In Seattle, Minimum Wage Hike Comes at a Cost to Some Workers
Advocates say higher incomes help low-wage employees, but one new report suggests the reality is more complicated.
BY
ALAN GREENBLATT | JANUARY 2019
Nothing is free, especially things that cost money. That may sound blindingly obvious, but the idea that Seattle’s minimum-wage increases have come at a significant cost to some workers has generated a fair amount of controversy.
Seattle was at the vanguard of the movement to increase the minimum wage to levels as high as $15 an hour. Researchers at the University of Washington have been studying the effects on employment as the wage has gradually ticked up.
What they have found is that low-income workers who log longer hours and are more experienced have seen a boost in pay, but those with less experience are finding fewer jobs open to them.
A long line of studies about the minimum wage has revealed that it can drive down employment at the low end of the wage scale, but those losses are made up for by increases in higher-paying jobs. The University of Washington findings, however, suggest that there’s some merit to the usual complaint that gets lodged against minimum-wage hikes -- that they’re not only expensive for employers, but threaten to cut the first rung on the career ladder out from under teenagers or others just getting their start in the labor market. “
The evidence that we’re picking up is consistent,” says Jacob Vigdor, an economist at the University of Washington. “We’re pricing out low-skill workers.”
https://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/gov-seattle-minimum-wage-hike-study-small-businesses.html