Guatemala increases minimum wage {0 icultural The Guatemalan government introduced an increase in the minimum wage of agricultural and non-agricultural workers starting from 1 January 2017, The minimum wage was increased from 81.87 Quetzales per day to 86.90 Quetzales per day. This promises to have a massive effect on the unskilled workers in the important agricultural sector. Unskilled workers account for as much as 31% of the labour force in important export products such as sugar, coffee, bananas and vegetables. With 76% of the rural population at the poverty line and the country having the lowest liter: | america, the Guatemalan government hopes the higher minimum wage will improve the | situation for the workers. Employers, however, are less happy as they fear that higher wages may lead to lower demand for thelr products. acy rate in Central 1 What is meant by the minimum wage? 2 Caleulate the percentage increase in the minimum wage per hour in Guatemala. 3 Explain two possible effects that the increased minimum wage might have on agricultural workers, 4 Analyse why employers may be ‘less happy’ about the increased minimum wage. 5 © Discuss the extent to which an increase in the minimum wage would benefit the economy of your country. Specialisation and the car factory Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the first to use the automated assembly line and division of labour when he produced the Model T car in 1913, the first mass-produced car in the world. Before Ford developed this process, car manufacturers built cars by hand, one at a time, in a process which was extremely time consuming, labour intensive and required the use of highly skilled workers. Ford produced his cars by placing them on a moving conveyor belt. As each car moved down ‘the production line one person fitted the doors, another fitted the windows, another fitted the tyres, and so on. Each part of the car was the specialism of a different worker. While modern-day car manufacturing is highly automated, involving advanced robotics, the basic moving assembly line is still an important component of the car production process, The advantages for Ford were clear: greater output, faster production and more productive workers. The problem was that the workers could sometimes become bored doing the same job every day. To overcome this problem in modern- day car manufacturing, some car makers such as Nissan group workers in teams so individuals can rotate between jobs, providing them with some variety in what they do. 1 What is meant by the division of labour? 2 Why might workers become bored? | 3 Explain one other disadvantage to workers of specialisation 4 Discuss whether the advantages of specialisation for the car manufacturer outweigh the disadvantages. Scanned with CamScanner