It is an economic fact.....whenever the minimum wage is increased, some folks earning the minimum wage get laid off. This I know because I am one of those evil employers who pay the minimum wage to some of my employees.....and when it no longer makes economic sense to employ some folks at minimum wage.....they go!
It will take a few more years and eventually I will see that I again can pay the minimum wage to a few folks to do a specific job....a job that is worth no more to me than what the minimum wage is right now. With inflation and normal cost of living price increases I will again be able to see an economic (to me) advantage in hiring a few more minimum wage employees. But for now....they're gone....cause it makes no economic sense (to me) to employ them at "that" rate to do "that" job. I'll do it myself!
There is indeed a law of diminishing returns, and you see it in action each time this socialistic tomfoolery is put in effect. This year the California minimum wage was increased to $7.50 an hour. I had some employees making $6.75 an hour. The value...(to me)....of their continued employment did not magically increase overnight (12/31 to 1/1) by $.75 an hour. So, they are no longer employed by me. They may be working somewhere else by now....but the jobs I offered at $6.75 an hour disappeared with the stupidity of the minimum wage increase. Yes, the idea of a "minimum wage" is stupid. There are many jobs I can imagine that would be worth much less than the "the Minimum". Three, for sure, that disappeared a few weeks ago.
Now, I know it doesn't sound like too much to a lot of folks.....but three people getting a $.75 increase in pay (for no increase in productivity) would have cost me (out of my pocket) 3 X .75 X 40 (hours per week) an additional $90.00 per week. 90 X 52 = an additional $4680.00 per year.
Those three jobs were not worth (to me) an additional $90.00 a week. All three employees were young, single people..... living at home. These jobs were discretionary on my part. Other employers have now had to increase prices to their customers to afford these same wage increases. Stupid!
By the way....I have other employees....that have skills and experience, and they make much more than minimum.