Wal-Mart just follows legal framework. We can certainly lobby our legal representatives to change that legal framework, but it's questionable whether raising the wage floor minimizes social benefits payout.
"Increases in the minimum wage are essentially a shift from corporate profits to low-wage employees," he says. "And we know that low-wage employees spend more of their money. They're going to spend essentially every penny they get, so that increased demand is going to result in more economic activity and potentially more jobs."
We could achieve the same benefit through a public safety net such as a guaranteed basic income. There is nothing inherently wrong with paying social benefits or redistributing income. Bringing employers into the mix through a minimum wage just distorts the market by preventing price discovery and making people whose labor is worth less than minimum wage effectively unemployable.
George Osborne the UK's Conservative Chancellor certainly does he has explicitly stated that the minimum wage needs to rise to reduce the in work benefits bill circa £12 billion.
