Answer: This is quite a complicated question and therefore requires quite a complicated and extensive answer. While it may seem like a minimum wage is good for the lowest-paid workers it isn't very good for an economy and workers as a whole. The reason for this being is that having a minimum wage and subsequently raising it (as is being done throughout the United States) boosts inflation meaning the price for products rises, (essentially negating all benefits that the workers received from a higher minimum wage.) Now while the lowest class workers don't really receive any benefit from this as their wage goes up but the products they produce also go up in price as well, but the average middle class consumer gets hit hard by this as their product prices raise but they still have the same wage. Another downside to having a minimum wage and having it consistently rising is that companies are forced to cut employees or not hire any more people all together. This is why jobless claims rise after wages rise. Companies cannot afford to pay workers a higher minimum wage and keep all their workers at the same time otherwise they would go in the red. This forces them to make cuts in staffing. Minimum wage would mandate that even if a potential worker and company agree on a price to pay for their work, the law would mandate that this would not be a possibility essentially making work harder to find. Minimum wage should not even really be needed as companies and workers should be able to find a good and fair price for work on their own without the governments help. If a worker doesn't like the wage they are receiving then they can quite and find a better paying job. This also boosts competition among businesses as they are all fighting for workers to fill their jobs and would also raise the wage, but in a natural process without all the detriments that artificially raising the minimum wage brings. Companies should be allowed to hire workers at whatever pay per hour they so what as long as it is agreed to as well by the worker. This means that more jobs are open to a more wide variety of people and that also means that if people want to work for less they can still be open to that opportunity as well.
There are several important constitutional issues at the start of Reconstruction, but perhaps the greatest was if the newly freed slaves could be counted as citizens.
