40 ms·

The key word in my post was substantially.

• yummyfajitas 17y ago
  If you jack it up to a level insubstantially higher than market rate, then the number of jobs lost will probably also be insubstantial (and statistically insignificant in most studies). I agree with this statement. So basically, an insubstantial increase in minimum wage hides the harm in statistical noise. On the other hand, the (also insubstantially small) benefits will be completely visible. Sounds like a political win to me: an invisible cost but a visible (albeit small) benefit.
  • mos1 17y ago
    No. Once again you are misrepresenting the alternate hypothesis. Simply put, the economic effects of modest increases in the minimum wage floor are sufficiently complex that it is difficult to conclusively prove that there is a negative aggregate effect on unemployment. Further, a useful analysis of the matter would also consider effects on labor force participation, distribution of wages, the poverty rate, entitlement expenses, the cost of living, incentives to attain education, incentives to work, consumer expenditures, prices, etc, in addition to unemployment. Minimum wage laws cannot be usefully discussed by saying "increasing the minimum wage increase unemployment, it's that simple." Because it's not that simple. And even if that one variable did change that simply, it still would not be a useful policy analysis. That said, I no longer get paid for presenting or analyzing policy, and your personal opinions have no effect on me, so I'm going to go spend my time doing something more useful and profitable.