Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
Any empirical study on minimum wages is probably misleading or almost immeasurable because there are so few examples to study, and there is basically little way to isolate or properly control for the minimum wage variable either in the data.
At the end of the day if a local economy is performing well with an abundance of high paying jobs, a minimum wage hike won't have much or any impact since the economics driving the sectors that rely on minimum wage employees rides the coattails of the broader economy.
If a local economy is fairing poorly or is in an area of chronic unemployment, a minimum wage hike probably will have a bigger negative impact on the number of jobs available. On the margin a higher cost of doing business is not good for business. The closer the economy is to that margin the higher the impact of imposing an artificial floor on wages that is above the market rate.
Personally my view is that if we instituted the $15/hour minimum wage legislation 5 years ago we probably wouldn't have seen any material impact at the time since the economy was moving so strongly on the back of higher paid employment.
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I don't disagree, just chaps my ass when people say "The facts about the Seattle experiment prove..." because it proves they're clearly talking out of their asses. First of all, Seattle still doesn't have a $15 minimum wage and won't have one universally until 2021. Secondly, all of the articles I've seen quoting various worried business owners have been completely discredited as false or misleading. Finally, if anyone has been to Seattle recently, they'd realize how ridiculous it is to state that the minimum wage is collapsing the local economy. The downtown harbour is undergoing massive redevelopment, as are parts of Belltown and the International District. Granted some of these projects are condos and office buildings buying out local businesses, but saying that anything has been proven by the Seattle experiment is completely dishonest.