[fivea]

> I think that's not going to happen because single corporations have no power in choosing wages. The labor market does.

The labor market is not a magical entity. It's comprised of companies doing the hiring and people doing the working.

If you look at sectors where unskilled work prevails and corporations treat workers as fungible resources then the labour market lies firmly in the supply side, and workers have no alternative other than getting exploited. This means paying the least possible amount, which means less than minimum wage.

Think about it for a second: why do you think so many companies pay minimum wage, and not a single cent more? Is is because the workers' negotiating power magically breaks even at the minimum wage level, or is it because labor laws make it illegal to pay less than that?

[m4nu3l]

Did you miss the evidence I provided? It's less than ~2% of the hourly paid workers. I know how the market works. That's why I also provided evidence that's not the case.

Also the alternative is having some of those people have zero income and no opportunity to develop skills.

[mbrodersen]

Perhaps read what the latest Nobel price winners in Economics have to say:

Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens “for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships”

They have done real world studies on the issues discussed here and arrive at a different conclusion from you.

[m4nu3l]

I will, but keep in mind that economists are very divided on the subject - and many other subjects. I do listen to economists, but eventually I have to chose to which economist to believe in these cases, and to do that I try to asses how honest they are and if something they say in their reasoning seems flawed.

[mbrodersen]

I agree with you in general. Economics is not a science. It is almost impossible to verify a theory and most Economists are simply advocating theories that confirm their personal politics/morals/values. However what is interesting about the economists I mentioned is that they have found clever ways to use real world data to “run” experiments. It is truly great work.