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A lot of wage growth has been in the cost of healthcare and other benefits. As the minimum wage rises it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable, minimum wag

A lot of wage growth has been in the cost of healthcare and other benefits. As the minimum wage rises it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable, minimum wage removes the bottom rungs of the adder.

pc86 5y ago
> As the minimum wage rises it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable You're really going to need to cite a source for this completely counter-intuitive statement. Something academic and peer-reviewed rather than "I got a C- in Econ 102/Macro and this is my best guess" that is the standard when HN discusses economic policy.
- comp_throw7 5y ago
  "making an activity illegal reduces the incidence of that activity" is not a "counter-intuitive statement". The literature shows a slight skew in results that show negative effects from minimum wage (& related policies): https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-study/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-... Scott thinks that the shape of the distribution implies publication bias; as per the very first comment thread in response to that post, I disagree with that interpretation. Since 101 theory would in fact predict a negative effect you can go ahead and assert with weak confidence that a negative effect exists. (You can also trivially demonstrate that above a certain threshold, like, say, $100/hr, you would have a negative effect. Now you need to add epicycles to your theory to explain why the effect would flip from negative to positive as that number goes down, while the mechanisms by which the negative effects occur remain unchanged.)
xnyan 5y ago
> the cost of healthcare and other benefits. Low wage hourly workers rarely get benefits, so does not apply in this situation.
imtringued 5y ago
I don't believe it. The reason why minimum wages work is that the government becomes the union of last resort. Also, if poor people receive more pay they spend more which then creates more minimum wage jobs for other people. The minimum wage is rarely raised to some absurd level. Instead it is just gradually increased every year by a small amount.

A lot of wage growth has been in the cost of healthcare and other benefits. As the minimum wage rises it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable, minimum wage removes the bottom rungs of the adder.

pc86 5y ago

> As the minimum wage rises it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable You're really going to need to cite a source for this completely counter-intuitive statement. Something academic and peer-reviewed rather than "I got a C- in Econ 102/Macro and this is my best guess" that is the standard when HN discusses economic policy.

comp_throw7 5y ago
"making an activity illegal reduces the incidence of that activity" is not a "counter-intuitive statement". The literature shows a slight skew in results that show negative effects from minimum wage (& related policies): https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-study/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-... Scott thinks that the shape of the distribution implies publication bias; as per the very first comment thread in response to that post, I disagree with that interpretation. Since 101 theory would in fact predict a negative effect you can go ahead and assert with weak confidence that a negative effect exists. (You can also trivially demonstrate that above a certain threshold, like, say, $100/hr, you would have a negative effect. Now you need to add epicycles to your theory to explain why the effect would flip from negative to positive as that number goes down, while the mechanisms by which the negative effects occur remain unchanged.)

xnyan 5y ago

> the cost of healthcare and other benefits. Low wage hourly workers rarely get benefits, so does not apply in this situation.

imtringued 5y ago

I don't believe it. The reason why minimum wages work is that the government becomes the union of last resort. Also, if poor people receive more pay they spend more which then creates more minimum wage jobs for other people. The minimum wage is rarely raised to some absurd level. Instead it is just gradually increased every year by a small amount.