Seattle's $15/Hr Wage Increase Had 'No Effect on Workers' Earnings'
You mean they ended up working fewer hours and couldn't find other jobs? Shocking.
8.1.2016
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Seattle's $15 per hour minimum wage increase, spearheaded by openly socialist city councilwoman Kshama Sawant, had almost no effect on wages and actually led to fewer hours for workers, according to a new study.
Because of the fewer hours worked, difficulty finding other employment, and employees being fired or replaced by newer technologies, the study found "there was almost no effect on workers' average total earnings."
Legal Insurrection points to the numbers found in the study via a Washington Post report:
[T]he actual benefits to workers might have been minimal, according to a group of economists whom the city commissioned to study the minimum wage and who presented their initial findings last week.The average hourly wage for workers affected by the increase jumped from $9.96 to $11.14, but wages likely would have increased some anyway due to Seattle’s overall economy. Meanwhile, although workers were earning more, fewer of them had a job than would have without an increase. Those who did work had fewer hours than they would have without the wage hike.Accounting for these factors, the average increase in total earnings due to the minimum wage was small, the researchers concluded. Using their preferred method, they calculated that workers’ earnings increased by $5.54 a week on average because of the minimum wage. Using other methods, the researchers found that the minimum wage hike actually caused total weekly earnings to drop — by as much as $5.22 a week.
Obviously it didn't just affect employees; raising the wage that much forced businesses to raise prices on customers because of increased costs for hiring. This has altered other business decisions that include replacement options for its employees with machines, providing fewer hours per employee and in some cases, shuttering the doors.
And as LI noted, this has had a major impact on black workers specifically. A BET story indicated that it's black workers that wind up getting fired first when there are minimum wage increases. The very people behind these wage increases -- Sawant and her Democrat pals -- are typically pro-Black Lives Matter. But apparently only to a point, once the unintended consequences round the corner. Once again the light of truth exposes the hypocrisy of the Left.
But, but, but we passed a $15 minimum wage! For nothing, as it turns out.
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