Walter E. Williams explains how unions scheme to keep blacks out of high-paying jobs

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Daily Caller:

Call it the law of unintended consequences, but often times government policies that are intended to help people wind up hurting them in the long run.

That’s the case made by George Mason University conservative economist Walter E. Williams in his new book “Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?” On the Fox Business Network Wednesday Williams explained how minimum-wage laws prevent the employment of black teenagers.

“Many times we have a lot of economic policies that are based on intentions and I ask people to look at effects,” Williams said. “And the minimum-wage law is one of those policies that has a very, very harmful effects and you see the effects if you put yourself in the place of an employer and ask, ‘If I must pay $7.25 an hour to no matter whom I hire, which is minimum wage, does it pay me to hire a person who is so unfortunate that has skills that would only enable him to get $4 or 5 of worth of value an hour?’ And for most employers, they would see that as a losing economic proposition. So, the minimum-wage law has the effect of discriminating against the employment of low-skilled people and it happens that many, many of low-skilled people are black teenagers.”

However, hikes in the minimum-wage are often supported by labor unions and Williams’ theory on the matter is that such raises protect one segment of the labor force by eliminating competition.