Abstract
In this chapter, I carefully trace the origins (and persistence) of statutory minimum wage (SMW) laws in Britain and Germany. Challenging the conventional application of the power resources approach, whereby a strong left pushes for and a weak right is unable to prevent the introduction of SMWs, I argue that actors on the left and right revoked their opposition against SMWs in large parts based on the persuasive power of normative arguments. More specifically, without downplaying the importance of left-wing power politics, I argue that the right did not grudgingly accept SMWs. Rather, the German Christian Democrats endorsed and celebrated the introduction of the SMW law in 2014 after the ground-work set by the party’s labour wing, which successfully persuaded a large majority of the party’s base about the appropriateness of a minimum wage floor. The Tories, in turn, not only upheld the (previously much disliked) SMW, but introduced a National Living Wage in 2015 as part of David Cameron’s ‘progressive conservative’ and ‘big society’ narratives.
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Notes
- 1.
My focus on morality in the SMW debates has been inspired by Pies (2015).
- 2.
There is a big controversy about the Conservatives’ National Living Wage as it is below what the Living Wage Foundation has calculated as appropriate and only applies to workers age 25 and up.
- 3.
- 4.
Steve Hilton, who was Cameron’s director of strategy after the 2010 election, forcefully argued that most businesses can afford to pay a living wage and that they should not get away with paying their staff as little as possible, while taking subsidies paid for by taxpayers (The Daily Mail Online 2015).
- 5.
Rohan Silva repeatedly argued that if small businesses like his could pay a Living Wage, others, especially large ‘multinationals and public sector behemoths’ could too (The Guardian 2015).
- 6.
For a complete list for the years 1979–2014, please consult BMAS (BMAS 2017).
- 7.
The other two sectors—long-term care and agency work—were discussed under separate rules.
- 8.
The law was embedded in a larger ‘Law to Strengthen the Collective Bargaining Autonomy’, which simplified and expanded procedures to make collective agreements generally binding and thus strengthened the role of the state. On the one hand, the law removed the 50 per cent quorum for the TVG and replaced it with a necessity that both social partners apply for inclusion in the TVG. On the other hand, the AEntG was opened to all sectors, which effectively removed the idea that sectoral minimum wages are an instrument to regulate foreign (posted) competition. Both regulations are expected to increase the coverage rate of collective agreements.
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Weishaupt, J.T. (2018). Between Power and Persuasion: Explaining the Introduction of Statutory Minimum Wage Laws in Britain and Germany. In: Ebbinghaus, B., Naumann, E. (eds) Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63652-8_3
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