they are allowed to by law as long as the tips the worker makes equal out to the min. wage.
I didn't know this. Thanks for the info.
The problem with minimum wage, Obamacare etc is not the immediate cost. The monetary cost is small but the opportunity cost is MASSIVE. You can read a full description on this at That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen By Frédéric Bastiat written during the mid 19th century.
The problem isn't paying few extra bucks. The problem is that most of it is getting wasted. At its peak some BTC Tx cost over $100 USD. If that money wasn't payed in fees, it would have been used for something else. Everything is better on STEEM because of Fee-less Tx. Money is required to enforce regulations. Money is required to distribute the rewards.
Prosperity is never built on consumption. It can only be built on savings. When the workers who got a raise/benefits spend a few extra bucks every time they shop, most of the gains get wiped away. Benefits tend to cost more when they are given by a company. For an example different people needs different kinds of healthcare plans. A healthy person may only need to cover for accidents and other potentially expensive procedures. When a company is giving healthcare benefits, a healthy person would be getting covered for something completely unnecessary. Paying out of pocket is cheaper than insurance as these companies have to pay their employees and make profits. Hundreds of millions of dollars are getting wasted all over the planet simply because companies have their own healthcare plans for employees. The only exception is the hospitals/insurance companies.
no accountability to guarantee to improve the standards of living in third world countries
It depends. Most manufacturing jobs are not different from what the local companies are providing. So except for some job creations, no benefits for the local economy. But when it comes to services and software jobs, the foreign companies are far better than the local ones. They have better salaries and better benefits and I don't personally know a single person who is willing to say that they'd work for a local company instead of a foreign one. This is due to the cost of living difference. 1st world companies can save 50% expenses while giving much better employment for 3rd world countries when it comes to non-manufacturing jobs.