[Will]

FYI you guys should not be looking at minimum wage in a vacuum, but rather the reality that as a society we have chosen, and will continue to choose, to ensure some bare minimum subsistence level.

A minimum wage hike is a hell of a lot better than government taxation and spending on "income security"

That being said, if you want some hard statistical data, I just happened to be throwing together a spreadsheet on this topic last night.

REAL Federal Minimum Wage has a weak negative correlation with the Employment-Population Ratio as well as the % Change in REAL GDP per Capita comparing annual data from 1948 through 2008. REAL Minimum Wage has a weak positive correlation with the U3 unemployment rate.

Being weak correlations, this isn't strong evidence that the Austrian school is correct, but it is good evidence that the Keynesian school is wrong.

REAL minimum wage was weakly positively correlated with % change in REAL GDP, but this was super weak compared to the above three, which were all around .3, at a mere .05.

That being said, despite the fact that we're probably right about minimum wage being harmful, I think we can't view it in a vacuum and have to acknowledge that it is much LESS harmful that government taxation and spending on income security. That's much worse.

Given political realities, we should actually be supporting things like minimum wage and EITC, and arguing for more emphasis on them in exchange for defunding actual welfare. Minimum wage and EITC are forms of "work"fare and preferable to welfare.

.02