The real minimum wage (Sowell)
March 14th, 2008 | Published in Economics, Quotes, Politics
Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed.
—Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics (3rd Edition, Basic Books, 2007), p. 211.