- “No, Krueger Didn’t ‘Prov[e] that Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Increase Unemployment’” [Thomas Firey, EconLib]
- “Making Sense of the Minimum Wage: A Roadmap for Navigating Recent Research” [Jeffrey Clemens, Cato Policy Analysis no. 867] “A review and a doubt” [John Cochrane]
- Evidence from Denmark: “the age discontinuity in minimum wages has a large impact on employment at around age 18” [Claus Thustrup Kreiner, Daniel Reck, and Peer Ebbesen Skov, Cato Research Briefs in Economic Policy No. 169]
- To quote Mencken, “Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale in stolen goods.” [Marina Pitofsky, The Hill reporting Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) comments supporting $18-20 federal minimum wage]
- “Higher minimum wages are also a restrictionist immigration policy, at least for the poorest class of migrants. This is one of those truths that is inconvenient for people at both ends of the political spectrum.” [Tyler Cowen] “Low wage workers responded by commuting out of states that increased their minimum wage” and more on domestic migration effects of these laws [Cowen]
- “The minimum wage is not a settled issue. Important, high-quality studies come to different conclusions on serious questions. Journalists, commentators and policy makers: Take note.” [Michael Strain, Bloomberg Opinion]
Filed under: minimum wage
2 Comments
The idea that raising the min wage does not affect employment is daft. A simple extrapolation shows the absurdity: can any business hire unskilled or teen workers for $50/hr? So the demand curve DOES slope down, it is just a question of the slope. There is also lots of noise such that raising it from 7 to 7.25 may not have a detectable effect. That does not mean no effect if you jump up to $15.
Many proponents see this as a moral question however: business SHOULD pay more. But the world is not quite as rich as we wish and business may not be able to pay more. A $15 wage including benefits is perhaps $37,000/yr–ask yourself if some of the workers you see bagging groceries could possibly produce that much value for the company in that job.
Here in Florida, the drive to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour is being led by John Morgan, who has been mentioned in this space before:
https://www.overlawyered.com/?s=John+Morgan
(One of the cases deals with Morgan not paying interns for work, which is ironic giving his push for $15/ hour.)
An article in the Orlando Weekly shows that Morgan may still not be living up to what he demands of others:
Morgan and Morgan hired an outside firm to handle their calls and help with the $15 / hour campaign.
According to current job postings, employees at the Office Gurus location in Pinellas County earn roughly $12 an hour, while employees at the offshore offices in El Salvador make between $600-$750 a month, which is equal to roughly $7.50 an hour, or nearly $1 less than Florida’s current minimum wage of $8.46.
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/03/26/orlando-attorney-john-morgans-firm-still-relies-on-cheap-labor-despite-pushing-for-15-minimum-wage-in-florida
Morgan himself has had harsh words for businesses that rely on cheap labor. At a press conference last January announcing his goal of collecting enough signatures to get the measure on the 2020 ballot, Morgan passionately accused businesses that pay employees less than $15 as taking advantage of “slave labor.”
“There’s nothing more profitable than slave labor,” said Morgan. “Our belief is that the single greatest issue facing America and Florida today is a living wage. That people are working harder and harder and getting further and further behind. That the rich are getting richer and the middle class is sinking into the abyss.”