A Question for Minimum Wage Advocates

An essay by Donald J. Boudreaux (May 27, 2015) from FEE.org:

I state, however, here and again my conclusion: Legislating minimum wages – that is, enacting a policy of caging people who insist on entering voluntarily into employment contracts on terms that political elites find objectionable – is no more attractive or justified or likely to succeed at helping low-skilled workers if the particular caging policy in question is enacted locally than if it is enacted nationally or globally.

In this short post, I ask a simple question of all advocates of minimum wages: If enforcement of minimum-wage policies were carried out in practice by policing low-skilled workers rather than employers – if these policies were enforced by police officers monitoring workers and fining those workers who agreed to work at hourly wages below the legislated minimum – would you still support minimum wages?

Would you be good with police officers arresting those workers who, preferring to remain employed at sub-minimum wages rather than risk losing their current jobs (or risking having do endure worsened employment conditions), refuse to abide by the wage terms dictated by the legislature?

Would you think it an acceptable price to pay for your minimum-wage policy that armed police officers confine in cages low-skilled workers whose only offense is their persistence at taking jobs at wages below those dictated by the government?

If a minimum-wage policy is both economically justified and morally acceptable, you should have no problem with this manner of enforcement. [read more]

Good questions. The Left would say “no we wouldn’t be enforce minimum-wage polices on the workers because they are the ones being taken advantage of by the employers. The employers have all the power. They are coercing the poor worker into working for low wages.” This animosity toward the employers is why the Left has no problem about salary ceilings toward businesses.

The problem is the Left never gets that if a person wants to work for a low-age or even no wage temporarily (like an apprentice situation—on-the-job training before you get an actual wage) that’s between him and his employer. Both are adults who can make a contract. But if a person wants to work voluntary without pay for a non-profit—that’s okay. Then again  non-profits aren’t evil to the Left like the profit-oriented businesses are. It’s the word “profit” that drives the Left crazy as if they aren’t already there.