Minimum Wage Issues

Background:

Wikipedia has a fairly good intro to the minimum wage.

NCPA (Nat'l Center for Policy Analysis) has a cautionary tale for both major players in this debate:

Minimum Wage Debate: Why Both Sides Are Off Course


Argument:



Unemployment:

First, a quick study/discussion of unemployment from QuickMBA so that we're all on the same page.

YouTube: Milton Friedman debunks the minimum wage




Wage/salary compression:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V84-4C2R41T-3&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1551973414&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=a6e0ad9d8defde797d59ebc1d5c51947&searchtype=a


Other:

These are not the only two issues related to arbitrary governmental increases in the minimum wage. Here are some other issues to think about:

"minimum wage" AND "crowding out"
"minimum wage" AND "opportunity cost"
"minimum wage" AND inflation (that is, any short-run benefit a MW worker might see would erode in the long term due to inflation)
"minimum wage" AND "savings rate" (related to the above)


Related pages:
Inflation



References:

1. Wikipedia entry: Minimum wage.
2. National Center for Policy Analysis (1999:Sep.16). "Minimum Wage Debate: Why Both Sides Are Off Course," Daily Policy Digest.
3. National Center for Policy Analysis (2006:May 04). "Negative Effects of the Minimum Wage," Daily Policy Digest.
4. QuickMBA entry: Unemployment.
5. Tyler Cowen (2010:Oct.30). "How Immigrants Create More Jobs," New York Times.
6. Matthew B. Kibbe (1988:May 23). "The Minimum Wage: Washingtons Perennial Myth," Cato Policy Analysis No. 106.
7. Steven Horwitz (2010:Mar.05). "The Minimum Wage and Unemployment," Coordination Problem.
8. Diana Furchtgott-Roth (2010:Jun.03). "Rising Minimum Wage, Rising Teen Unemployment," Real Clear Markets.
9. United States Congress, Joint Economic Committee (1995:Feb.15). "50 Years of Research on the Minimum Wage," Talking Points.
10. Craig Garthwaite (2003:Dec.26). "High minimum wage = high unemployment," Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
11. Ben Popken (2010:Nov.01). "Study: Higher Minimum Wage Doesn't Increase Unemployment," The Consumerist.
12. Michael Pollick (2010:Sep.25). "Does Raising the Minimum Wage Cause Inflation?" wiseGEEK.
13. Will Wilkinson (2006:Jun.16). "Have You No Respect for the Law (of Demand)?!" Cato@Liberty.
14. Yahoo! Answers: What percent of Americans make minimum wage?
15. J.D. Roth (2007:Oct.09). "Who Earns Minimum Wage? A Statistical Profile," Get Rich Slowly.
16. J.D. Roth (2007:Oct.09). "Breaking the Shackles: How to Escape from Minimum Wage," Get Rich Slowly.
17. Michael N. Wolfe & Charles W. Candland (1979:May). "Impact of the Minimum Wage on Compression," Personnel Administrator, v.24:no.5, p24-28,40
18. Michael J. Hicks (2008:Sep.24). "Did the Increase in Minimum Wage Cause Our Unemployment Rate to Rise?" Bureau of Business Research, Ball State University.
19. Wolfgang Lechthaler & Dennis J. Snower (2008:Dec.). "Minimum wages and training," Labour Economics, v.15:no.6, p.1223-1237 [ScienceDirect].
20. Gylfi Zoega & Thorlakur Karlsson (2006:Oct.). "Does wage compression explain rigid money wages?" Economics Letters, v.93:no.1, p.111-115 [ScienceDirect].
    doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2006.03.043
21. Warren Meyer (2011:Jan.21). "Minimum Wage," CoyoteBlog.
22. Don Boudreaux (2012:Jul.23). "Economists for People Putting Their Own Money Where Their Mouths Are," Cafe Hayek.
23.