Comment by boomlinde

The mere possibility of high wages is of little use. The employer will tend to optimize towards paying as little as possible for as much productive work as possible. With disincentives to work for very little, "as little as possible" grows. In the worst case for the employee it becomes unaffordable, but in many industries there's a lot of headroom. Other industries may have to make headroom by moving costs to e.g. consumers.