Minimum Wage Talking Points

Minimum Wage

People who support the minimum wage generally think that people will not be able get by if there was no minimum wage. There is a two pronged attack you can make. First, explain how the minimum wage laws can put the same people they want to help by putting them completely out of work. If they like that then explain the many ways life would be easier for those people if government was smaller. (No Payroll Taxes, lower prices, etc...). I have had less luck convincing people with the second prong that is why I recommend the unemployment argument first.

Hiring workers is no different than buying any other product. If pizza costs more you will buy less pizza. If it costs more to hire workers fewer workers will be hired.
The workers that are most likely to be affected are low skill workers. Do you think they are going to cut the CEO's salary? Low skilled workers are more likely to be teens, women, and minorities. Therefore, minimum wage hurts the exact same people it is supposed to help.
Minimum wage probably isn't as critical as you might think because most people make more than the minimum wage so there are many more factors than the law that can raise wages.

This answer can potentially be persuasive, but it usually makes you look like a sarcastic jerk so use it carefully.

If it the solution to poverty is as simple as raising the minimum wage then why not raise it to a million dollars an hour and everyone will be rich.