Another make-more-lose-more battle

It seems like every year the minimum wage goes up in Manitoba. Also going up, the hands of the employers claiming paying workers is becoming too darn expensive. While minimum wage earners welcome the increases, the argument is always made: Is it enough to get by?

These days it’s not uncommon for a person to have a regular full-time job and have something else on the side to supplement the income needed to financially survive.

Is it that $10-something per hour is too much and these people are wasting their money? Or in today’s world is that not enough to keep a person’s head above water?

Often the people complaining about the minimum wage increase are those who, let’s be honest, don’t make minimum wage. They probably don’t have to put in a full day at work and then take on a few more hours at a side job. Perhaps these are the business owners who fear they will see less profit when having to pay the people making them all that money in the first place.

At the same time, and this may be a bold statement, but if you can’t afford to increase pay by a few cents, perhaps the business isn’t doing as well as it could be. That is, however, no reason to complain about being forced to pay the hired help a little bit more. After all, more often than not, these employers prefer to pay the least amount as possible in wages.

In today’s world, business has become too much about increasing the company’s profit and less about the personal relationship employers have with the staff. I hear lots of companies talking about the term “employee engagement.”

Employees want engagement but they also want fair compensation. Money makes the world go around and happiness, well, that helps, I guess.