Posted on 01/17/2014 3:36:47 PM PST by all the best
The minimum wage on its face is an unemployment law, not an employment law. It does not compel anyone to hire anyone else. It only stipulates who CANNOT legally be employed: no one may be hired for less than the amount stipulated by law. If the minimum wage law is set at $10 per hour, the law does not require any employer to hire any employee at that wage level. It only FORBIDS employment contracts set at $9.99 or below. This is not a matter of empirical evidence, not that there can be any such thing in proper, e.g., Austrian economics; this conclusion is a matter of pure logic. We repeat: the minimum wage on its face is an unemployment law, not an employment law.
What about empirical studies (economic history, for praxeological economists)? Here, economists disagree. Some say there will be no unemployment effects whatsoever. That is, a person with a productivity level of $6 per hour will still be hired and paid $10 per hour, even though any such firm that does so will lose $4 per hour. Such “economists” are in a distinct minority. Other dismal scientists opine there will be very slight unemployment effect; some few unskilled workers will lose their jobs or not attain them in the first place; but a large number will retain their jobs and be paid more. Then there is a third or majority view: most economists conclude that this law will boost unemployment for those with low productivity, and will only raise wages for them temporarily, until employers can substitute away from the factor of production (unskilled labor) now priced out of the market.
(Excerpt) Read more at bastiat.mises.org ...
If $10 an hour is a good thing, would $50 an our be better?
Whoever told these high school kids that their first job should be enough to buy a house on is an idiot.
The minimum wage should be zero. Let the market place determine the amount.
We should end government involvement in business.
“...We should instead eliminate it entirely...”
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Amen.
You can not legislate the value of labor.
The left acts like companies would just cut everybody’s wages to 25 cents per hour but in reality, eliminating minimum wages would likely drive wages up.
Companies would likely competitively scale their wages to attract the best workers from entry level to the boardroom.
Thank you for referencing that article all the best. Please bear in mind that the following critique is directed at the author of the article and not at you.
Given that the article is addressing federal minimum wage laws, my concern is the following. Other than the federal entities indicated in the Constitution’s Clause 17 of Section 8 of Article I, the federal government having exclusive legislative control over such entities, the states have never delegated to Congress, via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate intrastate labor issues, including establishing a national minimum wage.
In other words, intrastate minimum is wage is a 10th Amendment protected state power issue imo.
The reason that we have a so-called national minimum wage is probably the following. Corrupt federal lawmakers have arguably established a national minimum wage to win votes from low-information voters who are oblivious to the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers.
On the other hand, let’s just give federal lawmakers a part of the blame for this deception. More specifically, I think that most of the blame goes to parents who have not been making sure that their children are being taught the Constitution, particularly the federal government’s constitutionally-limited powers.
The minimum wage is, always has been and always will be ZERO.
If you pay people for not working it is a subsidy not a wage. You cannot force people to work and many that are lazy will choose not work if they can.
The author could have made his point without the snarky condescension. I expect more from this source.
The purpose of minimum wage laws was to keep blacks from getting jobs.
Someone should propose that.
Brit?
In a city, not too far from me, there's a popular strip club where the strippers pay the owner to work there.
I believe it's only a few dollars per hour they pay for the privilege of making $500 to $600 per night in tips.
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