> Since you'd get more pay without these protections, you can save the excess for a rainy day. It sounds like you are speaking from a position of extreme privilege, more than 165 million Americans (over half) do not have a spare ~$400 for an emergency, much less savings to pay rent after a sudden job loss.

And when people get desperate some turn to crime. Which then increases your costs through increased taxation for policing and incarceration and secondary effects such as reduced safety and increased personal costs due to crime, such as increased insurance costs and the greater threat of being targeted.

So when all costs are internalized, worker protections pay dividends at making a society better for all involved, for example the many northers European countries with very low crime and very strong worker protections.

> It sounds like you are speaking from a position of extreme privilege, more than 165 million Americans (over half) do not have a spare ~$400 for an emergency

"Extreme"? What nonsense. I know many middle class people who don't have a spare $400 for an emergency. They also have a boat in the driveway. They don't have an income problem, they have a spending problem.

> And when people get desperate some turn to crime.

Or sell the boat. I remember one couple I counselled that couldn't pay the rent, but had a new car. I suggested they sell that, and buy one they could afford. I was surprised to find out that's just what they did.

It's not a poverty problem, it's a financial management problem. Don't conflate that with being actually poor.

> when people get desperate some turn to crime.

Crime causes poverty, not the other way around.

The downside to treating employees like children is a lower standard of living.

Most people _don’t_ save for a rainy day. That’s an objective fact; imagining it would be otherwise if you gave them a bit more money is a fantasy not supported by anything observed in reality.

As to finding another job: of course they will, but switching costs are pretty high for job changes.

You likely won’t get more pay. In times without protections against collusion and without minimum wages, and laws against child labor — wages don’t typically go up. But you will have more workers in labor. Just not protected and poorer.

Pay for workers is set by Supply&Demand, just like everything else. Adding worker protections increases costs to hire, which reduces demand, and so salaries drop.

It's inevitable.