Some thoughts on minimum wage

some people say too high of a minimum wage will affect businesses and damage the economy. i wanna use a simple example to illustrate this is hardly the case.

let's compare the highest and lowest minimum wage being proposed by unions and business interest groups.

the highest minimum wage proposed so far = hKD 35/hour
assumed working hours = 8 hours/day
monthly salary = HKD5600 (20 working days)

when this is compared with the lowest proposed benchmark (hkd 20/hour),

wage proposed: HKD 20/hour
assumed working hours = 8 hours/day
monthly salary = 3200 (20 working days)


the difference between them is HKD 2400/month/worker

let's look at an SME A with 10 employees, if the employer is paying all of its staff below the minimum wage, god should condemn it. but mostly likely, the number should be much smaller.

I assume 2 of the staff in company A are currently paid below minimum wage, say HKD20/hour. if it's forced to pay hKD35/hour, it is going to have to pay HKD4800/month more.

will this company shut down because of HKD5000? i believe the answer is no.

i have a friend who's business in a new territories shopping mall is catering. he is paying hkd 150,000/month in rent to landlord in order to keep his business running.

when we compare this with the so little ordinary workers are making , we know who is causing businesses to shut down.