Gary Becker Quotes

The minimum wage was due for an increase, but it was important that we offset its cost to small businesses.

The theory that if wages go up, employment goes down isn't a physical law like F=MA. It's a moral law, like 'Bedtime is 9:00 P.M.'

A minimum wage leads to higher levels of unemployment.

Some states are doing better than others. Some states naturally have stronger economies. So it's not as simple as saying, 'Let's go to $15.' If you do it wrong, you can hurt the very people you're trying to help.

One of the great constraints on economic growth and employment is that the tax and benefits system has grown up over generations and does not give the right incentives. Increasing the minimum wage does not solve this problem.

Obviously, we want people to be paid a wage that could help make ends meet, but when you increase artificially the cost of labor to do a job, then oftentimes, those jobs will just go away.

Don't let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs.

Minimum wage laws tragically generate unemployment, especially so among the poorest and least skilled or educated workers... Because a minimum wage, of course, does not guarantee any worker's employment; it only prohibits, by force of law, anyone from being hired at the wage which would pay his employer to hire him.

The most important social welfare program in America is a job.

Raising the minimum wage seems to all economists to, at the very least, fail to 'raise' employment, and we'd all like to see better inclusion of low-skilled workers into good-paying jobs.

George Bush created lots of jobs.

On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up. We've got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers - and there could be a lot of them - will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up.

Employment no longer responds to governments …

War always produces a higher standard of wages.

Minimum-wage increases poll well: When A supports compelling B to give money to C, C is pleased, A is pleased with himself for being virtuous with other people’s money, and B is at least pleased that he can pass some of his increased costs on to his customers, who perhaps include A, who might not notice.

By raising the minimum wage in California, 700,000 people are going to lose their jobs. There are a lot of opportunities for companies to prosper in Florida and compete here, and that's what I'm going after.

Americans underemployed or unemployed and a President Trump will put them back to work.

I have said, on a number of occasions, that we could have a lower minimum wage or no minimum wage.

I have serious concerns with the discussion around minimum wage because it drives up costs, and it could harm jobs.

I do not support a federal minimum wage. I think every state has a different economy, a different cost of living. I don't believe that's the role of the federal government.

If you are trying to favor the unions by having more rigid labor market and keeping wages very high, you could be blocking people from getting new jobs.

If you're fighting against a minimum wage increase, you're fighting an uphill battle, because most Americans, even most Republicans, are okay with raising the minimum wage.

This is the debate we have every time we talk about the minimum wage, that if we raise it even 50 cents, that it means employers are just going to shut down. It's not true.

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

I first came into the labor force in 1941 when the minimum wage was 40 cents an hour, and that was my first job. And each time that we've tried to boost the lower level of salary for the most underpaid workers, there have been predictions of catastrophe. But each time, in [m]y opinion, the change has helped our Nation and its economic strength.