CEI and the minimum wage

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Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) recently proposed a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $25. Listed below are 18 arguments against raising the minimum wage put forth by CEI scholars previously.

Sean Higgins — Research Fellow, Labor & Employment

  1. California’s $20 fast-food wage produced fewer openings, cut hours, trimmed benefits, and price hikes near double the national rate — “You want hiring freezes with that?”
  2. The federal minimum is largely irrelevant; the market raised wages without Congress — “The Federal Minimum Wage Is Irrelevant to Most Workers”
  3. The “$15” figure was a union organizing number, with carve-outs to pressure employers into unionizing — “The Secret History of the Minimum Wage Movement”
  4. Voters approve modest hikes but reject radical versions once tradeoffs are visible — “Voters okay higher minimum wages, balk at more radical ideas”
  5. A federal hike forces offsetting cuts elsewhere in worker compensation — “Federal Minimum Wage Hike Will Force Cuts Elsewhere”

Ryan Young — Senior Economist

  1. The whole debate over-weights employment; the real action is in dozens of subtler tradeoffs that net out to roughly zero — Minimum Wages Have Tradeoffs (PDF)
  2. Indexing the floor to average/median wages secretly imposes a minimum-productivity bar that prices out the most vulnerable workers — same study, “The Role of Productivity”
  3. Forcing compensation into wages is a hidden tax hike on the working poor (FICA on previously untaxed perks) — same study, “Tradeoffs”
  4. Rent-seeking by big firms is the strongest objection — it’s not a wash, it’s an active transfer to large incumbents — same study, “Rent-Seeking”
  5. Economists broadly oppose steep minimums and prefer the EITC — “What Do Economists Think About the Minimum Wage?”; DC tipped-worker case in “Minimum Wage Proposal Divides DC Workers, Voters”

Iain Murray — Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow

  1. Co-authored CEI’s broader framing on inequality and low-wage work, arguing the debate asks the wrong questions — The Rising Tide (with Ryan Young)
  2. Consistent theme across his work: focus on growth, mobility, and opportunity rather than mandated wage floors.

Hans Bader — Former Senior Attorney

  1. Increases disproportionately raise unemployment among the youngest and least-skilled — “Minimum Wage Increases Harm the Young, Unskilled, and Less Educated”
  2. International counterexamples (UK, Australia) mislead because they exempt young workers with lower youth minimums.  — “Minimum Wage Increases Harm the Young, Unskilled, and Less Educated”
  3. Harm to minority workers is real and well-documented in the empirical literature he cites. — “Minimum Wage Increases Harm the Young, Unskilled, and Less Educated”
  4. Higher minimums erode early work experience, with long-run career costs — “The End of Teenage Work Experience?”

Trey Kovacs — Former Labor Policy Analyst

  1. Unions spend heavily to pass minimum-wage hikes because it serves their interests, not necessarily workers’ — “SEIU Spending Big on Fight for $15”
  2. Union contracts often tie members’ pay to the legal minimum/living wage, so a hike is a direct raise for the union — “Union Support Based on Self-Interest”


As CEI’s scholars demonstrate, the minimum wage is a well-studied policy with innumerable harmful consequences. Senator Murphy’s bill would compound them.


Note: For the linked pieces, the descriptions were generated by AI. The text at the top and bottom are human-generated, as are the pieces themselves.