Minimum wage laws make this impossible. The major funding for minimum wage law campaigns comes from labor unions who work to protect their relatively skilled members from competition from the less skilled. In additioin, labor union leaders and members are cynical about the free market. They believe that employers keep back payment owed to workers. Since taxes take about 40 percent of people's income, rich or poor, tax relief would make the poor less poor by taking less of their money.
Every family pays property tax, either directly or through the rent they pay.
Since local governments control property taxes, this is an obvious means for local governments to provide a tax cut for the poor. A five percent tax cut is nearly the same, after all, as a two percent increase in the minimum wage, but without any of the unintended adverse consequences. Op-ed archive . Hot Topics this week . Great Books page .