Are minimum wages really effective at alleviating poverty? A few weeks ago Walter Williams wrote a fact filled column regarding minimum wages. The facts reveal that minimum wage increases actually prove to be more beneficial to big business and the working middle class as opposed to the working poor.
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams042606.asp
The following facts seem to shed light on many of the popular myths about why we should raise the minimum wage ( either at the state or federal level).
1) after 3 years 85% have found better paying jobs, or have recieved raises
2) only 5% of minumum wage earners are below the poverty line, while almost half have come from families earning $60,0000 or more per year.
3)80% of the people earning minimum wage have no dependents. They are either single, or a working couple with no kids. A vast number are aged 16-25.
Big business benefits because they are better able to manage the increased costs and disruptions to the labor market that result. Smaller businesses become less competitive. In the 90’s when we raised the minimum wage we saw an age of small towns becoming ghost towns while Wal-Mart dominated.
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