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Minimum wage, vampires, and leeches. (thread on yesterday's parliament debate)
1/ Important statistics from parliament. In Singapore 100,000 workers are paid below $1300 per month. Of this, 56,000 earn less than $1300 even with Workfare disbursements and CPF employer contributions. Of the 56,000, 32,000 are full-time (1.7% of local workforce).
2/ The leader of the opposition (LO) asked PAP MP cum-Timbre owner if he is willing to pay his full-time employees at least $1300.
3/ PAP MP-Timbre owner's answer was basically no- he would not pay his workers at least $1300. His responsibility as a business owner is to the whole company and not to any specific group of employees. It must be profitable and scalable.
4/ In other words, this business owner MP is saying that he has no qualms about his profit model relying on full-time workers being paid less than $1300 a month.
5/ Should one be allowed to own a business at all if they claim they can only pay their full-time workers starvation wages?
6/While WP's min wage may be a step forward I am yet to be convinced. Restricting minimum wage to only locals while relying on a large population of migrant workers will continue to at best uphold, and at worst worsen MW exploitation. Capital still has bodies to leech off from.
7/Business-owner MP's words reminded me of this quote from a scholar critiquing liberal political economy:
"Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
"Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
8/ How abt- minimum wage regardless of nationality, indepndnt labour unions for collective bargaining based on industry, and workplace democracies to pave the way for profit-sharing business models. There should be a limit to how much blood capital can suck from labour
Btw, don't take my word for it. Watch this segment of the debate here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3966745706675316&id=149672065049385
I hope people read my thread on minimum wage and vampires in full. And not just the tweet about the Timbre owner. It's not an issue specific to Timbre's owner. He's representing a common perception among employers. Narrowing in on Timbre misses the point.
