Minimum Wage

Every 10% increase in minimum wage makes the worker 2% worse off because companies must offset increased cost with reductions in other parts of the "payment bundle" such as hours, bonuses, etc.
- Albert Wessels, MINIMUM WAGES: ARE WORKERS REALLY BETTER OFF?


...a 20 percent increase [in minimum wage] makes approximately 81 percent of South Carolina workers worse off than before the change.
- James Heckman and Guilherme Sedlacek, REPORT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE STUDY COMMISSION


The minimum wage law is one of the major causes of spiraling unemployment among young blacks.
- Walter Williams, THE STATE AGAINST BLACKS


A rising minimum wage broadens the income gap between blacks and whites, leaving black families proportionately further behind than ever.
- Robert Meyer and David Wise, REPORT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE STUDY COMMISSION


Past studies by and large confirm the prediction that higher minimum wages reduce employment opportunities and raise unemployment, particularly for teenagers, minorities, and other low-skilled workers.
- Masanori Hashimoto, MINIMUM WAGES AND ON-THE-JOB TRAINING



...low income workers as a group are the major victims of minimum wage legislation.
- Keith B. Leffler, ECONOMICS OF LEGAL MINIMUM WAGES


...the responsiveness of labor supply to wage changes seems to be greater among the disabled than among the nondisabled...
- Andrew Kohen, REPORT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE STUDY COMMISSION


One of the most serious effects of minimum-wage legislation is the impairment of on-the-job-training for young workers.
- Masanori Hashimoto, MINIMUM WAGES AND ON-THE-JOB TRAINING


...the minimum wage must reduce total income available to all members of society taken as a whole.
- Sherwin Rosen, REPORT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE STUDY COMMISSION