The Minimum-Wage Swindle

(Don Boudreaux)

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In this video, Antony Davies and James Harrigan discuss the realities – and busts some of the myths – about minimum wages.

Speaking of the minimum wage, Michael Saltsman – writing in today’s Wall Street Journal – reveals more of this legislation’s cruel consequences.  Here’s his conclusion:

California lawmakers have been less thoughtful in their approach. Under legislation passed last year the state will raise its wage floor to $15 an hour as soon as 2022. That mandate applies not only to the prosperous coast but also to the impoverished inland. California is already a net exporter of working-class residents. From 2000-15, the state lost a net 800,000 people living close to the poverty line, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of Census Bureau data.

These families understand something that the City Council in San Francisco and the Legislature in Sacramento do not: New wage mandates and government benefits don’t mean much if you can’t find a job.