Places like Santa Fe, New Mexico, who attempt to regulate business by forcing them to pay higher wages, or who put a heavier burden on their local taxpayers by raising the wages of their own municipal employees based on an arbitrary non-contractual concept like the living wage are out of line.
The principles of Universality as espoused by John Stuart Mill, in seeking the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, can be used to support fewer regulations of this type.
A “living wage” should be considered as one that would allow employees to earn enough income to be able to afford adequate housing, food, and other life necessities in order to enjoy a satisfactory standard of living.
It is sometimes also referred to as a “minimum wage”. However, what may be the “minimum wage” by law may not constitute what some consider a minimum “living wage” for workers. And the question of what constitutes a “satisfactory” standard of living is hardly agreed upon by the public.
In January, 2006 in Santa Fe, New Mexico the city raised its minimum wage above the federal level of $5.15 per hour to $9.50 per hour, which at the time made it the highest such rate in the United States.
The issue in Santa Fe was the same as that raised all across the country by proponents of increased minimum wage laws: Should an employer be allowed by pay a full-time employee a wage that is no longer enough to live on?
