How minimum wage hurts the poor

"San Francisco’s ever-rising minimum wage—set to hit $15 next year—has restaurant owners asking for the check. At Least 60 Bay Area Restaurants Have Closed Since September . . . If there’s a silver lining to San Francisco’s culinary struggles, it’s that other cities, even ones run by Democrats, are realizing the arguments for a $15 minimum wage don’t match reality. In March, Baltimore’s mayor, Catherine Pugh, vetoed a measure that would have raised the local mandate to $15 by 2022. “I want people to earn better wages,” she told this newspaper. “But I also want my city to survive.” (Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2017)

The minimum wage went into federal law during the Great Depression to keep black workers from under cutting whites by offering their labor at a lower price. It immedicately created more unemployment. Still works. Raising minimum continues to keep minorities and youth and mentally challenged from getting into the competition for jobs. Unions love it.