The Twists and Turns of the Minimum Wage

By examining capitalist culture’s past relationship with basic monetary compensation, minimum wage’s problematic path moving forward is clear.

The first time a person worked for someone else with the expectation of payment was during the Agricultural Revolution around ten thousand years ago in the Middle East. The earliest workers received a portion of the crops that they farmed for wealthy landowners. Later, government employees during the Persian Empire were paid in salt for building and designing structures for the ruling class. Over time, occupations became a part of a business structure with those in charge becoming more and more powerful, and the gap between employers and employees has continued to grow, often forcing workers to protest their lack of a living wage.

We, of course, are not living in the Agricultural Revolution and are now well into the Common Era. Over 130 million people work salaried jobs in the US alone, hence, the constant need to fight for a living wage and the ongoing debate on the topic.

All discussion of the minimum wage leads back to the Industrial Revolution. The middle of the 18th century was a prosperous time for the minute minority who had money to invest and workers to exploit in their pursuit of profit. Businessmen’s ability to repeatedly pass on familial wealth and power has become a nepotism that is ingrained in major corporations such as Walmart. The children of Sam Walton have more money than any other family in the world with the three surviving children having a combined net worth of over 200 billion dollars, despite their father having done all the work in founding Walmart and Sam’s Club.

Companies today do all they can to maximize efficiency in minimizing breaks and speeding up machines to get poultry ready for consumers, forcing workers to go as far as urinating in bottles while simultaneously providing an ideal environment for severe injuries caused by workplace accidents and repetitive movements. Businessmen of the most recent Industrial Revolution placed productivity above morality. Twelve to sixteen hours days and six day work weeks became as common as drops in the daily wage and employing children to run certain means of production, where their diminutive size was deemed an asset.

Ironically, these child labor practices were already established 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age with children as young as six going to work in the salt mines, triggering numerous injuries from the same type of repetetive motions meat factory workers perform today. Modern day scholars are not the only ones who have realized that this lack of progression over several millennia in the labor force has been continually problematic.

New Zealanders might not have been the first to do something about poor working conditions, but they were the first to see major results. It all started with a protest organized by the shipping workers of New Zealand over low wages, coming to a head with the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of August 31, 1894 where work days were shortened and the first minimum wage was enacted. This law was passed as a temporary fix to the protests as a quick adjustment was necessary to avoid a further interruption to commercial trade.

This origin story of the minimum wage is why it is the way it is: some people think of the minimum wage as something that should be just high enough so that there are as few strikes as possible while the economy continues to prosper, but not so high that companies do not have their bottom line lower than it need be. It is also crucial to note that strikes like the ones that led to the minimum wage in New Zealand, along with the strikes and protests today over workers’ rights, are not without precedent.

From the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution, there have been many instances where people have fought for their rights in the face of an adversary.

The first known record of a triumphant strike comes from Egypt in the 12th century BCE, under the rule of Pharaoh Ramses III. In the midst of a grain shortage, Ramses III and his powerful allies hoarded grain instead of offering any of it to laborers in exchange for their work.

The artisans constructing Ramses III’s tomb were not going to stand around idly while they were waiting for their grain. Instead, the artisans staged a walkout, marched to a couple of local government offices, and got their grain. The artisans continued to perform these strikes anytime grain delivery was delayed. Eventually, local government officials and even the Pharaoh himself knew that if his tomb was going to be built, the artisans needed to get paid on time.

This ancient wage-based strike and all that succeeded it were tampered down to a large extent as the minimum wage became more and more widespread internationally during the 20th century. The expansion of the minimum wage was intended to guarantee, at least in theory, a living wage, making strikes less essential than in the past, when people were starving because of a lack of monetary compensation.

Now, however, the minimum wage no longer meets the ‘living wage’ threshold. Minimum wage precedent has been greatly shifted by the United States as the country has failed to raise basic income during a time of heightened costs of living. Such lack of reform is now presenting an economy where strikes are not only justified, but essential for workers to be guaranteed adequate payment. Even back when Ramses III was in power, laborers were able to eat enough grain, but this is no longer the case for American workers expected to live off of the minimum wage.