US Chapter of IHMA Supports Raising the Minimum Wage in the USA

This statement was approved by the USA Chapter board in April 2022.

Who We Are:

The International Humanistic Management Association is an association of academics, researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in the promotion and practice of Humanistic Management (HM) and Leadership. We envision a society and an economy that works for all.

IHMA is the UN PRME Working Group on Humanistic Management and a member of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
The United States Chapter (USHM) works to advance and institutionalize HM and leadership in alignment with IHMA’s Strategic Priorities. We have over 4,500 active participants. Our membership include professors at business schools across the country.

USHM Support for Raising the Wage:

Our goal as an organization is to create and amplify economic, social and psychological flourishing to protect all life on earth. To quote Humanist Manifesto II (written in 1973), “Humane societies should evaluate economic systems not by rhetoric or ideology, but by whether or not they increase economic well-being for all individuals and groups, minimize poverty and hardship, increase the sum of human satisfaction, and enhance the quality of life.”  We therefore believe that not only should there be a minimum wage – the wage should be set high enough to allow individuals making the minimum to participate in the economy.  We advocate for the following changes:

  • Set minimum wage to automatically adjust for inflation
  • One minimum wage (no exceptions for service workers or disabled)
  • Executive Compensation should be capped to no more than 50 times the average wage within an organization (50/1). Ideally it should be capped at 25/1. 

Why Raising the Wage Matters:

Income inequality is bad for society. Inequality undermines trust and community and is correlated with higher rates of societal violence. Inequality corrodes social bonds, erodes friendship, diminishes civic participation, and attenuates trust in community institutions.

It’s Demand and Supply – not Supply and Demand.  Business owners don’t drive the economy. Capitalists are capitalists because they are trying to capitalize on people’s needs/demands. Capitalism only works to create and distribute the goods required by society when people have the funds to participate in the economy. If enough people are so impoverished that they can’t consume anything, then the system collapses. 

Wealth hoarding is toxic to market economies and therefore toxic to human flourishing as it prevents capital from circulating and benefitting society.
Raising the wage reduces income inequality and increases demand, which in turn, helps everyone flourish.

Taken from: http://humanisticmanagement.international/profit-is-put-in-service-to-the-common-good/

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