California has a minimum wage law that requires most employers to pay employees $8 an hour. Politicians in California created such a high state minimum wage based upon the belief that this would increase the wages of the lowest paid workers. Assembly member Sally Lieber (D-San Jose) said that a higher state minimum wage would be a "positive step to protect our lowest wage workers and insure that working families are part of California's economic recovery." Minimum wage laws are a form of "price controls" as it is a way of substituting the economic decisions of voluntary labor agreements between two parties (the employee and employer) and substituting it with the iron fist of the coercive state. Such laws are also based upon the false assumption that an employer is willing and able to pay any proposed minimum wage. They are not. Yesterday I saw what this high state minimum wage law means in practice. When I went to the local Jack in the Box, there was a new kiosk ordering area . This is one method for an employer to avoid paying the high state minimum wage law. Kiosks and other electronic equipment have one-time capital costs (as well as some occasional maintenance costs), but many employers are rightfully determining that it is less expensive than having more hourly workers. Thus, even though minimum wage laws have been sold to the public on the basis that it helps the least skilled, it actually does the opposite. The only question is who is hurt most by the minimum wage laws?
Minimum wage laws cause higher unemployment among the youth.
Comments
I think the reason so many companies employ illegals is because Americans put up a fuss all the time about not making enough money. I know a guy who makes $20/hour as a stone mason and would rather be out of work, living in someone's garage, than take a job for anything less.
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