The minimum wage is an issue this campaign season but there is a different approach I have not heard mentioned very much.  What if we could simultaneously try 50 different approaches and determine which approach is the most effective?  Let me elaborate.

The federal minimum wage requirement was originally determined to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.  After FDR threatened to pack the Supreme Court with an additional 6 justices, the Supreme Court gave in to pressure and ultimately ruled the federal minimum wage to be constitutional. 

Per the original Articles of Confederation and the Subsequent Constitution, the federal government was given a limited set of powers.  The states and local governments were the source of most laws and regulations, thus keeping government closer to the people.  Keep this in mind as you consider my proposal.

In the developed world some countries do not have a required minimum wage.  In 2014, seven European Union countries, Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, did not mandate a minimum wage.  A CATO study shows unemployment rates were lower in the counties without a minimum wage than they were in the EU counties with a minimum wage.     

All but five states have their own minimum wage laws.  The ones who have them deal with them in a myriad of different ways.  Some states’ minimums are higher, some are lower.  Some are more complex and treat different industries differently.  

The cost of living is different in every state.  In Hawaii $15.00 will buy you the same amount of goods $6.60 will buy you in Mississippi.  In Massachusetts $15.00 will buy you the same amount of goods $8.85 will buy you in Indiana.  A federal minimum wage does not treat each state equally.

The smallest state in population is Wyoming with over 500,000 residents.  That is more people than many countries.  Iceland has around 330,000.  Iceland has a wonderful first world society.  They have good schools, good roads, good medical care, a police force, their own currency, and, guess what, no mandated minimum wage.  If a country as small as Iceland, with the limited natural resources they have, can function quite well without a minimum wage, doesn’t it make sense Wyoming and the other 49 states can too?

The debate about a federally mandated minimum wage should be about whether or not to abolish it rather than how high it should be.  You may say, “That’ll never happen.”  But, if I told you back in 1980 that we would be debating who should be allowed in what bathroom in 2016, who would have believed it?  The first step is to get the conversation started.  The federal government should not dictate wage rates.  If government is to do it, the states can do it in a fairer manner.  This idea has merit.  Pass it on.