Minimum Wage: Good Economics?
Is a minimum wage a good way to narrow the widening gap between the world's rich and poor? President Obama thinks so, and Germany has just agreed to introduce laws on low pay.
Should there be laws governing how little a boss can pay his or her employees? Germany has agreed to introduce a minimum wage and in the US, President Obama wants to introduce one for all federal employees. Supporters say it is a moral as well as a sound economic move. Critics argue it's a case of populist politics trumping sound economics. So who is right? We get both sides of the debate with Will Hutton, a political economist and principal of Hertford College in Oxford and Sam Bowman, research director at the Adam Smith Institute, a right-leaning think tank based in London. Plus, Steve Evans reports from Berlin on the introduction of a minimum wage in Germany.
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