{"id":8524,"date":"2019-10-03T11:59:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T15:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=8524"},"modified":"2024-01-06T19:13:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T00:13:34","slug":"five-myths-about-raising-the-minimum-wage-debunked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=8524","title":{"rendered":"Fact vs Myth on the Minimum Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

A one-page version of this piece can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

Raising the minimum wage is not a hand-out to low-wage workers. It\u2019s part of an effort to change the rules of our economy so that working people do better, reversing the trends of the last 40 years in which a greater share of our income and wealth has gone to the very rich. Raising the minimum wage will help benefit all working people and help expand the middle class.<\/p>\r\n

But, in our advocacy to raise the minimum wage over the past few years, we\u2019ve heard a number of misleading, incorrect talking points over and over in response to our efforts. We wanted to address the most common of those quickly and concisely:<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage. It\u2019s primarily for young people starting out.\u201d FALSE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The minimum wage was established to ensure that jobs pay enough to support families. For many years it was set at about half the wage paid to a typical (median) worker. But both the national minimum wage and Pennsylvania\u2019s have fallen so low that they pay only 30% of a typical worker\u2019s hourly earnings. Today, almost 20% of the PA workforce makes under $12 an hour\u2014that\u2019s well over a million workers. That\u2019s too many jobs to all be training jobs held by teenagers. Of the PA workers who would benefit from a $12 per hour minimum wage, 90% are adults, 72% are white, 60% are women, 40% have some college education, and a majority work full time. All of these workers are critical to Pennsylvania businesses that provide the goods and services we need. If we want them to live decent lives, we have to raise the minimum wage back to about half of a typical worker\u2019s wage\u2014around $12 today and close to $15 by 2025.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\u201cRaising the minimum wage just increases the price of goods across the board.\u201d FALSE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

An increase in the minimum wage may lead to a small increase in prices but it will be far less than the increase in wages for three reasons: (1) Labor is only part of the cost of producing goods and services. (2) A higher wage reduces turnover and training costs for businesses which saves employers money. (3) A higher wage improves worker morale and productivity, which also saves employers money. A recent study in California<\/a> found that a 25% minimum wage increase raised restaurant prices by only 1.45%\u2014in a state in which tipped workers (waitresses, servers, etc.) get the same minimum wage as other workers. In New York City, the minimum wage is now $13.50 per hour\u2014but you can still buy a\u00a0slice of pizza for $1<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\u201cRaising the minimum wage will hurt people earning $12, $15, $18 an hour right now.\u201d FALSE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

When the minimum wage goes up,\u00a0the wages of\u00a0workers making more than the new minimum wage\u00a0go up, too. Businesses don\u2019t want to lose experienced workers. If the minimum wage is raised to $12 according to the General Assembly\u2019s own\u00a0Independent Fiscal Office (IFO)<\/a>, 1.1 million Pennsylvanians\u00a0who are\u00a0making less than the new minimum wage will get an increase in their wages. And\u00a0nearly\u00a0another\u00a0million\u00a0(827,000) Pennsylvanians making $12 or more now will\u00a0get higher\u00a0wages.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\u201cRaising the minimum wage will destroy small businesses.\u201d FALSE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Minimum wage workers work for big and small businesses so a higher minimum wage in no way disadvantages small business\u2014it establishes a level playing field. A higher minimum wage can benefit small businesses by reducing managerial headaches\u2014reducing turnover and training costs\u2014and increasing worker productivity.\u00a0And as the\u00a0chair of the executive committee of the U.S. Chamber recently pointed out<\/a>, when workers are paid more, they can spend more, which helps small businesses.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\u201cRaising the minimum wage will lead to job loss.\u201d FALSE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Given that a higher minimum wage doesn\u2019t hurt businesses or lead to much higher prices, it\u2019s no surprise that research shows a wage increase has little or no effect on employment. A\u00a0new study<\/a>\u00a0(see also\u00a0here<\/a>) of more than 750 counties found that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 would likely boost incomes but not lead to significant job losses. And in our low unemployment economy, anyone who does lose a job would likely get another one quickly\u2014and with higher pay. Other studies<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0analyzing data going back to 1979\u00a0have\u00a0found little or no impact\u00a0of a higher minimum wage\u00a0on jobs.\u00a0KRC also found<\/a>\u00a0that, even though every state around PA has raised its minimum wage, not only are wages growing faster for our neighbors\u2019 food service industry workers, but employment is growing faster as well.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A one-page version of this piece can be found here. Raising the minimum wage is not a hand-out to low-wage workers. It\u2019s part of an effort to change the rules of our economy so that working people do better, reversing the trends of the last 40 years in which a greater share of our income and wealth has gone to the very rich. Raising the minimum wage will help benefit all working people and help expand the middle class. But, in our advocacy to raise the minimum wage over the past few years, we\u2019ve heard a number of misleading, incorrect talking points over and over in response to our efforts. We wanted to address the most common of those quickly and concisely:   \u201cThe minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage. It\u2019s primarily for young people starting out.\u201d FALSE The minimum wage was established to ensure that\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[167,16],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fact-vs.-Myth.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-2du","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8524"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10392,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524\/revisions\/10392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}