What minimum wage opponents don’t get
Erna Mahyuni, The Malaysian Insider
Call this a broad, sweeping statement but anyone who opposes minimum wages has probably never had to support a family or live in the Klang Valley with less than RM650 a month.
It is ridiculous, the amount of nonsensical spew I hear from people I actually know.
Oh no! Minimum wage will kill competitiveness! Will create job shortages! This is why we hire foreign workers!
And the litany goes on.
Get a hold of yourself. The simple truth is that unless ordinary people have more money to spend, they won’t spend it. If they don’t spend, then who will prop up the SMIs? The government?
The poor do not hoard funds; they have none in the first place. It is the rich who have extra income to sink into mutual funds, fixed deposits, real estate and insurance. The rich already have the tools to get richer, and the richest of all do not, contrary to what business protectionists spin, “spread the wealth around.”
What I find disgusting is the racist litany I hear about people of a certain race being lazy and how, if given a minimum wage, they would be even lazier.
These bigots say that it is far more cost-effective to hire foreign workers who ask for very little… and live in deplorable conditions.
That is the cost of so-called economic efficiency, ladies and gentlemen. Hire desperate people who would work practically for free so business owners can pay themselves more.
I know a business owner who pays his workers as little as he can get away with, expecting them to work late nights without overtime, but charges the payments for his luxury car to the company. He also takes frequent overseas holidays but begrudges his workers annual leave. The sad thing is, he’s more the norm than the exception for a traditional SMI.
“These fresh graduates ah, they ask for too much salary. RM1,500! So expensive!” That is what a friend’s uncle said.
Saying RM1,500 is “too much” is ridiculous, really. Fresh graduates in so-called junior executive positions are expected to have their own transport — which means their meagre starting pay will go towards petrol, toll, parking fees and the like.
I estimate the average car-driving Malaysian spends a quarter to a third of his or her salary on car expenses alone. Car payments, servicing, repairs and maintenance… then there’s the fact your “new” car depreciates as soon as you put the key into the ignition.
Minimum wage isn’t about giving “free” money to lazy people. It’s about ensuring that no Malaysian is left behind. So at the very least, all Malaysians can afford the basics — food and shelter.
Is it right to pay Malaysians small amounts, forcing them to live like foreign workers — in crowded shacks? Is it right to expect these very people to do hard labour, for long hours, for pay that will buy them food that is barely adequate, nutrition-wise?
“They could study and improve their lot in life.” Let’s see… if you earn less than RM1,000 a month, commute via bus, work gruelling 10-12 hour shifts… just how are you going to find time to “improve your lot”? Time is as much a luxury for the poor as, say, organic food.
What I find most galling is the voices I hear among my acquaintances opposing minimum wage are either business owners or entitled people who’ve had their home and car deposits as well as their education paid for by their parents.
I’d like to toss the lot of them into the boondocks, give them less than RM700 to live on, force them to commute only by bus and see how it is to depend on every last sen. To not be able to spend frivolously on new clothes, books, dental appointments. Where instead of blithely spending RM5 on a bubble tea drink, you have to make that RM5 last you a day.
In a country where the income divide grows larger every day, it is tragic that those who have much are unable to understand what it’s like for those who have next to nothing at all.
