This is a David and Goliath story,” said Robin Wonsley, a Council member who helped author the policy. And she’s right. It is absolutely a David and Goliath story. She just has the players incorrectly cast.
The situation in Minneapolis is a near-perfect microcosm of the minimum wage debate as it has played out in the United States over the past couple of decades, the fact that ride-share drivers are independent contractors, notwithstanding. The players are always the same: capital, labor, and politicians. Capital wants labor costs as low as they can possibly be. Labor wants wages as high as they can possibly be. And politicians want to appear as though they are doing the right thing in order to win, or even buy votes. It has ever been so.
So what has happened in Minneapolis, and what typically happens? In short, workers either agree to take jobs at the wages they are offered or they don’t. If enough of them refuse, wages necessarily rise. Why? Because when the supply of something goes down, demand goes up, as does the price. This is as true of labor as it is of Taylor Swift tickets. Left to their own devices, employers and workers will inevitably come to an answer that serves both of their interests. But that sort of mutually beneficial arrangement has never made politicians all that happy, as it invariably proves that people don’t need them all that much.
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