Posted on 06/26/2017 2:22:31 PM PDT by grundle
When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city's minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they'd hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.
The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They've cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.
The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.
On the whole, the study estimates, the average low-wage worker in the city lost $125 a month because of the hike in the minimum.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
When it gets more expensive to hire people, a city will have fewer jobs. Who would have guessed?
SURPRISE!!!!!!! Who didn’t see that coming??
Low wage jobs should not be considered family supporting jobs. They are entry level jobs that kids should be hired on to do.
No worries though, the illegals and hood rats that infest Seattle will gladly work under the table to pick up the slack.
So stupid. Even a blind man can see it. You don’t need a “very credible new study”. You just need common sense.
Forced higher wages=forced higher costs=necessitates cutting higher costs by reducing the payroll.
DUH!
The Lying Left. Purveyors of paltry fascist tyranny and destroyers of economic growth and wealth.
Agriculture is the only business in this country where the business owner is told how much he/she will be paid for the crops/food they produce.
If they’d listen to conservatives or common sense, the answer is simple: the more you raise minimum wage, the less opening jobs there will be.
I had to click the link.
The ComPost is actually reporting real news? (Not fake?)
And reporting a basic fundamental truth that was well known to anyone with a brain? (That excludes all liberals.)
Has Hell frozen over?
This never was about improving the lives of low paid workers. It was about increasing the number and salaries of union workers which increases the amount of money unions have to spend on electing people who favor unions.
But university professors and socialist democrat politicians have never had to earn money. Only divide it up between bureaucrats.
I’m shocked!
Shocked that the editors at WP let this slip by!..................
Dang. It must suck when the people you commissioned come out against you.
Right. As Thatcher said, socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
The Lying Left. Purveyors of poverty and tyranny.
Me too. See post 9.
See the WaPo comments. They’re seething with anger over there.
I love this comment and rejoinder......
OZieJohn
4:29 PM CDT
What happens when the USA joins the rest of the world and pays 4 weeks annual vacation, sick pay, maternity leave ....?
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dgnorfolk
4:31 PM CDT
60% income taxes on those who earn a living.
University professors like in a world of ‘theory’.
To them, their theories are the do all and end all of economics. They don’t in any way, shape, or form reflect real life conditions.
They have never had to actually make payroll or deal with the myriad of city, county, state and federal regulations imposed upon a business. Their theories don’t include such minutia.
They never, ever take into account such things as human behavior when theorizing..................
Democrats could care less. Passing the bill made them feel good, consequences be damned. They’ll never admit they were wrong.
Well, yes, but it's more than that - who hires when the state is already declaring a mandatory wage increase in the future whether you will be able to afford it or not then, even if they can afford it now? It's a hiring slowdown that's showing up now; the layoffs of existing workers are likely to accelerate as the wages go up incrementally and businesses find that they can't keep up without going broke. In short, the problem is only beginning. And the real minimum wage is nothing.
Bingo!!! Raise the floor rate and hourly rates of all above go up commensurately (regardless how many fewer "floor rate" employees still exist!)
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