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Comment by justanother | Hacker News Reader

This is the wrong argument. Wages should be based on what the market will bear, not merit, and this practically an axiom of free-market conservative thought. In fact, arguing from merit is something I'd expect from gasp leftists. If these people are successful in their collective bargaining, then congratulations, $15 an hour is what the market will bear for their services and they deserve every shiny penny.

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I don't think wages should be based on merit, I think they should be based on how much value people contribute to the company. The market doesn't optimize for that because of wide-scale wage fixing. The market pays the best receptionists worse than the worst engineers because there's a cultural belief that's a lower caliber of work. Markets don't operate in some magical land of rationality that is divorced from culture.

You have your wish, mostly. Prices are bid up on jobs that are a) valuable to the company and b) hard to obtain. Its not always culture at work; sometimes in the market, and that example (admin vs engineer) is a perfect illustration of the wage/value proposition.

Price-fixing is just a derogatory word for 'the market', isn't it?

No, price fixing is when a group or institution colludes to set a price above or below it's useful value in order to extract money from those outside the group.

They pay the engineers more, perhaps, because it's the work product those engineers create that generates revenue for the company. The receptionist, as useful as the position may be, is not likely a revenue-generating source for the company. There's no 'cultural belief' necessary to understand that.

As for 'markets', they're as rigged as the participants allow. You, as buyers, need to turn a blind eye toward the actions necessary 'behind the scenes' in order for the companies to get away with underpaying their personnel. As long as the buying audience actively chooses 'not to care' the companies will do whatever is necessary to avoid profits being spent on employee wages.

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