Assignment on Business Ethics PDF

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS 1
BUSINESS ETHICS
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BUSINESS ETHICS 2
Minimum Wage: Poverty alleviation is one of the main arguments for increasing the minimum wage to $15/
hr. Do you think that by increasing minimum wages, poverty will be alleviated? Why or why not?
The increase in minimum wage to $15/hr will not alleviate overall poverty as many people believe.
According to research by the Foundation for Economic Education (2016), the increase in minimum wage reduces
the work available for low-skilled workers hence resulting in unemployment. Furthermore, many organisations
respond to the issue of increasing minimum wages by substituting low-skilled labour with other necessary inputs
in the organisation. For example, a medium supermarket may choose to substitute cashiers with the self-checkout
system and other highly- qualified and skilled employees. In addition, if low and semi-skilled employees have
their working hours cut or lose their jobs due to the increase in minimum wages, their incomes fall significantly
leading to a rise in poverty levels among these households.
A research produced by labour statistics also emphasizes that the estimation of employment elasticity in
regard to the minimum wage of low skilled individuals ranges from 0.1 to -0.3 per cent. The difference in ranges
indicates that when minimum wages increase by 10%, low-skilled employment is reduced by one to three per cent
(Labour Statistics, 2012). Further research by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showed that if the
minimum wage is increased by 10 percent, the total employment of 500,000 people is reduced (Congressional
Budget Office, 2018). Therefore, it is clear that the program of increasing the minimum wages has unintended
consequences disproportionally hurting people whom the policy was destined to help. For instance, the reduction
of available job in the market due to increased minimum wages restricts least skilled workers and fresh graduates
to access to an entry-level position that is essential for them to gain work experience and valuable knowledge.
Whistleblowers: Whistleblower protection programs can be very useful, but abuses can occur.
How might the programs be abused, and more importantly, how can these abuses be prevented?
Whistleblower protection programs might be abused through the exposure of whistleblowers to retaliation
risks brought about by the absence of appropriate legislation that would impede the fight against corruption.
According to Carr and Lewis (2010) the translation of the protection of whistleblowers into legislation would