Do Libertarians Believe in Minimum Wage Legislation?

The Libertarian Party supports the freedom to contract without government restraint as long as their choices do not harm or infringe on the rights of others. Policies such as minimum wage or livable wage are a violation of these rights.  Here is the Libertarian Party Platform for more info.

Some selected viewpoints below:

Excerpt from from the “Cliff Notes” version of Mary Ruwart’s “Healing Our World”

Since 90-95% of all U.S. employees are paid more than the minimum wage, getting any job that provides training, experience and/or references generally results in greater pay down the road.  Studies show that poverty isn’t caused by low wages; instead, it’s caused by no wages at all. That’s why getting that first job, even if it initially pays poorly, is so important.

We’d never go to our neighbor, put a gun to his head, and insist that she pay her babysitter more.  We are Good Neighbors (libertarians) when we relate one-on-one. Somehow, we feel perfectly comfortable telling our government to punish employers—at gunpoint, if necessary—if they don’t pay new employees more than they are worth. Instead of helping the disadvantaged, minimum wage laws compromise them further. When we violate the Good Neighbor Policy in an attempt to help people, it backfires. [read full article]