Shocking Study Shows $15 Minimum Wage Makes Workers Poorer

[Revmitchell]

A study on the increasing minimum wage in Seattle, Wash., found that the low-income workers in the city actually have been losing an average of $125 per month since the hike went into effect.

Seattle has been gradually increasing the minimum wage for workers in the city for years hoping to get to $15 per hour, but a working paper published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that wage increases have already had a negative effect on the very people they were supposed to help.

The city raised the minimum wage from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, then to $13 per hour in 2016. That second wage increase cut low-wage worker hours by an average of 9 percent, the study found, confirming many fears that employers would have to cut hours to be able to afford the rising labor costs.

“Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs, implying that the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month in 2016,” the group of economists at University of Washington wrote in the study.

Shocking Study Shows $15 Minimum Wage Makes Workers Poorer

 

[carpro]

Of course. The idiots.

A political victory is an economic disaster for the voters the victory was meant to buy.

 

[just-want-peace]

Of course. The idiots.

A political victory is an economic disaster for the voters the victory was meant to buy.

But, but, but look how much more they CAN make ------ if they can now find a job!!

 

[Deacon]

Duh...
High wages for unskilled employees makes automation more attractive and affordable.
Add healthcare and the equation becomes even more unbalanced in favor of automation.

Rob

 

[Revmitchell]

It is common sense that we cannot force and industry to pay out more than the market will provide for. If people cannot live on what they make go somewhere else. No one owes them a living.

 

[InTheLight]

A study on the increasing minimum wage in Seattle, Wash., found that the low-income workers in the city actually have been losing an average of $125 per month since the hike went into effect.

Seattle has been gradually increasing the minimum wage for workers in the city for years hoping to get to $15 per hour, but a working paper published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that wage increases have already had a negative effect on the very people they were supposed to help.

The city raised the minimum wage from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, then to $13 per hour in 2016. That second wage increase cut low-wage worker hours by an average of 9 percent, the study found, confirming many fears that employers would have to cut hours to be able to afford the rising labor costs.

“Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs, implying that the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month in 2016,” the group of economists at University of Washington wrote in the study.

Shocking Study Shows $15 Minimum Wage Makes Workers Poorer

Fake News. At no point does someone working 9% less hours at $13 per hour earn less than someone working the usual number of hours at $11 per hour. This is because a pay raise from $11/hr. to $13/hr. is an 18% raise.

How many hours per week does one have to work at $11 an hour for it to be more money than working 9% less hours at $13 an hour? It's impossible. How many hours per month? It's impossible.




OK, then how does someone make $125 less per month at $13 per hour than someone making $11 per hour?
That depends on the number of hours worked per month. Let's take a full time worker. An "hourly month" at 40 hour per week is 173 hours. So a full time worker making Seattle's old minimum wage of $11 per hour would make $1,903 per month. Subtracting $125 from this figure gives an amount of $1,778.00. A full time worker making $13 an hour would have to work 136 hours per month, or 37 less hours, to make $1,778.00. That is a reduction of working hours of 21%.

If the person worked part time, say 24 hours a week, or 104 hours per "hourly month" and made $11/hour, that same person would make $125 less per month if they worked just 78 hours per "hourly month", or 26 hours less. That is a reduction of working hours of 25%.

For a full time worker to make $125 less per month at $13 an hour than at $11 an hour they would have to work 37 less hours, or 21% less hours per month.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

The the source piece from the Washington Post would be a better place to read the study, how it was done....etc.

 

[Deacon]

Fake News. At no point does someone working 9% less hours at $13 per hour earn less than someone working the usual number of hours at $11 per hour. This is because a pay raise from $11/hr. to $13/hr. is an 18% raise.

[snip]

For a full time worker to make $125 less per month at $13 an hour than at $11 an hour they would have to work 37 less hours, or 21% less hours per month.

This isn't a well researched article!
The whole article was screwy and based on the brief conclusion which used wiggle words...

“Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs, implying that the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month in 2016,”
​

What the article didn't address was who exactly lost hours or wages.
My guess is that some workers were either let go or workers were not replaced, therefore reducing the total workforce...

"Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs..."

Rob

 

[InTheLight]

This isn't a well researched article!

Ought to be titled, "Shockingly Bad Study Fails to Show $15 Minimum Wage Makes Workers Poorer"

 

[Jedi Knight]

 

[church mouse guy]

If the minimum wage were $100 per hour what happened in Seattle would not have happened.

 

[Revmitchell]

So if folks will read to the end of the op:

"The new study takes a different approach from past research which suggested that the minimum wage had little to no effect on the number of work hours. However, many of those studies looked at whole industries, where many workers made more than the minimum wage.

The University of Washington economists took a different approach: They examined what happens to the hours of minimum wage workers when the wage increases. Those low-wage workers saw a 9 percent decrease in hours, even as the minimum wage increased by 3 percent to $13 per hour in Seattle.

“That’s really a step beyond what essentially any past studies of the minimum wage have been able to use,” Jeffrey Clemens, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, told WaPo."

 

[InTheLight]

The University of Washington economists took a different approach: They examined what happens to the hours of minimum wage workers when the wage increases. Those low-wage workers saw a 9 percent decrease in hours, even as the minimum wage increased by 3 percent to $13 per hour in Seattle.

Yep, and they weren't worse off, financially. They were making more money working 9% less hours at $2 more per hour. Work less, get more money. I call that a win-win.

And it's practically impossible for someone to make $125 less per month at $13 an hour than at $11 an hour unless they get their hours cut by at least 21%.

FAKE NEWS.

 

[Deacon]

McDonald’s Stock Is Soaring Because Of… Automation [LINK]

There was a time when such automation was pretty much impossible or at least prohibitively expensive to implement. Not so anymore.

It’s still not cheap to do on the front end, but managers have to weigh those costs against what human workers would cost in the long run.

Even in places where cities and states haven’t already raised the minimum wage massively they’ve been threatening to.

One of our major political parties is pushing to do it on the national level. If you scare these employers enough over a sufficient period of time they’ll eventually begin to believe you.

 

[Bro. Curtis]

I only go to McDonald's for coffee. Very rarely, at that. You cannot buy a 16oz coffee with a half of a creamer without stopping everything. They do not know how to give you only a half of a creamer. I suspect it will get worse with full automation. Good luck ordering a burger with no ketchup, or getting the jalapeño peppers on the side instead of on the burger.

 

[Deacon]

I only go to McDonald's for coffee. Very rarely, at that. You cannot buy a 16oz coffee with a half of a creamer without stopping everything. They do not know how to give you only a half of a creamer. I suspect it will get worse with full automation. Good luck ordering a burger with no ketchup, or getting the jalapeño peppers on the side instead of on the burger.

Our local Wawa (an east coast convenience store) manages to put together a mean Hoagie (a Philly sandwich unrivaled by any traditional submarine sandwich) using automation.
Get exactly what you want, with all the fixin's you want, want it on the side, no problem, want it hot or toasted, no problem.
Want something to drink with it?
Want something off menu? No problem!

Rob

 

[Bro. Curtis]

Well that is pretty cool. Sounds like they specialize in that. Maybe they CAN make a machine that understands "just a little cream".

 

[InTheLight]

.

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