Deirdre McCloskey on the Unsavory History of the Minimum Wage

by Don Boudreaux on February 13, 2017

in History, Reality Is Not Optional, Video, Work

As I’ve said on other occasions: compared to (most of) today’s advocates of the minimum wage, the minimum-wage’s early advocates had far worse ethics but a far better grasp of economics. These early advocates of the minimum wage correctly understood not only that the minimum wage destroys jobs for some low-skilled workers, but also that the low-skilled workers most likely to suffer the consequent job losses are those who are held in lowest esteem by their fellow human beings.