I’ve always thought it odd that the policies most harmful to those ostensibly designed to aid are the ones that are most easily cloaked in “progressive” language. The minimum wage is just such a policy: wrapped in the humanitarian language, naively supported by idealists with an honest desire to help the poor, yet when put into action, producing results that are the polar opposite of its stated goals. The minimum wage harms the people living at the margins: the mentally deficient, those with little or no job experience, teenagers and young adults, those with a criminal history, et cetera. In short, every single at-risk individual is harmed by an artificial floor placed on wages. Anyone with an understanding of economics sees this phenomenon clearly: placing a price floor on wages increases the demand for the job, perversely giving employers more power to discriminate as to whom they hire. People who aren’t living at the margin begin to apply for the job, and they’re the ones who get hired.
The minimum wage creates a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass.
The preceding restatement was inspired by Target’s predictable experience with the “Fight For $15” minimum wage push. Workers may have received a nominal raise, but their hours were cut, they lost desperately-needed benefits, and now many are forced to work two or three jobs. It’s a barbaric policy disguised in the language of progressivism.
