June 14, 2006 5:36PM

Minimum Wage: From the Horse’s Mouth

By Radley Balko

Via the admittedly pro‐​business Employment Policies Institute, a funny anecdote regarding this whole minimum wage debate:


The generally accepted leading advocacy group for so‐​called “living wage” laws around the country is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. In its Resource Guide for activists, written by David Reynolds of the Wayne State University Labor Studies Center, ACORN casts aside concerns about minimum wage laws resulting in fewer jobs for low‐​wage workers, scolding

That’s low road thinking, the kind of philosophy that seeks short‐​term increases in the bottom‐​line by directly lowering costs and casts high wages, benefits, and other worker protections as obstacles to competition.

But in 1995, ACORN actually went to court in California in an attempt to exempt ACORN from that state’s minimum wage and overtime laws. Why? Well, according to ACORN’s brief in an appeal of the ruling against them…

…the more that ACORN must pay each individual outreach worker–either because of minimum wage or overtime requirements–the fewer outreach workers it will be able to hire.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce couldn’t have said it any better.