From an S&A newsletter: I could explain, using a million examples, why minimum-wage laws are terrible for poor people. That isn't in doubt. When wages rise above the marginal value of labor, there is no longer a reason for employment. Thus, minimum-wage laws destroy jobs.
Why, then, are the politicians so determined to raise minimum-wage laws? Consider the new law in Los Angeles, where city council passed a $15.37 minimum-wage law for large hotels. (There goes room service?)
However, the law contains a provision that allows unions to waive the requirement in collective bargaining. The law is actually a cudgel designed to benefit unions.
If you're a hotel, you have a choice: pay an uneconomic wage? raise your prices to compensate and watch as all of your business goes elsewhere? or partner with the union to force your employees into a collective bargaining agreement that will see them earn less and force them to pay union dues. Guess where those union dues go? Directly to Democrat politicians.