A recent photograph showed a young man holding up a sign reading “I am worth more” to express his support for raising the minimum wage. That sign confuses the value of a person with the value of a product.
As a person, he is equal in worth to everyone else in this society. A person’s labor, however, is a product — the equivalent of a good sold in the marketplace.
When employees offer their labor in the free market in this country, its price is set by the quality of that product, the demand for it and its relative scarcity. It is “worth” what the market says it is. On these criteria, a skilled physician’s labor is valued more highly than, say, a skilled brick-layer’s or a fry-cook’s, though each contributes to society’s functioning.
If the sign-carrying young man wants a higher price for his labor, then he’d be wise to improve the quality of his product or develop one for which there is greater demand.
— Bob Foys, Chicago
