The Minimum Wage Law: A Snare and a Delusion

Abstract

In the view of many people, understandably, and all too many economists, disgracefully, the minimum wage law actually boosts compensation for people who would otherwise earn less than the amount established by this legislation. This is a snare and a delusion. In actual point of fact, this law increases the wages of no one at all, at least not in equilibrium; rather it leads to unemployment for those workers unfortunate to have a marginal revenue product below the level mandated by this enactment. It is the burden of the present paper to make good on this claim.