Germany is a 'socialized economy' meaning that they have welfare benefits, collective bargaining, social services, strong rights, and fairly high control of the economy by the government [1]. In fact - workers in Germany have representation at the Board level (!!!) [2] which would be unheard of in a place like America.
Germany, is in fact the 'founder' of modern socialized economies. Otto Von Bismark was the first person to offer state workers a healthcare plan.
So in my (way too long) explanation, I indicated that people would obtain the best possible economic deal - of course if they can 'get a job with the government and do nothing' by collecting welfare benefits, they will do that in lieu of working for wages below that.
By this I mean: there has to be some externalized, or non-market intervention. Minimum is one of them.
So no, technically Germany may not need a minimum wage, but they have market interventions that are so strong, that it was not necessary.
My point was more general (maybe I should have been more clear) absent non-market interventions, people will work for the minimum survivable wage.
Irregular workers in an area will work for that minimum survivable wage so long as it's beyond what they can get elsewhere (i.e. at home), i.e. undocumented workers will work for a salary provides them just a little bit higher standard of living than they can achieve in Mexico (which is roughly what's happening) - and that 'Mexico-like economic conditions' will develop in certain areas to support that. Have you been to South San Jose - to the primarily Mexican marketplaces there? They are reminiscent of Tijuana in terms of services, quality of goods etc..
And absent the ability to 'return to a homeland' - they will accept extremely low standards of living - like people living in closets in Hong Kong, even though HK is very rich.
Absent non-market forces, like minimum wage, welfare etc - workers are effectively serfs, and will live in cardboard boxes, as they do in almost all places without such interventions.
Germany is a 'socialized economy' meaning that they have welfare benefits, collective bargaining, social services, strong rights, and fairly high control of the economy by the government [1]. In fact - workers in Germany have representation at the Board level (!!!) [2] which would be unheard of in a place like America.
Germany, is in fact the 'founder' of modern socialized economies. Otto Von Bismark was the first person to offer state workers a healthcare plan.
So in my (way too long) explanation, I indicated that people would obtain the best possible economic deal - of course if they can 'get a job with the government and do nothing' by collecting welfare benefits, they will do that in lieu of working for wages below that.
By this I mean: there has to be some externalized, or non-market intervention. Minimum is one of them.
So no, technically Germany may not need a minimum wage, but they have market interventions that are so strong, that it was not necessary.
My point was more general (maybe I should have been more clear) absent non-market interventions, people will work for the minimum survivable wage.
Irregular workers in an area will work for that minimum survivable wage so long as it's beyond what they can get elsewhere (i.e. at home), i.e. undocumented workers will work for a salary provides them just a little bit higher standard of living than they can achieve in Mexico (which is roughly what's happening) - and that 'Mexico-like economic conditions' will develop in certain areas to support that. Have you been to South San Jose - to the primarily Mexican marketplaces there? They are reminiscent of Tijuana in terms of services, quality of goods etc..
And absent the ability to 'return to a homeland' - they will accept extremely low standards of living - like people living in closets in Hong Kong, even though HK is very rich.
Absent non-market forces, like minimum wage, welfare etc - workers are effectively serfs, and will live in cardboard boxes, as they do in almost all places without such interventions.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending
[2] https://www.worker-participation.eu/National-Industrial-Rela...]
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck