The minimum wage law should be repealed because it provides no jobs; it only outlaws them.

If the Ontario minimum wage is raised to $10.25 per hour as proposed, the consequence is to disemploy, permanently, many who would have been hired at rates in between today’s minimum and $10.25 per hour. This means that the people who will be losing their jobs will be the “marginal” (lowest wage) workers, the very workers whom the advocates of the minimum wage are claiming to foster and protect.

You can have as much unemployment as you want, simply by pushing the minimum wage high enough. If $10 per hour is good, isn’t $30 per hour better? Why stop minimum wage demands at the point where only marginal workers are affected?

Unfortunately, most politicians care more about political expediencies than sound economic policy. This being the case, minimum wages will increase unless public opinion changes significantly.