'Salaries and wages' is just one of a number of costs of production of goods or services. Honestly, if our factories, SMIs, and professional firms could not survive because of an official minimum wage policy, then those entities are considered marginal cases which are better shut down than continue with the exploitation of fellow humans.
I always believe all humans deserve some basic needs if they are prepared to work for a living. If someone is prepared to spend at least 8 hours a day in your establishment, then he or she deserves a living wage.
For those companies who complained that they will have to shut down their operations if ever a minimum wage policy is enforced, then they should because they are just not efficient enough. What they should be doing is to look at the directors' remunerations and perks and see if there is any way they could reduce those to make up for any increase in employees' salaries and wages.
As for the government, just look at the wastage and leakages in their awarding of mega projects. Those were huge amounts which could have been saved to look after the well-being of fellow human beings. Each of us has only one life, why must we allow certain privileged people to bask in luxuries while others struggle to make ends meet?
We have to make a start somewhere with minimum wage so that we can get used to it soon enough. Foreign labour wages have gone up before, so did prices of goods and services (don't believe official price indices), and we survive didn't we? We can rearrange our priorities and spend within our financial means so that other less fortunate can live decently. Is that too much to ask?
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