Free Market Foundation slates wage law

The introduction of a national minimum wage will likely increase the country’s unemployment rate, lobby group the Free Market Foundation (FMF) has argued.

“Raising the minimum wage and making it applicable nationally, cannot fail to increase unemployment,” it said in a statement yesterday.

“Rather than consider a national minimum wage, intended to raise the wages of people who already have jobs, government should be giving its full attention to creating conditions that will lead to an increase in the demand for labour.”

It also said onerous employment contract termination requirements, minimum conditions of employment, compulsory minimum wages and other regulatory conditions imposed on employers served to consign some people to the ranks of the permanently unemployed.

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