Articles on labor markets, minimum wage policy, and free-market alternatives
Serious, readable essays on the theory, data, and history behind the debate. Written for educated readers who want the argument made carefully — not shouted.
All articles
What Milton Friedman actually argued about the minimum wage
Friedman's case wasn't moral outrage — it was a precise prediction about who gets hurt when wage floors rise above worker productivity. Here's what he said, what the evidence showed, and where the modern debate stands.
Germany and the UK raised their minimum wages a lot. What happened?
Germany and Britain pushed wage floors far and fast with few headline job losses. The strongest evidence, its hidden costs, and why America's federal number differs.
Read the article →Section 14(c): the subminimum wage for workers with disabilities
About 40,000 people with disabilities are still paid below the minimum wage under Section 14(c). How it works, why DOL's phase-out was withdrawn, and what would work better.
Read the article →American Samoa and the minimum wage: what happens when one floor fits a very different economy
Congress ordered 50-cent yearly raises in 2007. A cannery closed, GAO tracked shrinking jobs and real earnings, and Congress kept delaying. The floor still trails $7.25 in 2026.
Read the article →If you want to help low-wage workers, start with occupational licensing
Licensing walls low earners out of better-paying trades. Removing those barriers does more for workers than mandating a wage.
Read the article →UBI vs. negative income tax vs. EITC: three ways to replace the minimum wage
A UBI with a flat tax is an NIT in disguise. How the three cash alternatives work, what the evidence shows, and why we favor earnings supplements.
Read the article →Texas minimum wage in 2026: still $7.25
The federal floor, a $2.13 tipped wage, no local minimums allowed, and the Texas vs. California natural experiment.
Read the article →California minimum wage in 2026: $16.90, and rising
State, city, fast-food and health care rates, plus the $17.40 step in 2027, and how California compares with Texas.
Read the article →Florida minimum wage in 2026: $15 since September 30
The last $1 step of the 2020 amendment, the $11.98 tipped wage, and what comes next.
Read the article →New York minimum wage in 2026: $17 downstate, $16 upstate
Two regional tiers, tipped rates, and why the January 2027 inflation increase was frozen.
Read the article →Minimum wage increases on January 1, 2027: every state
Fourteen states have set new minimum wages for January 1, 2027, two are pending and New York's raise is frozen. Every change, its source, and what indexing means.
Read the article →Countries without a minimum wage (and how they set pay instead)
Nine rich economies have no national minimum wage. Most rely on powerful unions, not markets. How each sets pay, and what America can borrow.
Read the article →Does the minimum wage cause unemployment? What theory and 30 years of studies say
The short answer first, then the supply-and-demand theory, what 30 years of studies found, why they disagree, and where the costs show up beyond headcount.
Read the article →Does raising the minimum wage cause inflation? The pass-through evidence
Wage hikes raise prices once, mostly at restaurants and stores. They don't cause inflation. Meanwhile inflation has cut $7.25's purchasing power by a third.
Read the article →Minimum wage and teen employment: what 50 years of data show
Fifty years of BLS data on teen employment, charted against every federal minimum wage increase, with an honest look at what else drove the decline.
Read the article →The tipped minimum wage: $2.13, tip credits, and the fight to end them
The federal tipped wage has sat at $2.13 since 1991. Why D.C., Chicago and Michigan backed away from ending it, and what servers themselves say.
Read the article →Living wage vs. minimum wage: why a wage mandate can't deliver a living income
A living wage depends on who's at home; a minimum wage doesn't. Why one mandated rate can't fit every family, and what targets need instead.
Read the article →California's $20 fast-food minimum wage: what every study found
Berkeley found no job losses, NBER economists found 18,000, and Hoover retracted its count. A sourced scorecard of every California $20 fast-food wage study, with funders.
Read the article →Minimum wage pros and cons: the honest version
The strongest case for and against a wage floor, side by side with sources, plus the federal bills in Congress and where we come down.
Read the article →The case against the minimum wage: 9 arguments, with the evidence
Nine arguments against the minimum wage, from price controls to the missing first rung, each set beside the best evidence for it and the strongest evidence against it.
Read the article →A short history of the American minimum wage
Progressive Era state laws, two Supreme Court reversals, a 25-cent federal floor in 1938, and the long road to $7.25, plus the motives historians have documented along the way.
Read the article →Card & Krueger's New Jersey study, explained
The famous 1992 fast-food study found no job losses from a higher minimum wage. What it showed, how critics answered, and why it didn't settle the debate.
Read the article →What happened when Seattle went to $15
The first big-city $15 minimum wage produced two research teams and two answers. What the UW and Berkeley studies found, and why they disagreed.
Read the article →What the CBO said about a $15 federal minimum wage
About 1.4 million jobs lost, 0.9 million lifted from poverty. How to read the Congressional Budget Office's estimates and their wide uncertainty range.
Read the article →Monopsony: the strongest case for a minimum wage, and its limits
When a few employers dominate a labor market, a wage floor can raise both pay and jobs. The argument at full strength, and why one legislated number is a poor fix.
Read the article →Kiosks, robots, and the minimum wage
When labor gets more expensive, machines look cheaper. What the research says about wage floors, automatable jobs, and the margins employers adjust.
Read the article →Minimum wage vs. EITC: two very different ways to help low-income workers
One raises the cost of hiring. The other rewards the hire. What the structural difference means for policy — and why the best answer may be a mix.
Read the article →The first job ladder: why entry-level work matters
Lifetime earnings are built on the first rung. When wage floors eliminate entry-level jobs, they don't just affect today's paycheck — they break a pipeline.
Read the article →A state-by-state guide to minimum wage laws in 2026
From $7.25 to $18.40, America's minimum wage patchwork is its own natural experiment. How to read the map — and what it does and doesn't tell us.
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