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Debates over the minimum wage are as much about politics, as they are about the research. The push for a minimum wage actually came from early 20th century progressive eugenicists who thought that a wage floor would weed out the 'defectives' (from Leonard, Illiberal Reformers) 1/
The growth in the minimum wage in the US, as a form of economic relief, really reflects the weakness of US unions. Nordic countries don't have minimum wages because unions are so powerful you don't need them. 2/ https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/wages/minimum-wages/setting-machinery/WCMS_460934/lang--en/index.htm#:~:text=None%20of%20the%20Nordic%20countries,all%20workers%20at%20industry%20level.
But given that we don't have strong unions, minimum wages provide one of our only recourses to ensure people make a 'decent' wage. Since its peak in 1968, it has generally fallen since then. 3/ https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/wages/minimum-wages/setting-machinery/WCMS_460934/lang--en/index.htm#:~:text=None%20of%20the%20Nordic%20countries,all%20workers%20at%20industry%20level.
While progressive economists were effectively responsible for the creation of the minimum wage, it fell out of favor with the profession given neoclassical arguments that it would reduce labor force participation. You might raise wages, but you'll also raise unemployment. 4/
Instead, policy economists started to push harder for, effectively, wage subsidies. In the 1990s, but with intellectual origins going back to Friedman, the Earned Income Tax Credit became the favored policy lever. 5/
Friedman actually thought that a negative income tax would be an excellent substitute for existing social welfare programs. "If the left accepts the program," they will "find that they have bought a Trojan Horse." Milton in the National Review 6/
In the 1980s and well into the 1990s, policy elites moved away from the minimum wage, instead supporting EITC expansions. Politically, many business lobbying groups found it expedient to battle any proposed minimum wage increases w/ support for EITC expansions 7/
For example, The Employment Policies Institute, which is run by a lobbying group for low wage employers, has placed tons of editorials in newspapers arguing against the minimum wage and for the EITC. 8/ https://epionline.org/?s=EITC
