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Minimum Wages

The Temperamental Minimum Wage

Walter Williams | 9 May 2007
The first fundamental law of demand postulates that the lower the price of something, the more will be demanded, and the higher the price, the less will be demanded. To my knowledge, there are no known exceptions to the law of demand. That was until last fall when 650 economists, including several Nobel Laureates, signed a letter calling for an increase in the minimum wage.

The Minimum Wage Vision

Walter Williams | 9 August 2006
Congress can easily mandate higher wages, but they cannot mandate higher worker productivity or that employers hire a particular worker in the first place. Those of us who truly care about the welfare of low-skilled workers should focus our energies on helping them to become more productive, and a good start would be to do something about the rotten education that many receive.

A Glimmer of Hope: The Unusual Backlash Against Minimum Wage

Thomas Sowell | 6 August 2006
While the $10 an hour minimum wage was politics as usual, the unusual backlash against it provides at least a glimmer of hope that more people are beginning to consider the economic consequences of such feel-good legislation.

Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly

Walter Williams | 25 April 2006
If higher minimum wages could cure poverty, we could easily end worldwide poverty simply by telling poor nations to legislate higher minimum wages.

Minimum Wage, Maximum Folly

Walter Williams | 23 March 2005
The idea that minimum wage legislation is an anti-poverty tool is simply sheer nonsense. Were it an anti-poverty weapon, we might save loads of foreign aid expenditures simply by advising legislators in the world's poorest countries, such as Haiti, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, to legislate higher minimum wages.

The Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage

Paul Kersey | 15 May 2004
The bad news is that increasing the minimum wage will do little to improve conditions for the working poor. This is because relatively few of the recipients of such an increase are living in poverty.

Why Racists and Unions Support Minimum Wages

Walter Williams | 12 November 2003
History has seen many calls for minimum wages for the same reason -- to eliminate competition with workers who'd work for less.

Minimum Wage, Maximum Stupidity

Larry Elder | 20 September 1999
Minimum-wage laws, an icon of the political left, are particularly damaging to low-income workers. Many are locked out of jobs.

Minimum Wage: Yet Another Republican Retreat

Larry Elder | 16 April 1999
"Raise the legal minimum price of labor above the productivity of the least skilled workers, and fewer will be hired."
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