Minimum wage laws have always had a high price to pay. Essentially, there are a number of costs associated with governments implementing minimum wages on an otherwise free labor market. First, there is the issue of reconciling increased labor costs with static production profits. According to the research, "Minimum wage increases make unskilled workers more expensive relative to all other factors of production," (Gorman 2008). The increase in wages can have the negative ramification of costing more to businesses. Unfortunately, the minimum wage law often creates situations where there are less employment opportunities for the lowest socio-economic classes of mostly unskilled workers. Here, the research suggests that "Employers typically are not willing to pay a worker more than the value of the additional product that he produces," (Gorman 2008). When products cost less to make than an hourly minimum wage, this creates a situation where employers do not want to...
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