An Economical Folly

Bruce Bartlett:

Even though the nation is suffering a crisis of unemployment, with the national unemployment rate at 9.5% , the federal government has nevertheless mandated that it will go higher because, starting today, the minimum wage rises from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour.

Milton Friedman called the minimum wage the worst law for blacks in the US. As we see here, he was correct:

In 1952, the unemployment rate for black males aged 16 to 17 was just 8% versus 10.9% for white males the same age. Since the 1961 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which greatly broadened coverage of the minimum wage, the unemployment rate for black teenage males has rarely been below 20%. Today, the unemployment rate for black teenage males is an astonishing 50% and the rate for white teenage males is 26.5%.