Minimum Wages Politics vs. Economics

The push for a minimum wage increase is going on in North Carolina as well as here in PA. A piece in the Raleigh News Observer looks at the rhetoric and reality of the issue, including a compendious state of the economic impact of raising the minimum wage:

James F. Smith, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says the coalition has a valid point. "The people the legislature are trying to benefit will never get the benefit," Smith said. "A few people will get a raise, some will never get hired and a few will get laid off.

"It's one of those things that drives economists crazy," he said. "The textbooks say it's a bad thing. But legislators say it's wonderful."