Bloomberg Businessweek February 8, 2021 |Economics| “Wage Authority” “Arindrajit Dube’s research cemented a new understanding the effects of minimum wage” “Bottom Line Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, says he found that even substantial increases in minimum wages don’t destroy jobs.”
Source finance.yahoo.com
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Data Presented
Back in January of 1978 minimum wage was 46% of the average hourly rate and now is 26%.
Summary of Article
Careful studies published in highly-ranked peer-reviewed journals of economics provide solid data that increasing minimum does not cause job loss. These studies were based on side-by-side studies of adjacent states and adjacent counties where minimum wage was increased in one locale but not the other allowing for a highly-significant number of direct comparisons.
The other question today revolves around whether or not $15 is just too big an increase. Again, studies show no real impact on job loss but even Arindrajit Dube (UMass) has commented that one cannot necessarily generalize to each locale. Having said that proponents further suggest that other governmental assistance can help for any that might lose a job. Dube and others point out that raising the minimum wage significantly lowers poverty while others say if that’s the goal the earned income credit is a better approach.
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