Arborbridge wrote:This is an interesting area for debate. It doesn't look so much like price fixing but a general realisation that they are under-selling themselves and competition has driven wages down to a point where they don't have a viable business. Ther presumably don't have a union to defend themselves, so this seems the next best thing.
Thanks for putting the opposite viewpoint, Arb, but I think you might have stumbled upon the two most important aspects of why some people get paid so little.
Firstly, because it's certainly tough that "
competition has driven wages down to a point where they don't have a viable business". But excessive competition (or shall we just call it over-supply?
) is a natural market force in its own right. Nail painting is a low-skilled job with extremely low financial barriers to entry. It can be done without premises, and if lots of women freely choose to enter it because it's easy and flexible work, then the reason for the cheap fees becomes both obvious and unstoppable.
There have been plenty of other professions that have been swamped out of existence by amateurs and lightweights. Twenty-five years ago, press photographers and journalists on local newspapers used to make a decent living, but they earn peanuts now that any amateur with a smartphone can sell cheap or even free stuff to their editors. And I don't seem to hear many people cheering for the journos' corner.
Secondly, because there's a disconnect between what the punters pay and what the staff actually receive, and we need to be careful not to get the two confused. If the law decides to stamp on employers who pay £5 an hour, then we might see less distortion in the marketplace. (Although I'll bet that most nail artists are self-employed women on zero hours, not employees. The difference matters!)
Journalists' unions have no power to set freelance rates, but they do set target rates which reflect the 'going rates' in different sectors of the industry. Often the hacks themselves will fail to achieve those target rates and will have to settle for less. And dammit, that's how capitalism works. It's a price-discovery mechanism!
BJ
