I'm really not up to date on the topic but I've held the position of minimum wage as not being an effective anti-poverty tool (believing it has a negative effect on employment rates and all).

I was reading this article: http://www.epi.org/publications/entr...wagetestimony/ and am now not sure where I stand.

Is minimum wage an effective weapon against poverty rates? Thoughts?

It's an effective weapon FOR poverty rates.

A recent blog post on topic

From the piece you linked

I would bet dollars to donuts that he is discussing changes in the UE rate when minimum wage rates eliminate jobs that wont be counted in that metric- ie teens and people who need 2nd jobs.

You mean he adds teenager jobs and people with second jobs to the workers population so that when calculating the rate, the effect is diminished?

Just making sure I get you right, I'm not a native speaker.

No, he means just the opposite - that minimum wage laws prevent teens and people who need second jobs from getting jobs, and that since the author is probably not counting them as unemployed, he's not counting in those damages from minimum wage laws. In fact he may be claiming that average wages have risen since now all those people who used to be paid less than the minimum wage have no job at all, or only have one in the black market.

I would add that minimum wage increases have usually been introduced during or after an increase in productivity and/or inflation, so the author is probably confusing the order of the causal relationship between wage increases and minimum wage laws.

Also, there's many instances where the opposite of what the author claims is clearly the case, a recent one that is very clear being American Samoa.

It just doesn't make sense to expect that making it illegal to work for less than X would have no impact on work opportunities. Those workers who are always perceived as being way more productive than X may face no direct consequences, but everyone else will necessarily face some reduction in job opportunities.

What's more, in an environment where minimum wages are constantly being increased, employers will be hesitant to hire someone even if they expect it to be profitable to pay them the current minimum wage, as a future increase in the minimum wage could make it unprofitable for them to be paying that worker, and since it is often illegal to fire someone because you don't want to pay them the minimum wage and the employer may face problems if trying to use something else as an excuse to fire the worker, they just won't hire said worker in the first place.