Joe is an employer, he runs a flower shop.
Joe wants to expand his operations and hire another worker to move pots around and water the plants.
Joe has made $15,000 in profits that he can afford to re-invest in his business.
So Joe puts out a want ad for help offering a wage of $5.00 an hour.
This amounts to an untaxed annual wage of about $10,500 a year.
Joe gets a response from Larry, who is willing to work for $5.00 an hour.
After about two weeks of this arrangement, DHS storm troopers break down Joe’s door with a battering ram and hold Joe at gun point while they seize all of his property and haul Joe off to a dungeon.
Joe’s crime?
Not paying federal minimum wage.
Of course this is an extreme example of what we can ultimately expect to occur when the State is involved in setting wages, but I think it highlights the fact that the State has no business involving itself in voluntary contracts.
The entire purpose of minimum wage laws are to keep non-union shops from hiring workers at a wage that undercuts the union shops. We have minimum wage laws today strictly because they were heavily lobbied for by labor unions.
If someone wants to work for a lower wage, that is between them and the person they chose to work for. The idea that someone can not decide to work on their own for a lower wage is preposterous to me.
