Nothing can change the fact minimum wage laws increase the incentive to work and reduce the incentive to hire. Prospective employees get an artificially inflated lower bound on what they are worth, and employers see a discrepancy between what they’re paying for and the value they receive.

Ultimately, as minimum wage increases, more people are unemployed because the rate they’re worth is illegal. Governments usually pair minimum wage laws with generous welfare, transforming involuntary unemployment into voluntary unemployment. The latter isn’t considered in unemployment numbers: magic.

Increasing the minimum wage further reintroduces the disparity between workers who’d like a job and what employers can pay. It appears like society hasn’t so much achieved a perfect mix of minimum wage and welfare for the economy. More like it has hit the sweet spot for an inefficient balance of deterring potential workers and reducing demand.