I think it’s time to do away with the minimum wage. Let the market decide.
And what about this b.s. that women get paid 77% of what men earn for doing the exact same job? Anyone who sat through the first 10 minutes of ECON 101 would realize that this is an impossibility.
To wit: A business owner (many of whom, by the way, are women) has two applicants for the same job, a man and a woman. They are equally qualified. The woman will work for $77,000. The man wants $100,000. Guess who is going to get hired? Every single time. Eventually, if men get tired of being unemployed, they will be willing to take less money in order to get a job. And women, seeing that they are still being underpaid, will ask for more money. The equilibrium point will be somewhere between $77,000 and $100,000, and everyone who is similarly qualified will receive the same salary.