As I point out in today’s column, the minimum-wage increase to $7.25 an hour is coming at a bad time for an economy where jobs are disappearing at a rapid rate. That, however, doesn’t stop some politicians from trying to…

Craig, a sharp-eyed reader, emailed me to ask why Missouri’s minimum wage is going up by 6.0 percent on Jan. 1, when he hadn’t seen any inflation number that high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the Consumer Price Index for…

A recent research paper by the Dallas Fed may help explain why, as I noted in a recent column, teenage employment is at a 60-year low.

Economists Pia M. Orrenius, of the Dallas Fed, and Madeline Zavodny, of the University of Georgia, examine how…

A reader alerted me to a news story about the effects of Arizona’s minimum wage increase. The Arizona Republic reports that some employers “say payroll budgets have risen so much that they’re cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.”

Teen-agers…

Regular readers know that I often question whether the minimum wage does poor people any good. A  new study is even harsher: It says minimum-wage laws  do quite a bit of harm, especially to members of minority groups.

The Employment Policies Institute…

The Congressional Budget Office agrees with me that the minimum wage isn’t particularly effective as a poverty-fighting tool. Here’s a key calculation: If you raised all workers earning between $5.15 and $7.24 an hour up to the Democrats’ proposed minimum wage of…

The Illinois Senate approved  a minimum-wage increase today, ensuring that the state’s minimum will rise to $7.50 an hour on July 1 and $8.25 by 2010.  It’s currently $6.50 an hour.

 Gov. Rod Blagojevich plans to sign  the bill. In a statement…

The Talk of the Day blog features a lively conversation about the minimum-wage ballot proposal, and I continue to get a lot of email about my columns on the subject. (Read them here  and here  and here.) One correspondent, Harold, takes issue with…