Calling Bullshit on Unpaid Interships

Re:Calling Bullshit on Unpaid Interships by nhaehnle on Thursday June 30, 2011 @03:56PM (#2715504)

There is no empirical evidence that introducing a minimum wage causes job losses on a scale where the increase of unemployment benefits would outweigh the benefits of its introduction.

The whole idea that the minimum wage causes unemployment is a myth that is based on incorrect labour market models.

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Re:Calling Bullshit on Unpaid Interships by yummyfajitas on Thursday June 30, 2011 @09:32PM (#2716588)

There is little good empirical evidence about the minimum wage, period. I'd have a hard time showing any harm, and you'll have a hard time showing any benefit.

That's because the minimum wage is usually set at such a low level that it applies to very few workers (<1.5M in the US, as of 2007), so very few natural experiments are available.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2007.htm

I'll give you one natural experiment, however. A min wage hike in American Samoa caused unemployment to increase by at least 6% (= 2041 workers fired by Chicken of the Sea / (65k American Samoans x 52% labor force participation rate)).

http://washingtonexaminer.com/node/127791

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