Who are the "structurally" unemployed? The workers most vulnerable to minimum-wage laws are those who cannot currently realize the full productivity level required by the new law or who have not yet acquired a strong employment track record, such as:

• Teenagers, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as urban youths from minority cultures;
• Recently divorced housewives with little or no experience in the business world;
• Recovering alcoholics and other recovering addicts;
• Recently released convicts, seeking to develop skills in a legitimate job.

For such individuals, a sub-minimum-wage job typically represents a kind of access ramp—a temporary position where they could gradually acquire the experience and work habits necessary to a better-paid post. The regulatory policy is supposedly enacted for the benefit of these less fortunate (the expression "less fortunate" is here used advisedly ), standing at the lower end of the economic ladder. Instead, it saws off the bottom rungs of the ladder. On the other hand, the booming underground (illegal) economy in an interventionist society provides ample opportunities for alternative employment, as will become increasingly clear.    

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