Free Bazaar Blog

David Neumark and William Wascher did a two decade long study on effects on minimum wage. And, guess what they found:

• They reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers and tend to reduce their earnings
• they are not an effective means of reducing poverty
• and they appear to have adverse longer-term effects on wages and earnings, in part by reducing the acquisition of human capital.

The authors argue that policymakers should instead look for other tools to raise the wages of low-skill workers and to provide poor families with an acceptable standard of living.
But, of course some people will choose to ignore science of economics just as others choose to ignore science of evolution. Interestingly enough lot of times they are not the same set.