The idea of a minimum wage law polls well because few people think through its unintended consequences. Who, after all, can be against higher wages for workers at the bottom of the job ladder?
The trouble is that the effect of a minimum wage law is that it places the lowest skilled workers in the position of getting the statutory minimum or the real minimum, which is $0.00. Some will wind up with the latter.
Unemployed workers compete in the market to sell their services for the best price they can get.When competition is intense, i.e., when there are many workers competing for few jobs, the only way workers with few or no marketable skills - the ones the law is supposed to help - can compete is to offer their services at a lower price. Setting a minimum by law forecloses this option and shuts them out.
It is the same as selling a product in a competitive market: when sales are slow, raising the price is not a good strategy.
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