Minimum Wage, Maximum Damage

In clear language, Jim Cox in Minimum Wage, Maximum Damage explains all that is wrong with minimum wage laws and why they cause more harm than people realize. And contrary to the bloviating claims of the political class, they actually help no one but big labor and big business.


The idea of the minimum wage was first floated some 100 years ago in scholarly journals. Its purpose was to exclude undesirables from the workforce and make certain room for people whom that generation regarded as educated, skilled, and fit for productive work.


Today, the rationale is different. The minimum wage law is supposedly designed to help the poor gain higher salaries. It supposedly does this by establishing a minimum support level for wages. But the effect is to close the door on employment for everyone who cannot earn that minimum level.


Jim Cox’s book on the minimum wage provides concise proof that the minimum wage has been very destructive, and he explores all the reasons for its failure as a policy and the political dynamics behind its persistence.