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Who really said it

The real minimum wage is zero

Written by Thomas Sowell Born 1930 · American economist, Hoover Institution senior fellow
Verified In copyright

Confirmed word for word in Sowell’s syndicated column “Minimum Journalism Evident in Wage Story” (Sun-Sentinel, 4 August 2001). He reprinted the column as “Minimum Journalism” in his collection Controversial Essays (2002). The popular one-liner cuts his sentence off at “zero.”

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“The real minimum wage is zero” Thomas Sowell, “Minimum Journalism Evident in Wage Story,” Sun-Sentinel, August 4, 2001 · Verbatim: “The minimum wage law is very cleverly misnamed. The real minimum wage is zero — and that is what many inexperienced and low-skilled people receive as a result of legislation that makes it illegal to pay them what they are currently worth to an employer.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Thomas Sowell (2001 column); Hoover Institution Press (Controversial Essays, 2002)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Thomas Sowell — American economist & Hoover Institution senior fellow. Theme: "The real minimum wage is zero". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The source

Work
Minimum Journalism Evident in Wage Story
First published
Sun-Sentinel, syndicated column, 4 August 2001
Reprinted
As “Minimum Journalism” in Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press, 2002), pp. 48–49

The minimum wage law is very cleverly misnamed. The real minimum wage is zero — and that is what many inexperienced and low-skilled people receive as a result of legislation that makes it illegal to pay them what they are currently worth to an employer. Trimmed in circulation

In the popular version, Sowell’s sentence stops at “zero.” In the original, a dash carries it on to who pays that wage and why.

Read the column at the Sun-Sentinel

How the line traveled

  • 28 September 1987: an opinion piece in Brigham Young University’s student paper, the Daily Universe, uses the identical sentence “The real minimum wage is zero.” and does not mention Sowell (scanned text at Internet Archive ↗).
  • 4 August 2001: Sowell’s syndicated column, a critique of a Wall Street Journal front-page story on the minimum wage, contains the line (Sun-Sentinel ↗).
  • August 2001: the same column, credited to Thomas Sowell, is reposted online under the title “Anti-Capitalist Politically Correct Journalism at The Wall Street Journal” (Capitalism Magazine ↗).
  • 2002: Sowell reprints the column as “Minimum Journalism” in Controversial Essays. Economist Don Boudreaux quotes the passage and cites it to pages 48–49 of that book (Cafe Hayek ↗).
In copyright

The sentence comes from Sowell’s 2001 newspaper column and its 2002 book reprint. Both were first published long after 1930, so in the United States the text is still under copyright.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What gets mixed up

The attribution to Sowell holds up. What gets muddled is the wording, a second, longer “zero” passage that people treat as the same quote, and the idea that Sowell coined the phrase.

The bare one-liner Trimmed

“The real minimum wage is zero” is the opening of a longer sentence. Sowell goes on: “— and that is what many inexperienced and low-skilled people receive…” (Sun-Sentinel, 2001 ↗).

“Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws…” Different passage

This is a separate, longer Sowell passage, and quote sites credit it to his book Basic Economics (Goodreads ↗). It is not the 2001 column sentence, so the two should not be cited as one quote.

A 1987 student opinion piece Earlier use

BYU’s Daily Universe of 28 September 1987 printed the identical sentence with no reference to Sowell (Internet Archive ↗). Sowell wrote the line and made it famous, but this is no evidence that he invented the phrase.

Wikiquote Unsourced

The line is listed under “Unsourced” on the Talk page of Wikiquote’s Thomas Sowell entry, as “The real minimum wage is zero [unemployment].” (Wikiquote Talk ↗).

Sowell did write the exact sentence, in his column of 4 August 2001 (Sun-Sentinel ↗). He reprinted it in Controversial Essays (2002).

Context

Why he said it

Sowell wrote the line in a column about journalism as much as economics. He objected that a Wall Street Journal front-page story on the minimum wage opened with an individual who, he argued, was “wholly atypical” of minimum-wage earners (Sun-Sentinel ↗).

His point was that a legal wage floor does not raise what an inexperienced worker is worth to an employer, so the worker who goes unhired is effectively paid nothing, and loses the experience a first job would bring. Many economists dispute how large that effect is in practice. Either way, the sentence became one of the most-quoted lines in the minimum-wage debate.

They cannot move up the ladder if they can’t get on the ladder.

Where the pull-quote comes from

The pull-quote is from the same 2001 column, two sentences after the famous line. In full it reads: “But they cannot move up the ladder if they can’t get on the ladder.” (Capitalism Magazine reprint ↗).

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Work Truth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Minimum Journalism Evident in Wage Story (2001)sun-sentinel.com

Sowell's original column, containing the exact sentence
Full-text reprint of the columncapitalismmagazine.com

August 2001 online reprint credited to Thomas Sowell
Cafe Hayek: Quotation of the Daycafehayek.com

Don Boudreaux traces the passage to Controversial Essays, pp. 48–49
Controversial Essays (2002)archive.org

Internet Archive record of the Sowell collection that reprints the column
Talk:Thomas Sowellen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote lists the line as unsourced
Thomas Sowellen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the economist

The economist

About the author

Thomas Sowell

Born 1930 · American economist & Hoover Institution senior fellow

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, economic historian and social theorist, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His long-running syndicated column and books such as Basic Economics made him a leading conservative voice on markets, and he received the National Humanities Medal in 2002.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Thomas Sowell, “Minimum Journalism Evident in Wage Story,” Sun-Sentinel, August 4, 2001; reprinted as “Minimum Journalism” in Thomas Sowell, Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press, 2002), 48–49.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The real minimum wage is zero’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-real-minimum-wage-is-zero/

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