Many economic experts, ignored by this article, consider no minimum wage to be the optimal level.
Citation needed. It's only optimal (and in a limited sense at that) in the presence of a host of unrealistic assumptions.
Citation needed. It's only optimal (and in a limited sense at that) in the presence of a host of unrealistic assumptions.
https://object.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA701.pdf
(This understanding was popular enough in 1987 that even the NYTimes endorsed it in an unsigned, editorial-board opinion piece – that meaning "this is the consensus opinion of the paper's editors": https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/14/opinion/the-right-minimum... )
Does any of that research suggest that a zero minimum wage is optimal in some sense? No. But I will grant you that raising the minimum wage might not do what we hope it would do.