Posted on 09/01/2016 11:18:34 AM PDT by MichCapCon
A recent study by a conservative think tank found that raising the state minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost Michigan the equivalent of 281,000 full-time jobs in 2021.
The wage raise would directly affect 37.4 percent of wage and salary workers in Michigan, said the study, which was conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation.
The study, titled “How $15-per-Hour Minimum Starting Wages Would Affect Each State,” also looked at the effect of raising the federal minimum wage, which covers fewer jobs than the state law. Raising the federal wage to $15 an hour would lead to an estimated loss of 223,000 full-time jobs in 2021. The federal wage raise would directly affect 36.6 percent of wage and salary workers in the state.
An estimated 9 million jobs would be lost nationally due to state minimum-wage hikes, the study found.
The study also showed that full-time-equivalent employment would be lost in every state, whether the mandate increases came from state or federal governments.
Several cities including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Seattle have already raised their minimum wage to $15. California and New York recently passed bills that will raise wages in the years to come.
An increase in the minimum wage “would result in many states losing hundreds of thousands of jobs and would considerably curtail employment opportunities, especially for less-skilled workers,” wrote James Sherk, the study’s author.
“Efforts to create jobs and reduce poverty should not center on forcing employers to pay higher starting wages,” the study concluded.
The study used data from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
There have been recent efforts to increase the minimum wage in Michigan. In 2015, Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, introduced Senate Bill 391, which would gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2018.
The bill died in a House committee and Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael LaFaive, the fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said with an artificially higher price of employment, fewer people will be employed.
“The only real minimum wage is zero, which is what many low-wage people will start making if a $15 per-hour minimum is adopted,” he said. “The reason is simple. There is an inverse relationship between the price of just about everything and the quantity demanded of it. If governments raise the price of employment, fewer people will find themselves employed.”
“Low-wage jobs are often the first rung on the economic ladder of success, not a person’s last stop,” LaFaive added. “Take that first rung away and it is hard for people to get the job experience that they need to earn higher wages on their own account.”
A 2014 analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016 “would reduce total employment by about 500,000 workers.”
“Fight for $15,” a national organization that engages campaigns for higher wages and union rights, did not reply to a request for comment.
The Michigan Restaurant Association, an organization that lobbies for the restaurant industry and in the past has opposed minimum wage raises, agreed with the study's findings.
“The study gives credence to the off-used term 'too much, too fast,'” said Justin Winslow, president of the Michigan Restaurant Association. “The restaurateurs across the country have been saying about a $15 minimum wage that it's a shock to the system that restaurant owners working on tight margins simply can't adapt to. They don't have the flexibility to adapt to that much of a shock to the system, and therefore [an increases] puts people out of work and sometimes puts businesses out of business.”
Winslow continued: “And frankly it [$15 minimum wage raise] goes out of its way to disproportionately hurt those people seeking it and getting their first opportunity, their first job.” The increase, he continued “puts them out of the workforce as a direct result, which goes counter to I think what the other side's aim and intentions are.”
The purpose of the “minimum wage” (government-mandated hourly pay rate) is to take as much money as possible from businesses. If the business goes under, that is no concern to the left which just raises taxes on someone else.
When do we address multi-million salaries that do far more to kill jobs than does a raise in the minimum wage.
Repeal and Replace with NO TAX on working poor wages.
Working poor collect their entire gross, including both EMPLOYEE and EMPLOYER share of FICA, SS, Medicare, etc.
At same time eliminate fraud heavy EITC. Cut back eligibility for SSI, UI, SNAP, EBT, Medicaid, Sec 8 and all welfare.
Reward work. Don’t reward no-work.
Win-Win for employees, employers, customers as no increase in cost of the product.
Losers are those with a phobia to work.
Do away with minimum wage. We don’t need it. Let the business pay what it thinks you’re worth. If you don’t like your pay, go find someone who pays more or get off your backside and learn some skills. Too many don’t want to learn skills which is why they’re stuck in min wage jobs.
Raising the min wage will only cause everything else to go up in price. It also decreases the value of any savings people have. It’s a lose lose situation for everyone.
Everyone should pay taxes.
$15 an hour minimum wage would kill 281,000 jobs.
AND THAT’S A GOOD THING!
Every $7 an hour job means taxpayers are subsidizing another $13 an hour in low-income benefits... PLUS importing another illegal alien.
WAGES BELOW SUBSTINENCE ONLY FEED THE BEAST!
You don’t believe in minimum wages? Fine. End massive immigration, welfare, cuckholded taxpayers, etc. FIRST. Until then, you’re not ending minimum wages, you’re subsidizing taxpayers being ripped off.
Liberals want equality, even if it means we are all equally poor.
How about just $10/hour as a happy compromise?
put the muzzies on minimum wage Dearborn is full of them
even if it means we are all equally poor......EVEN if?!! The whole idea of socialism is to spread the poverty around, evenly.
“A recent study by a conservative think tank found that raising the state minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost Michigan the equivalent of 281,000 full-time jobs in 2021.
The wage raise would directly affect 37.4 percent of wage and salary workers in Michigan, said the study, which was conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation. “
Sounds like a lot of businesses barely hanging on. If those numbers are right, nearly 1 in 3 is only earns the minimum...well, glad I don’t live there.
Job losses in 2021? That’s five years from now - does the Heritage Foundation think ANY politician cares about what may or may not happen 5 years down the road?
They don’t look past the next election.
Yeah, no thanks. Everyone should have skin in the game.
All that plan would do is perpetuate “poor” on a grander scale.
And they will excoriate any business that leaves the country to pay lower wages in a more business friendly country.
Why do you think that CEOs are paid too much? Do you think that raising the minimum wage WON’T cost jobs as businesses relocate to countries that are more business friendly?
How about a career as a Senior Culinary Operations Technician or a Product Packaging Coordinator? Think of how many smiles you’ll be helping to put on other people’s faces!
Re: “An estimated 9 million jobs would be lost nationally due to state minimum-wage hikes...”
What percentage of that 9 million are illegal immigrants, or legal immigrants, or hold some kind of work visa?
I see this issue through the other end of the telescope.
Maybe the business owners are overstaffed because there is so much cheap labor available in the USA?
Maybe the business owners don’t invest in labor saving machines and software so they can pocket more profits?
Maybe the business owners are only working 40 hours a week when they should be working 70 hours a week?
Which would render 281,000 more people wards of the government and likely to vote RAT for the free stuff. Part of the plan!
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