The hidden history of the minimum wage in America

Mark J. Perry is concurrently a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan's Flint campus. He is best known as the creator and editor of the popular economics blog Carpe Diem. At AEI, Perry writes about economic and financial issues for American.com and the AEIdeas blog.

Don [George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux] has emphasized a very important, but usually overlooked or neglected reason that some empirical studies fail to find negative employment effects following increases in the minimum wage government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for America’s teenagers and low-skilled workers (especially minorities). That reason has to do with the fact that the minimum wage has been in effect for almost 80 years since the Fair Unfair to Unskilled Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, and it’s been increased 27 times since then. Therefore, the government’s mandated market-suppressing, artificial wage for low- and un-skilled workers has been around for such a long time, and it’s been raised so many times, that the distortionary effects of the minimum wage have long ago been “internalized” by employers who hire unskilled workers.

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How does per-capita personal income vary by state, once we adjust for regional differences in both: a) personal taxes, and b) prices?

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Join AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE on March 2 for the AEI event “The path ahead for US Internet policy: A conversation with Representative Greg Walden.”

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE:
What to expect next on net neutrality

EXCERPTS:

Daniel Lyons:

If the president and the FCC believe we must implement net neutrality as quickly as possible, they should work with Congress rather than undertaking the longer and riskier path of freelancing at the edge of the agency’s statutory authority.

Gus Hurwitz:

The Commission’s approach is a massive expansion of the Commission’s power into an area of vast economic and political significance. It is anything but mere “statutory interpretation” – and for this reason it is quite likely to face a rough road as it heads to court.

Richard Bennett:

[T]he US has arrived at a turning point in the development of the web. The present direction of Internet regulation threatens the ability of networks to advance. …. The Internet as we know it today is a distillation of ideas developed around the world by both public and private sector researchers supported by investments from both public and private sources. Most of the magic comes from the profit-driven private sector. As amazing as the Internet is today, it still falls short of its potential. It’s a certainty that the rules imposed on Wheeler will slow the Internet’s rate of progress and lock in current applications. Congress can take steps to undo the damage about to be inflicted — and it should.

If you’d like to learn more, join us on March 2 for the AEI event “The path ahead for US Internet policy: A conversation with Representative Greg Walden.”  Rep Walden, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, will discuss the implications of the FCC’s net neutrality vote.