Frequently Searched

Minimum employment with the minimum wage

November 4, 2014

With unemployment above 9 percent for more than 2½ years, the last thing Arizona needs is a mandated increase in the price of labor. Yet, that is what we’ll soon have when the state’s minimum wage rises by 30 cents an hour, a result of a 2006 ballot initiative.

Some argue that a higher minimum wage is good for the economy since it supposedly puts more money in the hands of consumers. However, that claim ignores a fact of life: Businesses may have to put off other hiring or expansion to pay the higher wage.

Proponents of the hike also fail to consider that a minimum wage not only forces businesses to pay a minimum, it also prohibits a potential worker from taking less than that minimum. Someone, especially a teenager, desperate for a job to help the family and a chance to get a work history started, might just be willing to take less than $7.65 an hour, but that will soon be illegal in Arizona.

In a time of high unemployment, the last thing we need is to make hiring people more expensive. As is all too often the case, a law passed in good times could now make bad times worse.

Dr. Byron Schlomach is the director of the Goldwater Institute’s Center for Economic Prosperity.

Learn More:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Local Area Unemployment Statistics

Arizona Daily Sun: Minimum wage to rise 30 cents in Arizona

U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee 1996: The Case Against a Higher Minimum Wage

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!