Worker-rights legislation, like minimum wage, is meant to protect the most vulnerable workers. Professionals like doctors and engineers don't need such protection.

Without legal protection, businesses would take advantage of the most vulnerable workers, like children, disabled people, agricultural workers sweating in the fields, or restaurant workers.

Yet these people can all legally be paid less than minimum wage in the United States. Similar exceptions apply in New Zealand.

David Bonior sponsored the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2002, and later opened a restaurant, paying his 50 or so employees $2.36 an hour.

The law recognizes that people with few skills or other disadvantages cannot afford to be priced out of the job market and makes exceptions for them. But not all of them.

Last July, the U.S. unemployment rate for people aged 16 and up was 5.3%. For black people aged 16-24, the rate was 20.7%. Are we helping them by making their labor more expensive to employers?

I think you're right, this is the subject I want to talk about. Thank you for your feedback, and for any other ideas you might like to share.