Jenifer Morrill
Professor
Corse
Date
Pros and Cons Minimum Wage
A minimum wage refers to the the lowermost remuneration that proprietors can legally pay their employees. The persistence of minimum wages is ensuring that workers are protected against disproportionately low pay. They help in ensuring that an equitable and just share of the benefits of progress to everybody, as well as a minimum living wage to anybody who is employed and needs the protection, (Rawls). This proposal research focuses upon minimum wage using the utilitarianism approach to outline about the pros and cons and benefits of it.
Utilitarianism refers to an ethical theory which is used to determine the right from wrong by focusing on results. Utilitarianism is a system of consequentialism which holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will crop the greatest good for the highest number, (Smart & Bernard). It is therefore the most used approach upon moral reasoning in business because it perfectly accounts for benefits and costs specifically on minimum wage.
Using the Utilitarianism ethical theory better equity will be realized, and the dissemination of income among the high paid and the low pay can be narrowed. Poverty may be decreased as the low paid get more revenue and the unemployed may be stimulated to engage in the labor market, (Sandel). However, an increase in Minimum wage may also have remarkable impact on small businesses. This is increases in payroll expenditure require business owners to increase consumer prices on services and goods or even reduce the costs of business. For this reason, the methodological approach upon the minimum wage so habitually taken as an outgrowth of a particular conception of justice, one foretold on liberal neutrality (Card, and Alan). A diverse conception of justice would allow us to view the minimum wage as but one tool for attaining other social goals. Moreover, a justice approach to the minimum wage would assist us to reflect our values because we would be required to be involved in a more philosophically grounded argument of the policy and the matters it raises.
Work cited
Card, David E, and Alan B. Krueger. *Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage*. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1995. Print
Rawls, Professor J. *A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition*. Belknap Press, 2009. Print.
Sandel, Michael J. *Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?*London: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.
Smart, J J. C, and Williams. *Utilitarianism: For and against*. Cambridge: C.U.P, 1982. Print.
