Advocates of a minimum wage increases ignore the evidence that it increases unemployment among the least productive workers: unskilled young people whose employment opportunities are limited. This is unfortunate, because low wage jobs are the first rung on the economic ladder of success for workers entering the labour force, says Bruce Bartlett, a senior fellow with the National Centre for Policy Analysis.
How Do Minimum Wage Increases Affect Minority Groups?
Moreover:
In a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Couch translated these conclusions into raw numbers:
Source: Bruce Bartlett, The Minimum Wage Is Bad Policy, Brief Analysis No. 499, National Centre for Policy Analysis, February 4, 2005; Donald Deere, Kevin Murphy and Finis Welch, Employment and the 1990-1991 Minimum Wage Hike, American Economic Review, May 1995; Richard V. Burkhauser, Kenneth A. Couch and David Wittenburg, Putting the Minimum Wage Debate in a Historical Context: Card and Krueger Meet George Stigler, Centre for Policy Research, June 1995; and Kenneth A. Couch in Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Economic Letter 99-06; February 19, 1999.
For NCPA text: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba499/
For Deere, Murphy and Welch study (subscription required): http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v85y1995i2p232-37.html
For Burkhauser, Couch and Wittenburg text (subscription required): http://www-cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/incomsec/abstr10.htm
