> Since you'd get more pay without these protections, you can save the excess for a rainy day. It sounds like you are speaking from a position of extreme privilege, more than 165 million Americans (over half) do not have a spare ~$400 for an emergency, much less savings to pay rent after a sudden job loss.

And when people get desperate some turn to crime. Which then increases your costs through increased taxation for policing and incarceration and secondary effects such as reduced safety and increased personal costs due to crime, such as increased insurance costs and the greater threat of being targeted.

So when all costs are internalized, worker protections pay dividends at making a society better for all involved, for example the many northers European countries with very low crime and very strong worker protections.