Becker and Posner on the Chicago City Council

A few days ago I blogged (see "Why only $10 an hour? Why not more?" on the Chicago City Council's ordinance to raise the forced minimum wage -- only for large retailers -- to $10 an hour. The always interesting Becker and Posner have written on this subject, Becker here, Posner here, and then Becker again here. Here are a few points that Becker makes:

• "Large retailers that continue to operate in Chicago will reduce their use of low skilled workers by replacing some of them by more skilled employees, and by machinery and other capital."
• "Retailers will also try to avoid being covered by the ordinance by reducing their space to just below 90,000 square feet."
• "In a city like Chicago the burden from these responses to the ordinance will fall disproportionately on African Americans and Latinos since fewer jobs will be available to workers in the city with less education and lower skills."
• "In addition, prices in Chicago of items sold relatively cheaply by stores like Wal-Mart and Target will rise because fewer of these stores will open in the city. The mega stores that remain will raise their prices because their costs will go up. Since city customers of these stores are mainly families with modest incomes who seek low prices rather than elaborate service, they more than the affluent classes will be hurt by the rise in prices and reduced availability of big box outlets."
• "This ordinance might raise serious Federal constitutional issues because of its discriminatory treatment of large retailers. Since to my knowledge the City Council has not offered any plausible reason for basing the ordinance on square footage of floor space, it is likely to be considered a violation of equal protection of the laws."