The minimum wage costs jobs, especially entry-level positions that help teach the young and unskilled about working for a living, having pocket money, an income, basic personal budgets, spending, and even paying taxes.
Reformatted, emphasis mine:
Instapundit Teaser:
The push to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in both Minneapolis and St. Paul has successfully boosted the average worker’s hourly pay in both cities, but it has also led to sharp drops in the numbers of available jobs and hours worked, new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has found. Many economists have reached similar conclusions about minimum wage increases in the past. Still, the size of the impacts the researchers measured — by comparing Minneapolis and St. Paul to data culled from other Minnesota cities from 2017 through 2021 — were eye-popping, especially in low-wage industries.
Ayup, just consider it Government picking winners and losers. And, of COURSE, “low-wage industries” were hit – those ARE the entry-level jobs that require little in the way of knowledge or training. They are low-wage because the economic output (e.g., the resulting product or service) is low-cost, needing only the lowest-skilled workers. I’m not an economist, but I can do the math – if a job costs an employer more than the economic output of that job, that job isn’t going to stick around very long.
MinnPost Abstract:
- The minimum wage increase led to 28% fewer retail jobs than researchers would’ve expected from a similar city during the same five-year period.
- Minneapolis also saw a 20% drop in hours worked and a 13% dip in aggregate worker earnings.
- Across St. Paul’s restaurant industry, the city’s 2018 minimum wage hike was responsible for drying up nearly one-third of available jobs.
- In “limited-service” (fast food) restaurants, both hours and earnings fell by more than half after the increase took effect.
- Across all industries, both cities saw hourly wages increase by an average of less than 1% and a roughly 2% drop in the number of jobs.
- The wage hikes accounted for the loss of an estimated 5,000 jobs in Minneapolis and another 3,800 jobs that dried up in St. Paul, Nath said in an interview.
A couple of lines caught my eye:
“Somebody who loses their job because of a minimum wage increase is going to find another job,” said UC Berkeley economist Michael Reich. “Probably not right away, they’re going to work fewer weeks per year — but they’re not going to be permanently unemployed.”
Well, that’s some condescending solace for the guy or gal that gets a pink slip – a lower standard of living. You’ll be working but poorer for it. And, of course, the economic ideological illiteracy is strong in this one:
“We need to always make sure the workers … are being paid wages that ensure their families can thrive,” said the AFL-CIO’s Burnham, “which is why we continue to be champions for raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation across the state.”
Excepting for the moment a severe recession or depression when any job is a boat in a roiling sea (been there, done that), minimum wages were NEVER supposed to “support a family”, especially with just one wage earner. Remember, it’s a floor, not a ceiling. Upskill yourself – sure, hard work to make it work, but help is there.
I am against minimum wage demands by Government. Look around, still, and see all the employers looking for workers. I doubt, as I drive around seeing help-wanted signs at the burger joints (for instance), anyone is offering minimum wage wages. The Free Market, built on supply and demand, has shot wages for even burger flippers past the old SEIU “Fight for $15” – the lowest I see is $16 and up (generally more up than $16).
The government, via the Pandemic’s policy of “getting paid to stay home,” ignited that “minimum wage by other means,” and it is still going strong for those who want the jobs. But there is a limit.
(H/T: MinnPost via Instapundit)
