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L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
Wed Jan 17, 2018, 06:21 PM Jan 2018

New study finds Seattles $15 Minimum Wage a Success

Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Experiment Is a Success
A new study of Seattle’s higher minimum wage finds no overall impact on grocery and restaurant costs. This is a big deal.

When Seattle started down the road to the $15 minimum wage, the city hired a University of Washington team of economists to analyze the wage’s effects on the city. In the years since, the Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team’s findings have been largely positive. In 2016, they found that wages in Seattle are up, low-wage employment increased in the city, and the number of hours worked increased. They reported earlier this year that the wage increase had “near zero” impact on restaurant employment. And this week, in their final study for the city, the Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team released a report proving prices at restaurants and grocery stores haven’t increased because of the minimum wage.

When taken in total, the Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team’s reports have proven that the $15 minimum wage is a success.

Every time a city or state discusses raising the minimum wage, businesses and conservative lawmakers respond with a series of three threats. They argue that the higher minimum wage will kill jobs. They claim that the wage will kill businesses. And they claim that prices will skyrocket. (Here’s an EPI survey from before Seattle’s wage increase showing that businesses overwhelmingly predicted all three of those outcomes.) Those are the three primary arguments against raising the wage, and the Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team has now clearly disproven all three of those threats.

But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the Study Team’s final report for the city, it’s important to make some distinctions. This report discusses both cost data—in the form of restaurant and grocery store price changes that are observable and quantifiable—and anecdotal information, in the form of .................
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New study finds Seattles $15 Minimum Wage a Success (Original Post) L. Coyote Jan 2018 OP
Results of study blocked in 5,4,3,2,1... Cracklin Charlie Jan 2018 #1
Poor people spend money. Money in motion increases economy. Rich people park tax cuts in real estate Bernardo de La Paz Jan 2018 #2
the reason there aren't more min wage raises is rw radio stations certainot Jan 2018 #3
 

certainot

(9,090 posts)
3. the reason there aren't more min wage raises is rw radio stations
Wed Jan 17, 2018, 09:24 PM
Jan 2018

scream whenever the local want to raise the min wage - they always do and they use those same excuses.

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