Back when there were demonstrations with people demanding a raise in the minimum wage to $10 – $15 per hour, I warned that messing with the invisible hand (Adam Smith’s Theory on Supply & Demand) would have less than optimal results.
Seattle, Washington did not have a like minded person when they incrementally increased the minimum wage in Seattle to $15 per hour. Now comes what has been deemed a credible study with powerful statistics study that was posted in the Washington Times which reports the negatives outweigh the positives three to one and the average minimum wage worker has been affected negatively $125 per month. The study was commissioned by the city of Seattle and conducted by the University of Washington.
The results, just as I stated, were:
- Employers cutting back hours of workers; and
- Employers laying off workers up to four or five for each one kept.
Employers will protect their profit margin by whatever means necessary. When you dictate more wages than what the market will handle, it is the lower paid employees who will be most adversely affected.
Nay sayers claim that the study did not look at larger employers with employees both in Seattle and elsewhere. To them I say “The study was commissioned for the effect on Seattle, not elsewhere. Either way, if a branch office or franchise in Seattle is not meeting the bottom line for profitability, those in Seattle will be the one’s to be dismissed.
It is common sense people! Don’t let politicians feed you fairy dust and think all will be okay when your mind tells you what they are feeding you more closely resembles male bovine manure than fairy dust. Next, when those same politicians try to present to you a bowl of excuses blaming failure on conservatives, tell them you are full of what they are spreading around and will pass.
The Rural Iowegian 