Jason A. answered • 02/26/19
Invited Speaker at Venues in 10+ International Cities
The most relevant political philosopher for considering the minimum wage is Karl Marx. For Marx, all economic relations between different social groups are political relations. Thus, the struggle over how much a minimum wage will be or won't be is itself a struggle between different classes. It is in employers' interests to keep wages low and it is in workers' interests to keep them high. For Marx, this is not a moral or ethical question. It is a political question because, for him, employers and workers have different interests. In the context of South Africa, the history of Apartheid means that most employers are white and most workers are Black. Thus, not only is there a conflict of interests between employers and workers, but also between white people and Black people, who have different relationships to the history of Apartheid. It is not a matter of morals or ethics in this case either, but rather of politics.
