John Ola, How Rising Wages Are Changing The Game. HR590

Labor cost as competitive advantage
Referenceforlabor.com states “Many firms strive for a competitive advantage, but few truly understand what it is or how to achieve and keep it. A competitive advantage can be gained by offering the consumer a greater value than the competitors, such as by offering lower prices or providing quality services or other benefits that justify a higher price. The strongest competitive advantage is a strategy that that cannot be imitated by other companies”. One of these sources of completive advantage for a company or country is Labor cost. Hiring and training better people than the competitor can become an immeasurable competitive advantage for a company. A company's employees are often overlooked, but should be given careful consideration. This human resource-based advantage is difficult for a competitor to imitate because the source of the advantage may not be very apparent to an outsider. If the company can achieve this and still keep its cost down, it will have a competitive advantage over its rival.
Citing the China price, Publisher weekly states, “Dreaded by competitors, the China price has become the lowest price possible, the hallmark of China's incredibly cheap, ubiquitous manufacturers”. UC Berkeley in its study, Living Wage Policy and Wal-Mart states, and another important question to address is how a $10 per hour minimum wage would impact consumer prices charged by Wal-Mart. It is not necessarily the case that Wal-Mart would pass on the total cost of a wage increase to its shoppers through higher prices. Part of the cost could be absorbed through accepting a lower profit margin; leveling or reducing management salaries and bonuses; and through improved labor productivity due to increased effort, lower turnover, and lower absenteeism. To the degree that Wal-Mart's