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https://www.bendbulletin.com/business/6503418-151/study-minimum-wage-increases-in-6-cities-working:
The minimum wage increases that started four years ago in Seattle are spreading across the country, but economists continue to study — and disagree about — the impact.
The latest look at increased wage floors in six U.S. cities, including Seattle, finds that food-service workers saw increases in pay and no widespread job losses. That reinforces the conclusions the same group of University of California, Berkeley, researchers reached in 2017 after studying just in Seattle.
This time, the Berkeley researchers examined Seattle; San Francisco; Oakland, California; San Jose, California; Chicago; and Washington, D.C., where minimum wages at the end of 2016 ranged from $10 to $13.
"We find that they are working just as the policymakers and voters who enacted these policies intended," said Sylvia Allegretto, co-author of the report and co-chair of Berkeley's Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics. "So far they are raising the earnings of low-wage workers without causing significant employment losses."
abstract https://www.nber.org/papers/w25043
(Score: 5, Insightful) by theluggage on Thursday September 27 2018, @11:47AM (5 children)
Nor is it difficult to understand that, as long as there are government welfare programs - even the relatively conservative ones available in the US c.f. most of Europe - the lack of minimum wage is means that the government is subsidising business by supplying it with a taxpayer-fed-and-housed workforce at below cost.
If you think that the free market should reign, and don't mind disease-and-crime-ridden shanty towns around all the cities (although the people who own that land might object, but their cleaners and cooks have to live somewhere) that's fine, just make your position clear - but remember that also means getting rid of all government support for industry - subsidies, regulatory support for business models, "intellectual property", roads, law enforcement, public education etc. The status quo is nothing remotely like a free market.
Maybe "market anarchy" would work... if only it were done correctly... a bit like true communism would work if only it were done correctly... (I suspect the only practical differences would be the color of the banners flying over the work camps and the precise wording of the catechism).
Anyway - last time I looked, inflation was critical to the modern economy (helps us pretend that you can have continuous economic growth without the hard work of creating new stuff).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @12:14PM
I do mind and you're describing Democrat run cities there.
Last time you looked was probably when Obama appointed Bernanke, like Krugman, he champions pro-eugenics, Fabian socialist economic retard John Milnard Keynes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @07:40PM
Agreed that it is subsidy. But not sure if it is wrong given market constraints (which I think is your point too). Just like we moved to subsidized farming, we may need to move to subsidized services and manufacturing at some point. The level of subsidy might be different, but it will have to happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @11:44PM (2 children)
The real reason inflation is necessary is to mask the continuing accumulation of wealth into a smaller and smaller group.
The 1% rhetoric is just another diversion, being in the top 1% is not that exceptional. The actual group is more like 0.000001%
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Friday September 28 2018, @03:17AM (1 child)
0.000001% of the United States population is three people. Perhaps you could name those three.
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Friday September 28 2018, @09:41AM
Jeff Bozos, Bill Gates and Carlos Slim?
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