In a TV report on the issue of raising NJ’s state minimum wage, a college educated reporter repeated a Democrat talking point that raising the minimum wage would “contribute x% to the state’s economy” due to the extra pay minimum wage workers were going to get - as there was some magic pot of gold the “extra” pay was going to come from, ignoring that every dime of that extra pay will come out of others incomes across the spectrum of the economy, raise prices at the retail level in many cases and many of those cases will be where those earning “minimum wage” spend a good amount of their income. There is zero net contribution to any GDP due to raising any minimum wage.
Just ask the college educated TV Reporter if their station doubled the salaries of their on-air talent, what would happen to advertising rates? They would probably go up. If their ad rates went up, what would their customers do? Pay the higher rates, move their ads to a competitor, or cut back on ads?
If raising wages increased productivity, we wouldn’t need the science of economics. Government mandated wages or prices never increases economic activity. Just ask Venezuela.