Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

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travelerjim

Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

Post by travelerjim »

Oh oh....

A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals.

By Max Ehrenfreund
June 26 at 6:01 AM

When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city's minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they'd hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.

The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They've cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.

The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.

On the whole, the study estimates, the average low-wage worker in the city lost $125 a month because of the hike in the minimum.

The paper's conclusions contradict years of research on the minimum wage. Many past studies, by contrast, have found that the benefits of increases for low-wage workers exceed the costs in terms of reduced employment -- often by a factor of four or five to one.

"This strikes me as a study that is likely to influence people," said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not involved in the research. He called the work "very credible" and "sufficiently compelling in its design and statistical power that it can change minds."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... aa17bd686d
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From other reports I have read... There are employees asking for a reduction in the hours worked so that they would still be eligible for welfare benefits.

Working fewer hours... Earning $15 hour and still draw welfare.... Working the welfare state for sure.

Tj
fountainhall

Re: Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

Post by fountainhall »

Credible? So TJ's recipe for full employment - keep reducing wages. And make sure these low wage earners don't have healthcare because they won't be able to afford it! LOL

That's reduction ad absurdum in my book!
Up2u

Re: Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

Post by Up2u »

Tj, of course, only selected parts of the article. Best to read the article in its entirety.
fountainhall

Re: Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

Post by fountainhall »

Like this part, for example -
critics of the research pointed out what they saw as serious shortcomings. In particular, to avoid confusing establishments that were subject to the minimum with those that were not, the authors did not include large employers with locations both inside and outside of Seattle in their calculations. Skeptics argued that omission could explain the unusual results.
Pretty useless report, in my view! It really is a bit ridiculous to omit the parts that do not support the theory, especially when that theory flies in the face of all accepted fact!

It pisses me off that everything Trump is doing is to benefit the mega rich. Don't they have enough money already? And don't talk to me about trickle down economics! That idiotic economic theory has been disproved so many times it's totally laughable!
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Re: Seattle's $15 Hr minimum wage is not good for workers

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:And don't talk to me about trickle down economics!
The term "trickle down" reminds me of something I saw a very long time ago, immortalized on the wall, just above a men's room urinal:

No matter how hard you wiggle and dance
The last three drops go down your pants.


I'd say that also sizes up trickle down economics quite adequately . . .
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