Yet more minimum wage commonsense...

Here's Don Boudreaux making perfect commonsense on the minimum wage topic:

 A Note To All Socially Conscious Consumers:


To those of you who like to engage in ‘socially conscious’ consumption, here’s a partial list of companies that you might wish to boycott on the grounds that they are anti-poor. These companies, if this account is correct, are petitioning in support of raising the minimum wage – a policy that makes it illegal for anyone whose skill-sets are very low to work. Not only does such legislation deny these poorest of poor denizens of America opportunities today to earn income, it prevents these poor people from gaining the work experience and on-the-job skills that they would get by being employed. Such cruel and anti-social businesses do not deserve your consumer patronage.

• Costco
• Eileen Fisher
• Ben & Jerry’s
• Dansko
• New Belgium Brewing
• Parnassus Investments
• Organic Valley
• Zingerman’s

A snippet from An Open Letter to a Business Owner Who Supports Raising the Minimum Wage (be sure to read the entire letter):

Your statement raises many questions.  For example: if all employers would be better able to “stay competitive” by paying all of their workers wages above the current minimum, why do they not already do so?  After all, you now pay such higher wages.  Why do you suppose that your particular business plan will work equally well for other firms?  Asked differently, why do you presume that other business owners are so inept that they’re leaving easy money on the table?

If history is any guide, you – a business owner who supports a higher minimum wage – actually presume no such ineptness on the part of your competitors.  Your support for raising the minimum wage is almost surely driven by your wish to increase your profitability by throttling your competitors.