Tell that to the “all-volunteer” military.
Only because it sounds better than “non-conscripted military”
Would having volunteer employees change the set of laws under which McDonalds operates?
For the record, I strongly believe in a reasonable minimum wage. My questions were sincere and not “gotchas!” I appreciate the cite for the law that allows certain officer employees and others different payment amounts, and that the title itself has nothing to do with it, but the actual duties involved with the job.
And we answered that, and the OP ignored the answers.
The law needs metrics (that ugly and now inescapable term) to function. Why is a person allowed to vote at 18 and not at 17 years and 11 months? Why is a person allowed to drink at 21 and not 20 years, 11 months? Why is a person allowed to vote at 18 but not drink until 21? Because the law is not a good place to judge emotional or intellectual maturity. After much trial and error and moving the boundaries, we (Americans) as a country decided to draw lines because any other approach would be chaos, and these particular lines because they seem to balance the demands of competing interests in the most acceptable way.
“Living wage” is not a legal concept. It’s pure opinion and can’t be addressed in GQ. Minimum wage is a fixed number and therefore can be administered by law. Whether it should exist and how much it should be can and is constantly argued, and is adjusted both at the state and national levels constantly. Who it applies to is also a matter of definition. As noted it doesn’t apply to officers of a corporation or to individual contractors and it doesn’t apply to a variety of occupations for mostly historic reasons.
Beyond that we get into a host of other laws. Employers have more responsibilities to employees than just paying them wages. Employees have to have proper training and safety instructions and equipment and breaks and days off. They have some protections in some places about being fired. They are entitled to worker’s comp. I’m not even sure whether volunteers are allowed to work at all businesses. They may be limited to non-profits in certain cases. But I am very certain that volunteers are not employees and can’t simply be plugged in to replace employees. They are two different legal concepts.
If the OP wants to work part-time, there are millions of part-time jobs. If he wants to get rid of minimum wage, he needs to understand why the system is set up the way it is. Hint: it’s not set up to accommodate his particular needs and wants.
Where the “state” is of, by and for the people, what is objectionable about the people deciding what standards of behavior should be established in the society that the people want to maintain?
Here is the scoop on volunteering.
If McDonalds became a food bank, then you can volunteer to mop the floors. Not otherwise.
Libertarian (n): a person who thinks the Triangle Fire was a tragedy - for employers everywhere.
Anything that is aimed to protect an individual from himself is not “sensible”.
Legislating morality - isn’t it a liberal “no-no”?
No, it flat out isn’t. All laws of every kind comprise legislating morality. There may possibly be a few dedicated anarchists who are against all law, but they are negligible in number and influence. There are also no such thing as laws that concern only individuals. All laws - like all actions and inactions - have a ripple effect that affect all of society. That’s why government and laws exist. Society demands them.
However, using one single religion’s beliefs to impose its morality on others is a no-no for liberals, and obviously should be for all sentient beings.
That’s an astoundingly large gap not to understand.
How about one specific example?
Minimum wage laws.
So it’s ok to impose morality on others as long as the basis of that “morality” is not found anywhere in any religion, right?
That’s protecting the employee from the greedy bloodsuckers.
Sorry, “job creators”.
Very bad example, which has already been pointed out in this very thread. You have read this thread, haven’t you?
How about another specific example that hasn’t already been disproved?
And if the person wants to work for less than minimum wage, whom are you protecting?
Minimum wage laws. Preventing an individual who wants to work for a particular wage from doing so.
The other workers earning minimum wage who now have to fear being fired when other desperate “volunteers” decide to make the same asinine move. One gigantic race to the bottom, benefiting no-one but the owners of the businesses.
No one in he/his right mind wants to work for a lower wage, but if the law allowed it they might be desperate enough to try it, not know how much they are screwing over both themselves and their fellow workers.