Opponents of the minimum wage claim it has these effects:

Hurts small businesses, benefits large ones

Lowers competitiveness

Reduces quantity demanded of workers. This may manifest itself through a reduction in the number of hours worked by individuals, or through a reduction in the number of jobs.

Hurts the least employable by making them unemployable, in effect pricing them out of the market.

Reduces profit margins of business owners employing minimum wage workers, thus encouraging a move to businesses that do not employ low-skill workers.

Increases prices for customers of employers of minimum wage workers, which would pass through to the general price level, which disproportionately affects the prices that poor people pay for goods and services.

Not an affective policy for transferring welfare to work.

Does not improve the situation of those in poverty. "Will have only negative effects on the distribution of economic justice. Minimum-wage legislation, by its very nature, benefits some at the expense of the least experienced, least productive, and poorest workers."

Is a limit on the freedom of both employers and employees. Minimum wage laws make it illegal for employers to pay workers less than the minimum wage. This also prevents workers from being able to provide labor or services for less than the minimum. For example, during the apartheid era in South Africa, white trade unions lobbied for the introduction of minimum wage laws so as to exclude black workers from the labor market. By preventing black workers from selling their labor for less than white workers, the black workers were prevented from competing for jobs held by whites.

Decreases opportunities for low-skilled workers to gain the training and responsibility they need to move up the wage ladder.

Business spend less on training their employees.

Is less effective than the Earned Income Tax Credit at targeting the truly needy, and is more damaging to businesses.

Decreases human capital by encouraging people to enter the job market instead of pursuing further education.

Reduces economic growth by skewing factor-choice incentives away from the optimum choice.

Increase in offshoring

Increase in underemployment.

Increase in crime.

Fewer job options for low wage earners.

Increases the costs of goods and services.

Increases the number of people on welfare, thus requiring greater government spending.

Encourages high school students to drop-out.

Minimum wage earners in the United States are typically high school or college students, not families. Less than 3 percent of minimum wage earners in the United States are parents.