March 20, 2014

Minimum Wage Is Bad Policy Even Before Increasing It

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

Hiking the federal minimum wage to $10.10 has become a favorite Democrat cause this election year. In February, Barack Obama said that raising the minimum wage “is not just good policy; it also happens to be good politics, because the truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of Americans think that raising the minimum wage is a good idea.” He’s right that increasing the size of people’s paychecks does tend to poll well, but as Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, “one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that Democrats’ intentions in raising the minimum wage are good. There’s plenty of reason to think that’s not the case, but again, for the sake of argument. The economic result of raising the cost of low-skilled labor is clearly negative, as the only true minimum wage is $0 per hour.

Evidence abounds on the devastating effects of increasing the minimum wage; here are but three examples. Express Employment Professionals surveyed over 1,200 business owners who currently pay workers minimum wage asking them how they would handle the proposed hike. They found that 65% of employers would raise prices on their goods and services, 54% would reduce hiring and 38% would lay off workers.

A recent Cato Institute bulletin by San Diego State University economics professor Joseph Sabia notes research that “a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage reduces low-skilled employment by 1 to 3 percent.” Obama seeks a 40% raise.

And don’t forget the recent Congressional Budget Office report estimating that the proposed hike would eliminate 500,000 jobs, and maybe as many as one million. This is what Obama calls “good policy”?

The only reason that it’s “good politics,” as he put it, is that he and his fellow Democrats lie about the results. It’s not a simple proposition of mandating that employers pay more for low-skilled labor, after which employees get a bigger paycheck and everyone is happy. Raising the minimum wage will hurt the very constituents Democrats claim to care about – teens and minorities – because they will be priced out of the labor market. That’s why running on intentions and obscuring results is in Democrats’ best electoral interest.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.