$15 minimum wage is immoral

There’s been a lot of talk lately about doubling the minimum wage to $15 per hour. One of your guest columnists suggested “there is little doubt that raising the minimum wage...is morally correct.”

No, raising the minimum wage is immoral. Each of us, men and women, own our own bodies, or the Creator owns it. The results of our labor are owned by us alone, and are ours to dispose of as we see fit. We are not owned by our congresswoman and her colleagues in Washington. Each of us has free will, and to deny us the right to bargain with potential employers for a acceptable wage, is to deny us the choice to exercise free will.

Further, there is a strong utilitarian case against minimum wage. It invariably creates unemployment. Your guest columnist says “the science on this is not settled.” Yes, it is settled, and to be a denier is to deny common sense. Ask yourself how your spending would change if, say, the price of pizza doubled, or the cable bill doubled, or the dentist doubled her price.

You think you would keep buying the same, or more, of the double priced product? Of course not. And employers would not keep buying the same amount of labor; they would find - just as you would - less expensive substitutes or buy less.

Minimum wage increases would punish those with the lowest and most easily replaceable skills. It would decimate small business and employees in those areas of the country or state where the cost of living is a lot lower. Why should the minority teenager, new to the job force, in Mississippi be prevented from getting a job because the cost of living is so much higher in Manhattan or San Francisco?

Let’s stop advocating for minimum wage laws that are both immoral and counterproductive for the unskilled and those just entering the labor force.

Pretending to be compassionate is a politician’s greatest skill, but there is no reason the rest of us should be fooled.