Minimum Wage, Maximum Wrong

IRVINE, CA--There is an accelerating trend of big-city governments passing minimum wage laws that far exceed either the state or federal minimums. Yesterday, contrary to this trend, Mayor Richard Daley vetoed a measure that would have raised Chicago minimums to $10.00 an hour plus $3.00 in fringe benefits by mid-2010.

"Daley's veto was right--but he and other political leaders should go further and abolish the minimum wage altogether," said Dr. Yaron Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute and a former finance professor. "By mandating a certain level of wages, the government violates the rights of both employers and employees to reach a voluntary agreement based on their own judgment of what they can afford.

"Those who provide jobs are not the slaves of city hall, and have a right to set the wages they are willing to pay. And those who are willing and eager to work for relatively low wages--either because they are unskilled, inexperienced or would rather have a low-paying job than no job at all--have a right to do so.

"In a capitalist system, the price of labor (i.e., wages) is determined in the same way as all other prices: by the individual judgments and voluntary decisions of buyers and sellers."