Disputes over pay focus on executive compensation while ignoring poverty wages

Evidence

The morality of paying workers so little that they have difficulty providing the necessities of life for their families receives little attention. The minimum wage set by the federal government has stagnated for decades. In a recent year, generous Wall Street bonuses far exceeded the combined paychecks of over 1 million workers paid the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour (Anderson, 2015). A number of lawmakers, mainly those of a conservative bent, oppose raising the minimum wage a few dollars on the grounds that it will drive businesses abroad and result in worker lay-offs. This justification conveys the uncharitable implication that it is in the self-interest of low-wage workers to remain underpaid for their labor if they want to keep their jobs. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1519

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The rhetorical twist — arguing that low-wage workers must stay underpaid to keep jobs — reframes exploitation as benevolence, a dense moral-inversion mechanism worth sitting with.