Why Raising the Minimum Wage Benefits Unions but not the Poor

From: Against Crony Capitalism

In this country we want everyone to prosper  This is the land of opportunity and seeing people succeed, especially people who may have come from modest means, is deeply gratifying to Americans. We like success. We like hard work. We like overcoming adversity. In contrast to many societies which do everything they can to restrict class mobility, we celebrate it.


It is because of this spirit that many people support raising the minimum wage. It stinks that in a land of plenty some should have little. Our natural instinct is to “do something about it.” To help make at least some modest success more possible. Unfortunately this instinct often gets us into trouble, especially when translated into public policy. We have already mentioned (in prior posts) why raising the minimum wage is a good example of  a policy which actually hurts those it is intended to help.