Unexpectedly!
- Thread starter Marshal Jim Duncan
- Start date
More time is needed IMO. Ultimately, I believe it will be all for naught and more destructive long term. I'd love to be wrong.
What a complete waste of time, at best. It has also been a relatively short period of time. As the authors point out, the Seattle economy is relatively healthy compared to much of the country. It doesn't get into the rise in consumer prices that will result when adopted on a widespread basis. And the results would've been far worse if the raise had been to $15/hour, especially in a weaker economy to begin with.
"The economists estimated that the minimum wage decreased the share of workers with jobs by about 1.2 percentage points."
Meanwhile, although workers were earning more, fewer of them had a job than would have without an increase
Translation - the competent,promotable people only temporarily in min wage jobs beat out their stupider less employable counterparts who claimed they needed a living wage.
2 million workers in Seattle? More like roughly 6000 people.
And those aren't people laid off (total employment has risen) that is just the estimate by an economist at how much more employment would have risen without the minimum wage law.
As I recall the main arguments against raising the minimum wage was that it would only slightly increase the overall welfare of workers and that the job market would only be "exceptionally strong" rather than "super exceptionally strong." So I have to say the critics of the law have been vindicated.
And those aren't people laid off (total employment has risen) that is just the estimate by an economist at how much more employment would have risen without the minimum wage law.
As I recall the main arguments against raising the minimum wage was that it would only slightly increase the overall welfare of workers and that the job market would only be "exceptionally strong" rather than "super exceptionally strong." So I have to say the critics of the law have been vindicated.
Yeah, that's true. I said roughly. Many people who live in Tacoma or Bellevue work in Seattle; some vice-versa probably.
