Art raises some good points about the minimum wage providing an impediment for disadvantaged. Earlier this summer Wilson and I wrote a paper (now under review--fingers crossed) on factors influencing reduced summer employment for teens, a trend that has gotten much media publicity (previous post here). Not surprisingly, we find a negative relationship between the minimum wage and the teen employment/population ratio.

Thinking libs who want interventionist anti-poverty policy should support the EITC which is targeted at low income workers and doesn't reduce the quantity of labor demanded. Non-thinking leftists, by contrast, support the minimum wage.