Minimum wage will NOT cause unemployment.
Many of us have heard some variation of this from progressives, and the claim is absolutely ridiculous. They will pull out many studies and many articles attempting to show otherwise, but no matter how many they link us to the statement is false.
We do not need studies to tell us whether minimum wage will cause unemployment or not. It will cause unemployment if it is above any current market wages and if it stops an employer from hiring in the future at a wage below the minimum wage, ceteris paribus.
Minimum wage outlaws certain employment arrangements. If there are any employers that have hired people, are hiring, or want to hire in the future at a wage below minimum wage and cannot anymore or will not be able to because of threat of legal action by the government, then the minimum wage will cause unemployment.
Studies do not need to come out to validate the economic fact of minimum wage causing unemployment, as long as it is above actual or potential market wages, because it by definition makes illegal certain jobs. If studies came out saying the opposite, then they wouldn’t invalidate the claim either. We would know from the fact that minimum wage stops employment at certain rates that it must cause unemployment.
This is an extremely simple post for showing how minimum wage causes unemployment; however, it is satisfactory in accomplishing the goal. It is patently absurd to claim minimum wage does otherwise.
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