o Minimum Wage

The positive effects of minimum wage are well documented and heart felt. The most obvious is that increases in the minimum wage benefits low wage workers. Or does it? Let's take a look at the arguments against minimum wage.

• Increases demand for illegal workers within the US. The effect is loss of minimum wage jobs.
  
• Forces jobs to be outsourced to countries with cheaper labor costs. The effect is loss of minimum wage jobs.
• Labor costs are a large part of cost of production for goods and services. The government assumes to know the market clearing price of labor by setting a minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage above the market clearing price will inflate unemployment numbers.
• Citizens have no right to negotiate their labor costs, even if they wanted to work for below minimum wage requirements. Wage negotiation below a certain level becomes illegal.
  
• The country assumes that it is the role of government to mandate a minimum wage to keep people out of poverty.

I do advocate a minimum wage. But that wage should be set to global wage standards, or else close the loopholes that allow businesses to skirt the law.