[crusher2013]

The problem is due to unlimited immigration (legal and illegal), H1-B Visa’s and Outsourcing, there is essentially an unlimited supply of labor(cheap).

If we had a normal labor market the effective minimum wage would be much higher than $12/hr.

The cheap labor policies the US has adopted is causing massive problems for the majority of the citizens, all for the benefit of the few.

[Hugin]

If we had a normal labor market the effective minimum wage would be much higher than $12/hr.

Exactly. And since we can't expect any relief on the immigration front, we unfortunately need a minimum wage.

[Sooth2222]

If we had a normal labor market the effective minimum wage would be much higher than $12/hr.

A factory worker in China makes $1.36/hour. That's what the low skill/no skill worker is competing with. Workers need to be able to compete with workers from low wage countries by having skills that they don't have. And that's difficult to do because of the failure of US public schools.

[khelus]

The problem is due to unlimited immigration (legal and illegal), H1-B Visa’s and Outsourcing, there is essentially an unlimited supply of labor(cheap).

If we had a normal labor market the effective minimum wage would be much higher than $12/hr.

The cheap labor policies the US has adopted is causing massive problems for the majority of the citizens, all for the benefit of the few.

You bring up a good point. There is no free market as regards labor within the US. Government intervention has flooded the market with cheap labor in the form of illegals, sundry guest workers, and outsourcing.

If you expand the labor market to include the entire world, all labor will be paid the lowest world wide wage and work under the worst world wide conditions. This has been referred to as the 'race to the bottom'.