Usually I don't engage political punditry - unless there is something so heroic or so heinous that it deserves special mention. Unfortunately, we are in the latter category.
While most candidates at this week's Republican presidential primary debate were against raising the minimum wage (Donald Trump, "Wages are too high.") it was Marco Rubio who opined. . .
"If you raise the minimum wage, you're going to make people more expensive than a machine."
Seriously, if that is our measure of what is a fair wage - then all hope is lost.
In hopes of writing more than a diatribe against the imperialness of this all, let me point out elements in the statement that we should all eschew. The first is the comparison of people and machines. One of my bosses, upon contemplating the hundred or so people working for him, actually said, "If we could fire them all and replace them with robots, we'd be so much better off." He was wrong, of course, because robots and machines do not have human, emotional intelligence which is keystone to a successful operation.
There are places in our culture for machines. . .and then there are places for people who live and breathe and have opinions and have needs and can give your enterprise a superior edge. Let's not confuse the two.
Secondly, to have the audacity to suggest that the minimum wage has to be lower than what any machine could do the job for is just mind-blowingly ignorant of both what talented people bring to the workplace as well as what a fair income in America should look like. The current American minimum wage results in an annual income of just a little over $15,000/annually. Who do you know that can survive on $15,000/annually? The establishment of a fair wage should not be a comparison against a machine; it should be benchmarked to what is a livable wage.
Thirdly, Rubio's statement demonstrates no vision in terms of the evolution of industry and the workplace. Assuredly, we have developed machines that can do work expediently and efficiently; at the same time, we are developing new business models and technologies that require human skill sets and knowledge. To suggest that we are in a place in which we must choose between machines and humans is one dimensional thinking.
We must be fair with our team members. We must be cognizant of the responsibility we play in society in assuring that employees are paid a fair, livable wage. Without that, we are developing a cynical workforce that will (deservedly) revolt and a society that is devoid of fairness and compassion.
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My book "Courageous Questions, Confident Leaders" is available on Amazon Kindle.
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