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the difference in their shopping is quantity and not quantity. Without minimum wage rule, the rich will be kings and the poor will negotiate for food with them just to keep body and soul together.

A saying in a multinational office says "If you pay pea nuts to your staff, you will end up having monkeys as your workforce". This is a caption under a group of monkeys deliberating with a man as the leader of the group round a conference table. Another caption says "Who cares to have monkeys as the workforce, so far as they can deliver?". This is under a caption where monkeys are carrying loads and there is a man in suit holding can. The rich employers' motives of setting up an enterprise is not to help the poor in the society, it is to help themselves. They have invested so much time and risks in making sure that their ideas materialise into actions. The only incentive that motivated them was maximum profit. To a capitalist, 'competitive advantage' is being a monopolist. He wants to reduce production cost and increase sales cost so as to maximise profit and have enough to chase competitors away from the markets. If there is no law to guide them from paying zero wages, they will do just that. By the way, the minimum wage is just enough to keep you going. It does not give hope and people are contended. Anything less than the minimum wage will be okay for the helpless poor who only wants to live life anyhow.

Human beings are generally acquisitive. Given the chance, human beings will acquire other human beings and the pride in this wll be how much each can acquire. They are not thinking of how to help the employees and pay the minimum wage only because it is the rule. The minimum wage came into practice because employees were cheats! Today with most management and owners of most industrial sectors taking fat salaries and entitlements, they still pay the minimum wage. Human beings are generally inconsiderate and only show empathy to staff if they want to use them to achieve objectives of maximum profit.

Competition is the order of the day in a capitalist world that we are. If there is no law on minimum wage, human beings who are generally multi-territorial, that is, have the ability to control more than one territories, will not mind using other human beings for free, so far those human beings being used are still ready to work. Leaving employers to pay 'fair' wages and salaries to the employees will be suicidal! If human beings are generally fair, we would not have laws in the first instance. Will there be any need for governance, both corporate and national? No. we need gorvernance and rigorous laws because human beings are generally unfair. Unfair in the sense that everybody will either want to justify the justifiable and rationalise the unjustifiable. Nobody will agree that his action was wrong. If in doubt, ask a serial killer.
Government is the group of qualified people in a society that can do what ordinary individuals cannot do on their own. We chose government to provide a conducive environment for everybody to live in the society. Minimum wage, employees feedback and redistributive tax regime system are just some of the tools a responsive government need to function.

Learn more about this author, Olufemi Oyedele.
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