Question

Libertarians would say that it is wrong for any government or group of people to require that a company pay its workers a minimum wage. Why? How would a utilitarian look at the issue of minimum wage? A Kantian?

Answer 1

We can say that according to the views of the libertarians, they believe that the government or any such functioning body be it a group of people, should not have an absolute say in the matters of individuals, unless the decisions are against the fundamental rights of the people and could cause harm to the people. This is why according to this belief, we can say that libertarians consider the rule of considering minimum wages as a right to be unrecognizable and would prefer the organizations to have their own system of wage distribution rather than having government mandated laws regarding it.

A utilitarian approach would allow us to understand the perspective of both the businesses as well as the requirement of the employees and the role thay the government plays in all this. Utilitarianism allows us to cater to the needs of all the involved parties. Thus it supports the government's involvement but also takes into account the need of the businesses.

The kantian approach to this matter allows us to understand that the right form of action requires the complete understanding of the situation as well as the need of the people that are involved in it. This means that companies do not get the chance to exploit their workers, employees do not get the chance to exploit the employers due to the system and the government only gets to decide the minimal laws that help both the businesses as well as the employees to form a synergistical relationship allows the righteous course of action to be taken.