ABSTRACT
Resistance to an increase in the minimum wage is premised on four related claims: Raising the minimum wage will worsen inflationary pressures; the larger the increase, the stronger the effect. The competitive position of US firms employing minimum wage workers will be damaged. A hike in the minimum wage is misguided; it will only end up hurting the poor worker by hastening the loss of an already diminished number of entry-level jobs. Putting minimum wage dispute in historical perspective is revealing. The economic consequences of raising the minimum wage are actively debated with no real consensus in sight. Economists from conservative think tanks tend to depict the consequences as potentially devastating. "Minimum Wage, Maximum Pander" was the title of an item in the New York Post, the burden of which was that proponents of a minimum wage increase were simply pandering to low-wage earners.
