Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'Minimum wage law'

Is There a Right to Work Six Days a Week?

In Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II affirms that, through work, man must earn his daily bread. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, debates about human dignity in the workplace focused on slavery, forced labor, and the degrading conditions faced by millions of workers. Continue Reading...

10 Things You Should Know About the Minimum Wage Debate

Since 1938, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced the first federal minimum wage in the U.S., a debate has raged about whether wage floors help or hurt workers. But thanks to a radical economic experiment in California, we may be only a few years away from having a definitive answer. Continue Reading...

How to Prove That Everyone Knows Raising Minimum Wages Increases Unemployment

Yesterday I mentioned that translating economic principles into intuitive concepts is one of the most urgent and necessary tasks to prevent such evils as harm to the poor. Today, William Poole provides an excellent example of what is needed with his “common-sense thought experiment” on minimum wage increases: Suppose Congress were to enact a minimum wage $50 higher than the current one of $7.25 per hour. Continue Reading...

The Minimum Wage Workforce Myth

During his recent State of the Union address, President Obama argued for increasing the federal minimum wage: Even with the tax relief we put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. Continue Reading...