Ar gerai mokėti mažesnes algas, negu kaimynai?

Pasirodo, JAV buvo atlikti tokie bandymai. JAV atskiros valstijos nustato minimalaus atlyginimo dydį.  Kai vienoje valstijoje pakeliamas minimalaus atlyginimas, o kaimyninėje, panašioje, valstijoje minimalus atlyginimas lieka tas pats, išeina savotiškas bandymas. Parodoksalu, kad toks bandymas kiekvieną kartą parodo, jog minimalaus atlyginimo pakėlimas nesumažina darbo vietų skaičiaus, o net pagyvina ekonomiką,   bent jau tokiose vietovėse, kur minimalus atlyginimas yra mažas (kaip JAV ar Lietuva)  Kodėl? Geriau apmokami darbuotojai geriau dirba, ne taip dažnai palieka darbo vietas, todėl yra labiau įgudę. Verslas nuo to tik laimi.

Darom išvadą, kad nėra gerai mokėti mažesnes algas, negu kaimynai [1]. Deja, Lietuvoje tai nerealu. Primityvus gobšumas ir išsilavinimo trūkumas yra didžiausios mūsų bėdos.

1. "Until the Card-Krueger study, most economists, myself included, assumed that raising the minimum wage would have a clear negative effect on employment. But they found, if anything, a positive effect. Their result has since been confirmed using data from many episodes. There’s just no evidence that raising the minimum wage costs jobs, at least when the starting point is as low as it is in modern America.

How can this be? There are several answers, but the most important is probably that the market for labor isn’t like the market for, say, wheat, because workers are people. And because they’re people, there are important benefits, even to the employer, from paying them more: better morale, lower turnover, increased productivity. These benefits largely offset the direct effect of higher labor costs, so that raising the minimum wage needn’t cost jobs after all.

The direct takeaway from this intellectual revolution is, of course, that we should raise minimum wages. But there are broader implications, too: Once you take what we’ve learned from minimum-wage studies seriously, you realize that they’re not relevant just to the lowest-paid workers."