ARGUING AGAINST MINIMUM WAGE

           As of July 24th, 2009 the federal minimum wage law is $7.25/hour. Most see the minimum wage as an act of benevolence by the government. They think its lending a helping hand to the under privileged. As with all government programs and legislation, minimum wage is more harmful than helpful. A simple grasp of basic economics is enough to see that minimum wage slows economic growth rather than stimulating it.
          The primary problem with minimum wage laws is that it effectively makes working illegal if you're not worth the minimum wage. Anyone who's skills are not worth $7.25 an hour will not be hired because it doesn't make fiscal sense to hire someone for more than they're worth. Minimum wage forces employers to discriminate against people with little skill or experience. This is particularly hard on teenagers or college students when trying to get real jobs. Generally speaking they do not have an in demand skill set nor the experience to entice employers, so college graduates are stuck working menial jobs while living under tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Think of your  career life as a ladder and minimum wage laws keep removing the bottom rungs making it harder and harder to climb to the higher rungs. It prevents so many young people from gaining entry level jobs they don't gain the experience necessary for better, higher paying jobs.
            A common argument for minimum wage is that if we didn't have minimum wage then everyone would be paid next to nothing. Such a scenario is highly unlikely because it is economic suicide. If you don't pay your workers what their labor is worth, then someone else will. It is in the employers best interest to pay his/her employees what their labor is worth to prevent rivals from hiring them away. Proponents of raising minimum wage argue that you cannot support a family on minimum wage. While this is true, it is irrelevant because jobs that have minimum wage are not designed to support families (common sense tells us that you don't start a family until you can support one.) In the end, the only real way to increase wages is to increase worker productivity and the best way to do that is to have a truly free market, free of government and the restrictions it places on the market. If poverty could be solved by the government raising minimum wage then why don't they just set it at $25/hour and fix everything?