RE: Local Minimum Wage Laws

Uh oh, I am going to have to disagree with a post...

While local minimum wage laws will not harm large retailers, like say Wal-Mart who can pack up and move if their margins get too slim without so much as a second thought, the people who will be hurt are the small business owners, especially small retailers who are already trying to compete with larger chains. These small shops cannot compete with Wal Mart's economies of scale and incredible efficiencies without this hinderance, imagine how quickly they will fail when extra burdens are added. The larger the operation, the easier it will be for that firm to absorb the increase in costs. So a lane or two is closed at Kohl's, bit deal. But when you only haver a staff of say five, and are forced to cut one or two, that effect is felt throughout the operation.

If local municipalities want to push businesses out into neighboring
communities by passing stricter minimum wage laws than the state mandates, I
say hooray for them. Let 'em learn the hard way or prove to the rest of us
their way is better-all on the local level.

I couldn't disagree with this statement more. It is not the place of government to dictate where and how business should operate (fine, zoning and what not, but it should be minimal). Aside from ensuring some modicum of safety (which could arguably be done as well through the market...I'm not gonna shop somewhere after I slice my foot on glass...) the government should allow the market and Smith's "invisible hand" to dictate where and for how much businesses are operated.

Allowing markets to operate with minimal intrusion in conservative economics, not meddling for the sake of experimentation.