minimum wage consequences?

Question

I know when minimum wage goes up it is hurting productivity and the worker. It lowers the amount of jobs as well, what else?

Answer 1

Walter Williams explains it best. The victims of minimum wages the people it hurts are invisible. Because the jobs lost are mostly the jobs that never happened. The job that never became open because of the minimum wage.

Answer 2

Since productivity is output per worker and one effect of raising the minimum wage is some job loss for the least skilled workers, in principle it should increase productivity. Most empirical studies show that the jobs loss is small enough so that the total income going to minimum wage workers increase. Minimum wage workers change jobs frequently so the job loss and the income increase is spread around, so it is not clear that it hurts workers. If you believe that you have to explain why minimum wage increases are so strongly supported by them.

Answer 3

Isn't that enough? Is it really sensible to decree that anyone whose labor is worth less than X dollars an hour has to sit at home and watch Oprah re-runs instead of contributing to his own support?