The United States government should not impose a federal minimum wage because there are several long-term economic harms that come from setting wage floors. First, businesses dealing with higher wage minimums often cut costs in other ways, namely by reducing employees’ hours, limiting predictable schedules, eliminating perks, and cutting back on things like health insurance. This disproportionally harms younger and low-skilled workers by pricing them out of the labor market. Second, businesses will also likely raise consumer prices to offset steeper labor costs, which significantly harms the purchasing power of consumers (particularly the poorest ones).

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There are several better ways to address depressed wages and the rapidly evolving job market. 1787 outlines these in our jobs program, U.S. Works. Learn more here.