[elil17]

People who want no minimum wage are usually people who think the goal is to increase the GDP as much as possible or to lower unemployment as much as possible.

No minimum wage would definitely increase GDP, I don’t think there’s a lot of debate on that, but there really isn’t solid evidence or theory to know what effect it would have on unemployment. (1)

The other goal, the one most focused on by people who support increasing the minimum wage, is ensuring that minimum wage earners are making enough that they have a decent quality of life and don’t also need government benefits.

(1): It depends on the slopes of the demand and supply curves for labor and measuring those is really hard. People who want to raise the minimum wage usually claim that the demand curve for labor is relatively flat. People who want to get rid of the minimum wage usually claim that the demand curve is steeper.

[bencoder]

The data is too noisy with boom & busts and inflation to really say, but it certainly doesn't /look/ like it makes a difference to employment rates:

https://imgur.com/a/KtC7BD0

[slavik81]

My concern around the minimum wage is around employment. A high minimum wage guarantees that you will either be paid well or paid nothing. If the point of the policy is that everyone should receive a living wage, then half the guarantee is missing.

Whether a job guarantee would be good idea, I don't know. But a good policy needs to be comprehensive. It shouldn't let people slip through the cracks.