Minimum wage laws are horrible. Low-skilled workers are thrown out of work if they cannot produce more than the minimum wage stipulates. If the minimum wage is $15/hour and a worker can only produce $13/hour worth of goods, they will not be hired since no profit-seeking employer would employ someone at a loss.

Compulsory unemployment: Rothbard’s take on minimum wage laws

American economist and philosopher Murray Rothbard gave a blunt rebuttal of minimum wage laws:

• “In truth, there is only one way to regard a minimum wage law: it is compulsory unemployment, period. The law says: it is illegal, and therefore criminal, for anyone to hire anyone else below the level of X dollars an hour. This means, plainly and simply, that a large number of free and voluntary wage contracts are now outlawed and hence that there will be a large amount of unemployment”

Beyond the horrific material burden which minimum wage laws places on low-skilled workers, it also denies them their autonomy. We think that we have the right to use our body how we want, without the state telling us otherwise. We may use our voice to speak our minds, our hands to worship God in the way we see fit, and our bodies for consensual sex with whom we please. Why then, is this liberty not extended to the use of our bodies in the market? Why should people not be free to exchange their labor for the price they see fit? Rothbard notes the peculiarity of this modern liberal/progressive position:

• “[L]iberals are supposed...

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