minimum wages

[Dave Backus @ NYU]

The case for is typically that it would be nice if people made a
reasonable amount of money. The case against is that firms may simply
decide not to hire people with low skills if the wage is set too high
-- high here meaning higher than their skills justify. The result is
higher unemployment.

There's a range of opinion on the subject, but my guess is that it's
not a major factor in the US. The link below, courtesy of my
colleague Gian Luca Clementi, suggests that it may be more important
in South Africa. I don't know enough about South Africa to vouch for
the specifics, but it's an interesting read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/world/africa/27safrica.html