<P> An example of a price floor is minimum wage laws; in this case, employees are the suppliers of labor and the company is the consumer . When the minimum wage is set above the equilibrium market price for unskilled labor, unemployment is created (more people are looking for jobs than there are jobs available). A minimum wage above the equilibrium wage would induce employers to hire fewer workers as well as allow more people to enter the labor market; the result is a surplus in the amount of labor available . However, workers would have higher wages . The equilibrium wage for workers would be dependent upon their skill sets along with market conditions . </P> <P> This model makes several assumptions which may not hold true in reality, however . It assumes the costs of providing labor (food, commuting costs) are below the minimum wage, and that employment status and wages are not sticky . Unemployment in the United States, however, only includes participants of the labor force, which excludes 37.2% of Americans as of June 2016 . </P> <P> Previously, price floors in agriculture have been common around Europe . Nowadays the EU uses a "softer" method: if the price falls below an intervention price, the EU buys the product so much that this decrease in supply raises the price to the intervention price level . Because of this, "butter mountains" now lie at EU stockhouses, not at the producers' stockhouses . </P>

When does a price floor create a market surplus