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the most? That's right, the poor.

With prices increased a little, the poor are harmed most, because when all the dimes and nickels add up, the ratio of their paycheck is much higher. So the poor are harmed by a law passed by our government to help the poor.

Ironic isn't it?

The second affect of higher prices is the fact that the people have more money. Basically, they have more dollars, but the dollar has lost some of it's buying power. Economists have a name for this. Inflation.

Inflation has many harmful economic impacts, from weakening the buying ability of people's savings to the undermining of a fixed exchange rate in international trade, along with other harmful effects.

End Result 1: Poor harmed with higher prices.

End Result 2: Inflation increased

3. Businesses lay employees off
Strictly economically speaking, employees are a cost to a business. They "cost" money. Decreasing this cost is a way to offset the new costs of the minimum wage. It's a way to counteract what the economic strain which government has done. To decrease the costthe only option is to fire workers somewhere near the bottom of the totem pole.

More specifically, when it comes down to choosing who keeps their job and who is laid off, business managers inevitably are going to choose the already disadvantaged, for business purposes.

As Lawrence W. Reed explains:
"The minimum wage law prices many of the inexperienced, the young, the unskilled, and the disadvantaged out of the labor market. (For example, the minimum wage provisions passed as part of another act in 1933 threw an estimated 500,000 blacks out of work)." [1]

Why on earth would the minimum wage harm blacks more than whites? The answer can be found in the how the minimum-wage works. A minimum wage law can be interpreted two ways.

Interpretation A: The minimum wage is a restriction on businesses. It's function stops businesses from taking advantage of impoverished people who are willing to take an extremely low paying job.

Interpretation A is often the only interpretation which is considered when looking at minimum wage laws. Nevertheless, we should be able to see that there is another interpretation.

Interpretation B: The minimum wage is a restriction on employees. Its function is to restrict employees so that employees are not able to underbid other applicants for a job in a competitive situation.

White South African labor unions supported minimum wage laws to harm black job applicants. By putting a minimum wage on the blacks, the blacks could

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