Does the minimum wage help the poor?

Abstract

Conventional economics frequently employs abstract analysis, including questionable assumptions regarding human behavior, together with highly quantitative methodology. While these techniques do not provide a full picture of economic life, conventional economic analysis has provided important insights and predictive power, at least during certain historical periods. The effects of minimum wage laws have been analyzed extensively by conventional economists over the past quarter century. That analysis, much of it empirical, has produced important insights into the effects of the minimum wage on the poor. In this article, I survey that vast body of research and address whether the poor are better off due to the minimum wage. I conclude the minimum wage does not unambiguously help the poor, and may do more harm than good to this segment of the nation's population.