Increasing minimum wage won't reduce poverty  Published:
February 24, 2013  Every complex problem has a solution that's
simple, direct, easily articulated — and wrong. An excellent
example is the mistaken idea that increasing the minimum wage
will reduce poverty. A higher minimum wage might actually
increase poverty. I'm confident that it doesn't reduce poverty.
Proponents talk about how hard and how long people work. Hard
work alone doesn't generate the money needed to pay wages. If I
dig and refill a hole in my backyard, I would work hard but not
create value and not earn money to pay myself a wage. We never
hear “worth of the work.” Each job has a value. If an employer
is forced to pay more than that value — more than the job is
worth — the job will disappear; maybe not this week or this
month, but it is certainly doomed. The person holding that job
must either get another job with higher worth or be unemployed.
Education, job training and “moving on up” are the ways to
reduce poverty. It may not be the