Tag: minimum wage
Who’s Running for President in 2024?
April 26, 2024 | Post
Learn more about the lesser-known candidates running for president in 2024 and how pro-liberty folks might assess their positions.
How minimum wage laws harm and exclude
December 1, 2023 | Post
Instead of elevating living standards and safeguarding workers from poor conditions and low pay, minimum wage laws lead to unemployment and limit job opportunities. Let’s look at how…
Minimum wage laws deny low-skilled workers their autonomy
March 20, 2023 | Post
Do minimum wage laws help low-skilled workers? No. Workers are thrown out of work if they cannot produce more than the minimum wage stipulates. If the minimum wage is $15/hour and a worker can only produce $13/hour worth of goods, they will not be hired since no profit-seeking employer would employ someone at a loss.
The regressive aspects of progressive economic policies
April 14, 2022 | Post
Despite the name, progressive economic policies actually end up having regressive effects. Let’s consider a couple of examples
A minimum wage for pro baseball players?
July 6, 2017 | Post
Why are minor league players only getting paid around 1/2 the hourly federal minimum wage?
A Letter to a Minimum Wage Denialist
April 27, 2017 | Post
Dear Ms. Murray, Your article in the Baltimore Sun (“A $15 minimum wage benefits Baltimore business”) almost completely ignores the most important economic argument against minimum wage laws: that they cause unemployment. Young people from awful schools in awful neighborhoods with skills worth only $8 an hour will not be hired at $9 an hour. […]
Two minimum wage charts for the minimum wage supporter
January 7, 2017 | Post
The glowing claims about minimum wage laws don’t pass the most basic economic smell tests. Just look at the data from Europe.
How to get your progressive friends to understand the minimum wage
December 16, 2016 | Post
Early proponents of the minimum wage advocated it not in spite of, but for its deleterious effects on minority populations.
How Castro Is Like The Minimum Wage
November 30, 2016 | Post
In my mind, then, Castro is a lot like the minimum wage: something we must stubbornly decry even though there are far greater ills in the world.
What happens when you raise the minimum wage?
November 13, 2016 | Post
California’s minimum wage is set to rise to $15 an hour by 2022.
The co-bots are coming to fast food factories
October 16, 2016 | Post
“We’re going to need to see your birth certificate,” the manager said, making a notation on my employment application, “But you’re hired. Show up a 10 a.m. on Thursday for training.” I was too young and dumb to realize he was calling my bluff. I had to be 16 to take the job and I […]
Why Refugees Find Jobs Faster in the U.S. Than Germany
October 12, 2016 | Post
U.S. policymakers cannot base their estimates of how refugees will impact the labor market on the situation in Germany. Labor market institutions in the United States are better equipped to handle an influx of new workers.
The Unspoken Truth About Government Policies That Are Supposed to Help People
September 15, 2016 | Post
Economics can be counterintuitive and abstract, but it is also essential for understanding how the world works—especially when we’re trying to make policies in the spirit of good intentions.
Minimum-Grade Legislation, Revised Edition
August 27, 2016 | Post
The real minimum wage is zero, despite the best efforts of the economically illiterate public sector do-gooder.
How Far Does $100 Get You In Your State?
August 24, 2016 | Post
The relative worth of a dollar is dependent on a range of factors that vary from state to state.
Raising the Minimum Wage Cannot Benefit the Economy
June 13, 2016 | Post
In the current debate about the minimum wage, some argue that higher minimum wages boost the economy overall. If workers receive higher wages, the reasoning goes, then they will have more money to spend, and their increased spending will boost business all around. In this news video, for example, an activist in the citizen action […]
Open Letter, Part 2: Minimum Wage Laws Are Immoral
May 20, 2016 | Post
Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of an open letter from Prof. Howard Baetjer to a friend who commented on one of his Facebook posts about minimum wage laws. You can view part 1 here.Baetjer and his friend, Adam, look at the minimum wage issue from very different perspectives, so Baetjer wrote an open letter. […]
Open Letter: Minimum Wage Laws Are Immoral
May 3, 2016 | Post
Editor’s Note: This is an open letter from Prof. Howard Baetjer to a friend who commented on one of his Facebook posts about minimum wage laws. Baetjer and his friend, Adam, look at the minimum wage issue from very different perspectives, so Baetjer wrote an open letter. What do you think about the issue? Check […]
The Minimum Wage Experiment
May 1, 2016 | Post
In a recent post at Cafe Hayek, Professor Donald Boudreaux answers the question, “Why not regard minimum wages as social experiments? If they succeed, great. If not, they can be undone.” There are a number of reasons Professor Boudreaux cites for why this isn’t a practical way to look at the minimum wage, including politician’s […]
California’s Massive Minimum Wage Hike to Benefit Rich Coastal Cities at Expense of Inland Regions
April 7, 2016 | Post
Yesterday, California Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislature agreed to a plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour across the state by 2022 in order to gradually increase the earnings of 6.5 million Californians. Regarding the proposal, Brown said: This plan raises the minimum wage in a careful and responsible […]
How to Talk About Politics Without Sounding Like a Jerk
March 21, 2016 | Post
A lot of people – especially the kind of people who read blogs like this! – have very strong views about politics. This is especially true when our political views are based on moral views. If we think that universal health care is a good idea because we think it’s likely to result in more […]
Repealing the Law of Supply and Demand?
March 17, 2016 | Post
With all the excitement of the 2016 presidential election ramping up, it’s even more important to think critically about proposed government policy. Not only are voters biased, they’re often swayed by policies which sound good, but which don’t always have good results. Randal O’Toole, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, illustrates the careful balancing […]
Three Reasons Why a $15 Minimum Wage Is a Bad Idea
January 14, 2016 | Post
Is a $15 minimum wage a free lunch? George Mason University Professor Don Boudreaux says no. In the brand new video below, he points out that minimum wage hikes may sound good in on their face, but in reality they result in job loss because they increase the cost of labor, making low-skilled employees more […]
Why Is Unemployment Persistently High for Low-Skilled People?
December 28, 2015 | Post
A student recently asked me why unemployment remains so stubbornly high, especially for lower-skilled people. Here’s an adaptation of my answer. No one can know for sure the precise causes of unemployment; the economy is a fantastically complex system, like an ecology but still more complex, so unemployment is sure to have a variety of […]