs, and major international networks to organize workers, defend their rights, set out their duties, establish rules of good conduct, and structure their professional journalistic skills. These journalistic organizations are central actors in the history of the professionalization of journalistic groups around the world. They have enabled journalists to make their demands public, exchange views with journalists from other countries, and sometimes even promote and achieve legal recognition of their profession. In general terms, they have provided journalists with fora to discuss their working conditions, their profession, and the social role of the media and journalism. In this way, they have helped to structure not only discourses and practices, but also networks of solidarity at both national and international levels. These organizations can exist in different arenas: within media companies, at the national level, or internationally. And, despite their variety over time, they have often pursued similar objectives: protect journalists’ pay and employment conditions and status; conceive strategies to maintain a certain form of autonomy in authoritarian political contexts; nourish international networking ambitions that have made it possible to disseminate ways of doing and thinking journalism; and finally generate a set of actions that aims to defend the ethics of journalism, the quality of news, and the lives of journalists.

Crop Insurance in India – Past, Present&Future

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. N. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Increase Productivity ◽  
The Government

In a country like India where nearly 2/3rd of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood and agriculture is prone to the vagaries of nature, crop insurance has to play the role of a vital institution. Crop insurance itself cannot increase productivity or be a source of financing, but it can play a role in enhancing both. The Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (CCIS) introduced during the VIIth Five-year plan period, despite its shortcomings, farmers received nearly 6 times the premium as claims, but the coverage could not go beyond 5% of the total farming community. The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS), which replaced CCIS w.e.f. 1999–00, is an improved version. All successful crop insurance programs worldwide are actively supported and financed by governments and the case is no different for India, as the social benefits outweigh the social costs. The government has two immediate tasks. One, to streamline the financing of crop insurance through single point subsidy and allow the program to run professionally. And second, to improve the scheme substantially through such measures as covering post harvest losses, package policies, reduction of size of insurance unit, streamlining agricultural relief, setting up an exclusive organisation for implementation.

Irregular immigration: economic convenience and other factors

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Ambrosini
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Hidden Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethnic Economies ◽  
Principal Tool ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Cost

This article illustrates the factors leading to the entry of irregular immigrants and their integration into the labour market, that is to say: the economic convenience for both businesses and families of employing unauthorised manpower; the support from compatriot networks and ethnic economies; the embedded liberalism within democratic states' legal systems; the cost and organisational difficulty of controls and expulsion; and the part played by solidarity providers in civil society, including trade unions. Repeated mass amnesties especially in southern Europe, periodically regularise the situation of these migrants and function as the principal tool of migration policy. To this extent, the irregular immigrant appears to be a transitional figure, awaiting recognition and destined to obtain authorisation sooner or later. Trade unions are one of the social groups pushing for the enactment of regularisation measures. In this way they are asserting their attachment to the ideals of justice and solidarity, while at the same time combating the unfair competition which the hidden economy poses to law-abiding companies and declared workers.

Developments in Worker Participation in New Zealand

1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F. Smith
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Marked Effect ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Industrial Democracy ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Worker Participation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government

Industrial democracy and worker participation have become important topics for international debate, with developments taking place in many countries. Despite its former reputation for advances in the social field, little has been heard about developments in worker participation in New Zealand. The aim of the present paper is to report and assess such developments whilst placing these within the context of developments in industrial relations in that country. The strong reliance upon legal arrangements and government intervention in industrial relations matters have had a marked effect upon the development of the industrial relations system in New Zealand. Yet, despite this tradition of legalism, successive governments remain singularly reluctant to legislate in the field of worker participation. Recent initiatives by employers have been strongly unitary in nature, whilst the trade unions appear to be concentrating their efforts upon extending the scope of collective bargaining, an opportunity afforded to them due to recent changes in the law. The present Government's wish that voluntary arrangements between employers and trade unions will eventuate to cover worker participation seems less than pragmatic, since employers, unions and the Government itself differ so fundamentally upon what constitutes worker participation, and the forms it might take.

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