New Study Finds a High Minimum Wage Creates Jobs

[Nevilledog]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/new-study-finds-a-high-minimum-wage-creates-jobs.html

No paywall
https://archive.is/Rhfzh

A decade ago, conventional wisdom held that raising the minimum wage would not necessarily benefit low-income workers. The logic of this view went like this: Although some workers would benefit from the government forcing their pay up by fiat, others would find themselves effectively locked out of the labor market. After all, if one lacked the skills necessary to produce $15 worth of economic value in an hour of labor, then a law forbidding employers from paying anyone a lower rate than that would render you unhireable. Indeed, rather than improving the lot of “low-skill” workers, a high minimum wage would inspire businesses to automate their roles out of existence, condemning such proletarians to jobless penury. (Conservative economists who pushed this line always had to paper over the dissonance between their ostensible support for increasing productivity and their opposition to a government policy that would, by their account, yield new labor-saving technologies.)

A 2010 op-ed from Michael Saltsman of the Employment Policy Institute provides a characteristic rendition of the argument. Saltsman warned that if state legislatures raised the minimum wage for fast food workers, “The BurgerTron 3000” would soon take their jobs.

“In addition to pushing businesses toward automation, increasing the minimum wage makes it less likely for businesses to take a chance on employees without previous experience,” Saltsman explained. “Already feeling the pinch from the continuing economic downturn, the only way businesses will hire new employees is if they are skilled enough for the new, higher wage. Say goodbye to entry level jobs and hello to permanent double digit unemployment.”

Over the next thirteen years, a long list of cities and states enacted minimum wage increases of unprecedented size. Between 2014 and 2022, California increased its minimum wage by 56 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over a similar time period, New York raised its wage floor by 72 percent.

*snip*

[Biophilic]

1. Yes, well, that's amazing don't ya think. Good grief.