If only the minimum wage would increase to $13, $15 or $20 would poverty be eliminated! Well, only in the minds of the likes of Bernie Sanders and Kshama Sawant.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) published a new study that found Seattle’s minimum wage increase to $13 achieved exactly what libertarian economists have predicted: the loss of jobs.
According to the paper, entitled “Minimum Wage Increases, Wages, and Low-Wage Employment: Evidence from Seattle,” even though hourly wages in low-wage positions increased by three percent, Seattle’s second wage increase to $13 had slashed hours in low-wage jobs by roughly 10 percent. The study concluded that total payroll declined by an average of $125 per month for these low-wage employment opportunities in 2016.
“Evidence attributes more modest effects to the first wage increase. We estimate an effect of zero when analyzing employment in the restaurant industry at all wage levels, comparable to many prior studies,” the report stated.
Businesses maintaining low-wage personnel didn’t fire anybody (not yet, anyway, though there is evidence to the contrary), but they did the next best thing: reduce their hours and transition full-time staff into part-time.
Thanks Sawant and Sanders!
Moreover, Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire makes a great point as well:
“Here are the facts: Seattle barely had any jobs under the $11 threshold before the legislation passed. But that wasn’t true of $13 jobs. And the regulations essentially priced a good deal of full-time low-wage labor out of the market. Furthermore, the economy in Seattle right now is strong. What happens during a downturn, when businesses have to shed costs?”
Why do central planners hate the poor so much?
Leave a Comment