Thankfully for the young and unskilled Swiss (their job prospects and the health of their economy [so, for that matter, all the Swiss]), better than three-fourths of their fellow countrymen and women understand that rudimentary economic law I wrote about earlier today. Yes, they voted down that proposal (HT, again, Darren Thomas) to introduce what would have been Switzerland’s first, and the world’s highest, minimum wage.
In his blog post What Do the Likes of Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, and Barack Obama Know That the Swiss Miss? (Answer: Nothing) Don Boudreaux sums it up perfectly. Here’s his closing paragraph:
Low-skilled workers have a difficult enough time of it as it is. Their best hope for finding and keeping gainful employment is their willingness to work for less pay than more-skilled workers demand. Minimum-wage legislation strips from low-skilled workers this option, one of their premier bargaining chips. Ponder this reality if you’re ever tempted to think of minimum-wage supporters as being enlightened and humane. They might be one or the other, but they are certainly not both.