"But the minimum wage can cut into a business's profits." Sure, part of the burden of minimum wage falls on the employer, and part on the potential employees t

"But the minimum wage can cut into a business's profits." Sure, part of the burden of minimum wage falls on the employer, and part on the potential employees that aren't hired. While what you say sounds plausible -- a hotel running a 20% profit every year might bear the entire burden of the higher wages and may still hire the same number of people. But there are many businesses (in the hotel industry or elsewhere) that will end up scaling back rather than pay higher wages. While minimum wage may encourage the building of machines, workers versus machines is a false dichotomy. Sure, those are alternatives, but there's another alternative as well: no machine and no worker, just a smaller business (or less service). To say that the same number of people will be hired at the higher wage is to say that the demand curve for employees is perfectly flat near the lower wages. I would have to see some evidence of that.