> I said that all else being equal, the country with the higher minimum wage will have higher unemployment, because there is a larger barrier to entry to the jo

> I said that all else being equal, the country with the higher minimum wage will have higher unemployment, because there is a larger barrier to entry to the job market. While this seems a straight-forward thought, the fact whether or not minimum wages affect employment is undecided amongst economists. Charges of ideological bias are flung from both sides, but there seems to be no concensu: "Until the 1990s, economists generally agreed that raising the minimum wage reduced employment. This consensus was weakened when some well-publicized empirical studies showed the opposite, but others consistently confirmed the original view. Today's consensus, if one exists, is that increasing the minimum wage has, at worst, minor negative effects." [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Empirical_studies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Empirical_studies [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Surveys_of_economists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage#Surveys_of_economi...