Raising the Minimum Wage Does Not Cut Jobs

[Amazon]

Raising the minimum wage does not result in any significant loss of jobs. I graphed the unemployment rates for the last 30 years, along with the minimum wage increases, and I found no correlation whatsoever.

But don't believe me, look at this:

"Summary: Reviews the past two decades of research on the impact of minimum wage increases on employment: this study concludes that the weight of the evidence points to little or no effect of minimum wage increases on job growth. The study also finds that a review of the minimum wage literature commonly cited by minimum wage opponents is flawed because it is subjective, relies in large part on studies of wage increases in foreign countries, and fails to consider the most sophisticated and recent minimum wage studies."
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf

"Summary: Examines every minimum wage increase in the United States over the past two decades—including increases that took place during protracted periods of high unemployment—and finds that raising the wage floor boosted incomes without reducing employment or slowing job creation. The research demonstrates how a body of previous research—one frequently relied on by business lobbyists who oppose minimum wage increases—inaccurately attributes declines in employment to increases in the minimum wage by failing to sufficiently account for critical economic factors."
http://nelp.3cdn.net/eb5df32f3af67ae91b_65m6iv7eb.pdf

"Summary: A follow-up study by David Card and Alan Krueger that repeats their 1994 analysis, but uses official government data to determine employment figures. The study finds that the minimum wage increase in New Jersey did not affect employment in fast-food restaurants after New Jersey’s 1991 increase or after the 1996-1997 federal increases eliminated the differences in minimum wages between the two states."
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.15.5661&rep=rep1&type=pdf

"Summary: A landmark study published by David Card and Alan Krueger in the American Economic Review examining employment at fast-food restaurants on both sides of the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border after New Jersey raised its minimum wage to $5.05 an hour while Pennsylvania’s minimum wage held constant. The authors conducted a phone survey of over 400 fast-food restaurants and found no evidence that the increase in the minimum wage in New Jersey led to job loss—in fact they found employment increased in fast-food restaurants in New Jersey. For this and related research, Card was awarded the John Bates Clark medal in 1995—the so-called “junior Nobel prize,” granted by the American Economics Association every two years to the best economist under forty."
http://eml.berkeley.edu/~card/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

"Crain's New York Business, February 2012: "“Critics of [the minimum wage] proposal are making the same arguments as the last time the Legislature increased the minimum wage, in 2004. The hike to $7.15 an hour from the federal minimum of $5.15 was phased in over three years. If the change had a cataclysmic effect on businesses that depend heavily on minimum-wage workers, we certainly missed it. Objections . . . while meriting consideration, are essentially objections to the very existence of a minimum wage, which has been a fixture in the U.S. since 1938 and has never stopped our economy from flourishing.”
Raise the minimum wage Crain s New York Business

 

[Moonglow]

Very interesting,,,, Schultz!

 

[Wry Catcher]

Raising the minimum wage does not result in any significant loss of jobs. I graphed the unemployment rates for the last year, along with the minimum wage increases, and I found no correlation whatsoever.

But don't believe me, look at this:

"Summary: Reviews the past two decades of research on the impact of minimum wage increases on employment: this study concludes that the weight of the evidence points to little or no effect of minimum wage increases on job growth. The study also finds that a review of the minimum wage literature commonly cited by minimum wage opponents is flawed because it is subjective, relies in large part on studies of wage increases in foreign countries, and fails to consider the most sophisticated and recent minimum wage studies."
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf

"Summary: Examines every minimum wage increase in the United States over the past two decades—including increases that took place during protracted periods of high unemployment—and finds that raising the wage floor boosted incomes without reducing employment or slowing job creation. The research demonstrates how a body of previous research—one frequently relied on by business lobbyists who oppose minimum wage increases—inaccurately attributes declines in employment to increases in the minimum wage by failing to sufficiently account for critical economic factors."
http://nelp.3cdn.net/eb5df32f3af67ae91b_65m6iv7eb.pdf

"Summary: A follow-up study by David Card and Alan Krueger that repeats their 1994 analysis, but uses official government data to determine employment figures. The study finds that the minimum wage increase in New Jersey did not affect employment in fast-food restaurants after New Jersey’s 1991 increase or after the 1996-1997 federal increases eliminated the differences in minimum wages between the two states."
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.15.5661&rep=rep1&type=pdf

"Summary: A landmark study published by David Card and Alan Krueger in the American Economic Review examining employment at fast-food restaurants on both sides of the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border after New Jersey raised its minimum wage to $5.05 an hour while Pennsylvania’s minimum wage held constant. The authors conducted a phone survey of over 400 fast-food restaurants and found no evidence that the increase in the minimum wage in New Jersey led to job loss—in fact they found employment increased in fast-food restaurants in New Jersey. For this and related research, Card was awarded the John Bates Clark medal in 1995—the so-called “junior Nobel prize,” granted by the American Economics Association every two years to the best economist under forty."
http://eml.berkeley.edu/~card/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

"Crain's New York Business, February 2012: "“Critics of [the minimum wage] proposal are making the same arguments as the last time the Legislature increased the minimum wage, in 2004. The hike to $7.15 an hour from the federal minimum of $5.15 was phased in over three years. If the change had a cataclysmic effect on businesses that depend heavily on minimum-wage workers, we certainly missed it. Objections . . . while meriting consideration, are essentially objections to the very existence of a minimum wage, which has been a fixture in the U.S. since 1938 and has never stopped our economy from flourishing.”
Raise the minimum wage Crain s New York Business

Thank you. Being new to the forum do not expect to change the opinion of the Callous Conservatives. Their beliefs are confined to a small box of dogmatic truths promulgated by the Republican Party and echoed by its subalterns.

 

[Amazon]

[QUOTE="Wry Catcher, post: 10160155, member: 2029]

Thank you. Being new to the forum do not expect to change the opinion of the Callous Conservatives. Their beliefs are confined to a small box of dogmatic truths promulgated by the Republican Party and echoed by its subalterns.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. I am new to this forum, but not to forums in general.

I don't expect to change their minds. If their opinions were based on fact, I could expect to change their minds. But their opinions are based on hatred, not facts.

I come here because it's good for my ego to smack 'em down, that's all.

 

[koshergrl]

Yeah, someone will let you know when that happens.

Meanwhile, I stopped reading your OP when I hit "I graphed unemployment rates" because, as everybody knows, the "unemployment rates" that are fed to the public in no way accurately represent the actual unemployment rate.

 

[DGS49]

The conclusion reached at the beginning of this thread is analogous to saying, "getting a haircut every four weeks will not cause one to go bald."

Read on, children, and learn.

EVERYONE IN CONGRESS, Liberal or Conservative, Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Whig, knows that the minimum wage is a bad idea and to increase it is a bad idea. This is why, during Our Beloved President's first two years in office, when we had Democrat majorities in both houses, THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE.

So what they do is, when they can't avoid it any longer for political reasons, they raise it slightly and incrementally, so that the LEGAL minimum wage tracks the ECONOMIC minimum wage (the wage below which most people would never work). And under those circumstances, (essentially) NO JOBS ARE LOST.

During the rest of the time, they try to drum up political support from economic illiterates by claiming to be in favor of a "high" minimum wage, and claiming that it's the Mean Old Republicans who are preventing them from doing it.

It is almost too trite to mention it, but if a high minimum wage brings prosperity, then why not make it $25/hr? Then NOBODY would be below "middle class"! Why not have a Guaranteed Annual Household Income????? Fifty grand!

But when you ponder that scenario, even a typical Democrat can see that the well would run dry and millions of humans would be thrown out of work.

But somehow those same Democrats continue to think that if the MW were ONLY $12/hr or $15/hr it would bring about prosperity.

Go figure.

 

[Amazon]

Yeah, someone will let you know when that happens.

Meanwhile, I stopped reading your OP when I hit "I graphed unemployment rates" because, as everybody knows, the "unemployment rates" that are fed to the public in no way accurately represent the actual unemployment rate.

Sure you did. Are you in the habit of responding to threads without reading them?

Sounds like a Tea Party to me!

 

[Amazon]

But somehow those same Democrats continue to think that if the MW were ONLY $12/hr or $15/hr it would bring about prosperity.

Go figure.

Indeed it would.

The simplest explanation is to say that the more money a community has, the more it spends, and the more jobs are created by that spending.

 

[Amazon]

Did you know that the number one complaint among small business owners isn't the minimum wage?

It's the fact that their customers don't have any money.

 

[koshergrl]

Yeah, someone will let you know when that happens.

Meanwhile, I stopped reading your OP when I hit "I graphed unemployment rates" because, as everybody knows, the "unemployment rates" that are fed to the public in no way accurately represent the actual unemployment rate.

Sure you did. Are you in the habit of responding to threads without reading them?

Sounds like a Tea Party to me!

I'm in the habit of disregarding idiots who quote fake numbers.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Raising the minimum wage does not result in any significant loss of jobs.

this is obviously true!! In fact, the higher our wages get the more jobs will come back from China and India!! Its common sense!!

 

[gallantwarrior]

But somehow those same Democrats continue to think that if the MW were ONLY $12/hr or $15/hr it would bring about prosperity.

Go figure.

Indeed it would.

The simplest explanation is to say that the more money a community has, the more it spends, and the more jobs are created by that spending.

That being the case, why stop at a measly $12 or $15/hr? Why not $25, $50, $100? Imagine the number of jobs we could create if only people earned $100/hr?

 

[koshergrl]

And why should people have to work to receive that money?

Corporations should pay people to NOT work. They've got plenty, they need to share that $$.

Especially now, with the holidays and all.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Government needs to significantly increase corporate taxes and use them to provide everyone with a "living wage". That would eliminate the need to force businesses to pay a mandated minimum wage. We'd all have the best of all worlds...government could buy off targeted constituencies, businesses would not be forced to pay a minimum wage, everyone would be provided free money that would cover all their expenses. And all those rich bastards would be brought down to the level of all those they oppress.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

But somehow those same Democrats continue to think that if the MW were ONLY $12/hr or $15/hr it would bring about prosperity.

Go figure.

Indeed it would.

The simplest explanation is to say that the more money a community has, the more it spends, and the more jobs are created by that spending.

That being the case, why stop at a measly $12 or $15/hr? Why not $25, $50, $100? Imagine the number of jobs we could create if only people earned $100/hr?

yes if we can make some people better off with a higher wage why not just make everyone better off as a millionaires or billionaires!!!! We could eliminate poverty everywhere and forever tomorrow!!

 

[MaryL]

Yeah, someone will let you know when that happens.

Meanwhile, I stopped reading your OP when I hit "I graphed unemployment rates" because, as everybody knows, the "unemployment rates" that are fed to the public in no way accurately represent the actual unemployment rate.

Sure you did. Are you in the habit of responding to threads without reading them?

Sounds like a Tea Party to me!

I'm in the habit of disregarding idiots who quote fake numbers.

Yep. Raising the minimum wage helps raise inflation and the cost of living, so it's kind of a illusion that the poor are going to get ahead, it's almost like a pyramid scheme.

 

[DGS49]

"The simplest explanation is to say that the more money a community has, the more it spends, and the more jobs are created by that spending."

Jesus.

Fucking.

Christ.

Where do you suppose the money comes from that increases the wages from $7.25 to $12/hr?

The money fairy?

Or could it possibly be that the money comes from the owners' pockets, the customers' pockets, or from the lost wages of those whose hours are cut or are laid off?

Do you seriously believe that increasing wages increases the "money a community has"?

Seriously?

To quote Bugs R. Bunny, "What a maroon!"

 

[DriftingSand]

"Raising the minimum wage does not result in any significant loss of jobs ..."

I'm sure it's pretty "significant" to the folks losing them. What will certainly occur is a significant rise in the overall price of living.

 

[ShackledNation]

Say a company has a budget for wages that amounts to $16,000 per month. The company pays a minimum wage of $10 per hour. A full time job, 40 hours a week, four weeks a month, would thus cost the company $1,600 per month. The company is able to hire 10 full time workers.

Now a law is on the books that will increase the minimum wage to $12 per hour. What options does the company have?

1. Lay off workers to stay within budget. To stay within budget, 2 workers will have to be laid off. This would increase unemployment. The workers kept on board would benefit at the expense of the laid off workers. To make up for the loss of the two workers, other workers would be pushed to work even harder than before.

2. Reduce the hours each worker works. To stay within budget, each worker would now only work about 33 hours per week. This would not change employment per se but would change the number of hours people are employed to work. Wages would not increase under this situation. And because fewer hours means less work being done, workers would be pushed to work even harder during those fewer hours to make up for the shortfall, as in option 1.

3. Increase the budget for employment. This will primarily be done by increasing the prices of products sold, passing costs to consumers. Unemployment will not increase, but rising prices will bring the real wage back down to the equivalent of $10 per hour as it was before.

So those who say "minimum wage does not cause more unemployment" are partially correct. Minimum wage may cause unemployment, reduced hours worked coupled with more strenuous work during those hours, higher prices, or any combination of the three. But what it doesn't cause is an increase in real wages.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

But what it doesn't cause is an increase in real wages.

yes if liberals we could raise real wages from Washington for minimum wage workers they could raise real wages for everyone and end poverty on earth. There is no free lunch.