The issue is not that the server is entitled to a minimum wage, set by the government; it serves here only as a reference point for how obscenely low the wage is.
Dismissing the topic of the minimum wage, a concept that as Conservatives, FReepers ought to uniformly oppose, characterizing a wage -- any wage -- as obscenely low strikes me as surprising, especially on a site where free enterprise and liberty is held in high esteem. It comes very close to the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street filth who protested against obscene profits.
Perhaps we depart only in semantics with the word "obscene" being used. More substantially, any employer should be free to pay his workers any wage that he sees fit. If the wages are such that workers are hard to come by, then perhaps the pay rate should be increased. I strongly advocate for the unfettered marketplace to work via its invisible hand. For me, adjectives such as "fair" and "obscene" applied to a rate of pay are anathema.
Those points aside, I'm sure we completely concur that the government (at any level) ought to keep its grimy hands out of the pay rate between a employer and employee. Anything else is nothing short of tyranny.
I understand.
The point that re-nortex and I were referencing (if I am putting words in your mouth r-n, I apologize in advance) is that it is completely irrelevant how little their guaranteed wage is. The person must be a professional, and good at it, to make a living. To succeed, they MUST do their job, it is up to them.
If not, human nature dictates you will get Eastern Bloc quality service.