Walter Block eloquently explains:
The minimum wage does not require any employee to be hired. It mandates, only, that if he is taken on, then a lower bound on wages is applied. It is thus an unemployment law. It implies that low skilled workers will not get jobs. Suppose a worker’s productivity is $7 per hour, while the law requires a payment of $10. If a firm takes on such a person, it will lose $3 per hour.
But why stop at $10/hr….or even $15/hr. as many on the Left desire?
Suppose it were raised to $100 per hour. Virtually none of us are worth that amount of money. Will this change in law help you? Posit that your productivity is only $60 per hour. That means, anyone hiring you at that wage will lose $40 per hour. If they do, they will soon be visited by bankruptcy.
Over and over, they claim to be “Giving Americans A Raise.”
Of course, they’re doing no such thing:
The minimum wage is not a floor under wages, one that boosts them as the amount required by law increases. Rather, it is like a hurdle over which you have to jump in order to get a job in the first place and keep it.
The minimum wage outlaws jobs. It’s a generator for unemployment.
