Steve Chapman on the Minimum Wage

theqspeaks/ Flickr

Raising the minimum wage may indeed raise average worker productivity—not by inducing existing workers to work harder or smarter, but by inducing companies to get rid of less productive workers. If you raise the floor from $7.25 an hour to $9, employees whose work output is less than $9 an hour will be let go. Saying that a higher minimum wage would increase productivity, writes Steve Chapman, is like saying that banning anyone under 6-foot-10 will make NBA players taller. It will, but not because anyone will grow.