Download English for Academic Purposes and more Exercises English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! SUPPLY-DEMAND IN THE PHILIPPINE LABOR MARKET Answer the following questions: 1. What depresses wages and creates unemployment? Wages tend to be depressed for those jobs which do not require a great deal of skill because there are more people who qualify for these jobs than are needed. These jobs also tend to be in competitive, low margin businesses since the output produced does not generate enough income to permit high wages. Unemployment arises when the number of jobs available is less than the number of people looking for work at prevailing wages. The higher the minimum wage, the more unemployment there will be. 2. What conditions employers to exploit workers even more? When a person grows afraid of losing their job because they don’t think they will be able to survive without it, they become more appropriate to endure working in an environment they don’t like or even hate. They become more apt to being used and treated badly by their employers because they don’t want to risk quitting or being fired if they confront their employer about the problems they are having. Some employers see this fear as an opportunity and thus use it to take advantage of their workers. When companies exploit their employees, they are doing so to save profits. They tend to do this in many ways such as not paying their employees what they deserve, overworking them to exhaustion, treating them unfairly, and not giving them credit for their work. 3. What can be a lasting solution to the problems of inadequate wage and unemployment? The lasting solution to the problems of inadequate wages and unemployment is allowing the free market to work to its full potential. It will open up plenty of jobs and allow for everyone to be paid adequately for the job they perform. There is no guarantee there will be “enough” employment with companies looking to employ, but in a free market there is a greater likelihood of opportunities for side hustles or entrepreneurial actions to make a living where there is much less of this with government. There’s no guarantee of wages which will make everyone wealthy, but they will at least be accurate. Then employees can know how they can maximize their labour and time to make enough money to live to their desired potential. 4. What is the minimum wage mandate and what purpose does it have? Minimum wages is the minimum amount of remuneration that an employer is required to pay wage earners for the work performed during a given period, which cannot be reduced by collective agreement or an individual contract.
